Blow To Trump As Democrat Doug Jones Wins U.S Senate Seat

In what could be described as a political blow to U.S President Donald Trump, Democratic Senator Doug Jones on Tuesday won the US Senate seat for Alabama.

In the results announced in the early hours of Wednesday, Jones defeated Republican Roy More to narrow the GOP’s majority in the Senate to two seats, 51-49.

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Mr Jones won with 49.9% of the vote, to Mr Moore’s 48.4%. The margin of victory is well above the half a percentage point which would have triggered a recount.

He becomes the first Democrat in 25 years to win a US Senate seat for Alabama, a deeply conservative and heavily Republican state.

The contest was for the seat vacated by US Attorney General Jeff Sessions earlier this year.

Trump had campaigned for Mr. Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court whose campaign was upended by allegations of sexual misconduct involving teenage girls.

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Moore has repeatedly denied the claims against him, and has so far refused to concede, saying “it’s not over”.

The Republican majority in the Senate will narrow, considerably improving the chances Democrats could gain control of the chamber in the 2018 mid-term elections.

It could also be seen as a rebuke of President Donald Trump, who completely disregarded the advice of top Republicans, to throw himself unequivocally and comprehensively behind Moore.

The U.S President had argued that notwithstanding allegations of sexual abuse whirling around Moore, Republicans should vote for him anyway because he would be better than a Democrat who would be weak on crime, the military and borders.

In his first reaction to the loss, Trump wrote: “The people of Alabama are great, and the Republicans will have another shot at this seat in a very short period of time. It never ends!”

 

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