Alabama: Election Day Today

Alabama voters go to the polls today to choose a Republican nominee for the December 12th special Senate general election.  The eventual winner serves the balance of the current term that will run through 2020.  As we remember, this seat went to appointment followed by a special election calendar when then-Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) resigned to become US Attorney General.  All polls find former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore leading appointed incumbent Luther Strange, despite President Trump and the Republican establishment pulling out all the figurative stops to elect their choice. 
 
Judge Moore may well win the run-off, however, because of his strength within the state’s large evangelical community, a group that the Census Bureau reports comprises just about half of the entire state’s population.  Most polls find Moore ahead by double-digits, so Strange’s major voter turnout effort and media blitz, augmented by more than $2 million from outside group supporters in the last two weeks alone, may not be able to close all of the detected deficit. 

--Jim Ellis