Doug Jones, a Democrat and former prosecutor, defeated Republican Roy S. Moore on Tuesday to win a special election for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, a deeply conservative state. It was a brutal campaign marked by accusations that Moore, a former judge, had behaved improperly with teenaged girls when he was in his thirties.
Jones’s victory will cut the Republican majority in the Senate to just one seat. (When Jones takes office in January, Republicans will hold 51 seats and Democrats will hold 49.) That could have significant consequences at the national level, undermining Republicans’ legislative agenda in Washington and giving Democrats a chance to take control of the Senate next year.
Amid thunderous applause from his supporters at a Birmingham hotel, Jones held up his victory as a message to Washington from voters fed up with political warfare. Alabamians, he said, had declined to take “the wrong fork” at a political crossroads.
“We have shown the country the way that we can be unified,” Jones declared. “This entire race has been about dignity and respect. This campaign has been about the rule of law.”
Most political analysts tied Moore’s defeat to the allegations against him, which come at a time when issues of sexual harassment and assault have become front-page news. In the past month, several lawmakers have announced their resignations following allegations of sexual misconduct: Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota; Representative Trent Franks, Republican of Arizona; and Representative John Conyers, Democrat of Michigan.
Dozens of women have recently accused powerful men in Hollywood, the media, and other industries of sexual harassment, in what has been coined the #MeToo movement. (The name comes from the hashtag women use on social media to share their own stories of sexual harassment and abuse). Time magazine recently named the #MeToo “Silence Breakers” its Person of the Year. (The distinction is given to the year’s most influential person, group, or idea.)