Strange, Moore head to runoff in Alabama Senate race

Sen. Luther Strange, R-Ala., and former state Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore came out on top in Alabama’s Republican primary Tuesday, advancing to a September runoff election to fill U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old Senate seat. Moore over-performed in a field of 10 Republicans, winning 39 percent of the vote, while Strange earned 33 percent. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., had just under 20 percent of the vote when polls closed. The rest of the field finished in the single digits. Moore and Strange are both big fans of President Donald Trump but only one has his endorsement. Over the last week, the president recorded a robocall for Strange, a 64-year-old former Alabama attorney general, and frequently endorsed him on social media. Strange also has the support of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. The Senate leader’s super PAC purchased several pro-Strange ads and stands ready to spend up to $4 million to help Strange defeat Moore on Sept. 26. Moore, 70, is an outspoken evangelical known in Alabama for refusing to remove a monument of the Ten Commandments from a state judicial building despite a federal court order in 2003. The winner of the September runoff will face the Democratic nominee, Doug Jones, on Dec. 12.