The results of the Alabama U.S. Senate special election primaries are in. In the Republican primary, former Alabama attorney general Luther Strange and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore will advance to a runoff election in September after none of the GOP candidates won a majority of the vote. Whoever wins the runoff will face off against Democrat Doug Jones, who won the Democratic primary outright on Tuesday night.
Political observers predict that whoever wins the GOP primary in the deeply conservative state will ultimately win the general election, so the Republican race is seen as the more important contest. Strange won 32.5 percent of the vote to Moore’s 40.1 percent of the vote as of 10:06 p.m. ET, not long after the Associated Press projected that the two Republicans would advance to a runoff.
Republican primary results:
Democratic primary results:
During the primary campaign leading up to Tuesday night’s vote, Moore, Strange and Republican Representative Mo Brooks, another GOP candidate in the race, all rushed to embrace President Trump, a sign of the enduring popularity of the president in Alabama. Only one, however, won Trump’s endorsement. The president has tweeted his support of Strange, who was temporarily appointed to fill Sessions’ Senate seat by then-Alabama Governor Robert Bentley in February. Strange has also benefitted from advertising from political groups allied with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.