Republican lawmakers and officials are feeling a moment of relief after the defeat of embattled GOP candidate Roy Moore in Alabama’s special election Tuesday.
Moore’s loss to Democrat Doug Jones allows Senate Republicans to skirt the fallout of a near-certain ethics committee probe, and potential expulsion, related to Moore’s pursuit of sexual and romantic relationships with teenage girls. But it also thins an already narrow GOP Senate majority, and makes Democratic control of the Senate in 2018, once far-fetched, a genuine possibility.
Alabama senator Richard Shelby, standing side-by-side with outgoing senator Luther Strange, told reporters Wednesday that he was proud that the people of Alabama chose “principle over politics.”
“I’m relieved and I believe a lot of the Republicans are relieved that Roy Moore and some of his people aren’t the face of the Republican party that I know,” Shelby said. “I don’t think Steve Bannon had a good night.”
Shelby told reporters he wrote in a “distinguished Republican” rather than voting for Moore. Write-in votes like Shelby’s mattered in the end, as 22,000 voters opted to go that route in an election decided by 21,000.
“It’s very telling that there were more write-in ballots cast than the margin of victory,” Maine senator Susan Collins told reporters. “Senator Shelby deserves a lot of credit for speaking out and encouraging people to write-in a Republican candidate.”
South Dakota senator John Thune also expressed relief over the Moore defeat.
“Obviously I’m disappointed that we have another Democrat seat in the Senate,” said Thune. “But I think relieved we’re not going to be dealing with all the mess that was headed our way.”
Asked by TWS whether he was feeling relieved after the Moore loss, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn let out a laugh. “I knew that voters would take care of that issue, and they obviously did,” he said.
Is there any lesson for the GOP to come out of the Alabama election?
“It’s not a new lesson, it’s an age-old lesson,” Cornyn told reporters. “Flawed candidates lose.”
Other Republicans also appeared confident about 2018 races.
North Carolina senator Thom Tillis said that the Alabama election does not have any bearing on those coming in a few short months.
“The circumstances in the Alabama election were unique in that we had a fundamentally flawed candidate in a deep red state,” he said.
Shelby, meanwhile, said that Moore’s loss “helps Republicans in the long-run.” “We won’t have someone that would be so radioactive, so controversial,” he added.
As for the immediate challenge of passing critical legislation with one less vote, Republican senators maintained optimism there too.
“We lose one vote,” said Georgia senator David Perdue. “That means we’ve got to be more united and actually find places where we can be bipartisan.”
“When I was the whip in the House, the easiest whipping we ever had was when we had the smallest majority we ever had,” Missouri senator Roy Blunt told reporters. “I don’t think it changes the agenda at all.”
The election divided leaders in the Republican party, with the Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump throwing their support behind Moore. The chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), Cory Gardner, meanwhile, told TWS that the NRSC would never support Moore. Gardner earlier led the call to vote to expel Moore, should he win.
“This isn’t a rebuke of conservative values or agendas,” Gardner told reporters Wednesday. “This was a rebuke of a candidate.”
But some Republicans’ sigh of relief lasted only a moment. Members and officials were also quick to issue biting rejections of a top Moore backer and former Trump adviser, Steve Bannon. Bannon has promised to run primary challengers against almost every Republican incumbent.
“Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the president of the United States into his fiasco,” said Steven Law, the president of the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC that backs establishment GOP candidates.
“He looks like some disheveled drunk that wandered onto the political stage,” New York congressman Peter King told CNN.
“Bannon is a RINO,” Illinois congressman Adam Kinzinger wrote in a tweet. “His morally inept strategies are unwelcome here. #YoureFired”
“Congratulations to the Bannon wing of the @GOP for gifting a seat to @SenateDems in one of the reddest states,” Florida congressman Carlos Curbelo said in a tweet. “You have no future in our country’s politics.”
