MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Women drew the line at Roy Moore.
There are many reasons why Moore became the
first Republican nominee to lose an Alabama Senate race since 1992 on
Tuesday night, including a strong turnout by African-American voters and
a lack of enthusiasm among Moore's base.
But with Moore denying multiple allegations of
inappropriate behavior with teenage girls, and attacking his accusers
against the backdrop of a national reckoning on sexual misconduct, the
most striking aspect of the vote may have been the unmistakable message
sent by the women of Alabama about how much was too much.
Fifty-eight percent of Alabama women voted for the winner, Democrat Doug Jones, including 35 percent of white women, according to exit polling.
While that latter figure might not sound like much, it’s more than
twice the 16 percent of white Alabama women who voted for President
Barack Obama in 2012, the last presidential race in which exit polling
was conducted.
What Doug Jones needed — and got — in Alabama4:42
Outside a Montgomery polling place on Tuesday
afternoon, Sandra Davis, a self-described independent, said she was
tired of her state being the “laughingstock of the nation.”
“One reason,” she said, when asked why she voted for Jones: He’s “not Roy Moore.” Related: Doug Jones is projected winner in Alabama Senate race
To get to the point where women could put him
over the top in one of the most conservative states in the country,
Jones needed everything to go right. Just 13 months ago, Donald Trump
took 62 percent of the vote in Alabama.
But every factor lined up in Jones' favor.
Moore was a uniquely flawed candidate. Many national Republican leaders —
including Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby — abandoned him after the
allegations of sexual misconduct arose. Democrats, as they have been in
elections across the country since last November, were energized by the
chance to strike a blow against President Trump and his agenda.
A twice-deposed former chief justice of the
Alabama Supreme Court, Moore defeated establishment favorite Sen. Luther
Strange in a September primary run-off that badly divided the
Republican Party both in this state and at the national level.
He became the latest focal point in a
long-running war between Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and
former White House strategist Steve Bannon, who has made a mission out
of toppling sitting senators in primaries and trying to oust McConnell
from his job. But Bannon hadn't counted on a group of women stepping
forward to accuse Moore of sexually abusing them when they were
teenagers, and he hadn't counted on the effect those accusations would
have on the women who went to the polls on Tuesday.
Supporters
of Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Doug Jones celebrate as Jones is
declared the projected winner during his election night party Tuesday in
Birmingham, Alabama. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
In that way, the result held silver linings
for establishment Republicans in Washington. They had warned that Moore,
who had long since alienated many moderate GOP voters in the state with
his firebrand politics, would leave the seat vulnerable to Democratic
takeover.
“Steve Bannon managed to do the impossible,
and he should’ve forever secured a place in the Democratic consultant
hall of fame,” Josh Holmes, a former McConnell chief of staff and
campaign manager, said in an email exchange with NBC News. “It was
thought to be damn near impossible for a Republican to lose the state of
Alabama, but Steve Bannon hadn’t run a race there.” Tick-tock: A historic election as it unfolded
Bannon didn’t have an official role with
Moore’s campaign, but he was the most forceful advocate for the
Republican nominee in national politics, and he headlined two rallies
for Moore in the last week. On Friday, Trump, Bannon's old boss, visited
Pensacola, Florida, about 15 miles from the Alabama border, and issued a
full-throated endorsement of Moore that carried across the state line
on cable television. His voice was also ignored by most of the state's
women.
In fact, among both men and women, only 49
percent of voters on Tuesday said they approve of the way Trump is
handling his job, according to exit polling. And 52 percent said he
wasn’t a factor in their decision in the Senate race.
Doug Jones: Tonight Alabama took the right fork in the road1:24
Jones’ coalition was built on women,
African-Americans, college graduates and younger voters — many of them
in and around the metropolitan centers of Huntsville, Birmingham,
Montgomery and Mobile. Black voters accounted for 28 percent of the
electorate, a slightly higher figure than their share of the population.
Moore won men, whites, less-educated voters
and older voters. But he had trouble turning them out in the numbers he
needed to win.
Zac McCrary, an Alabama-based Democratic
pollster, credited Jones with doing the leg work to make sure he took
advantage of an energy among Democrats that has been evident in special
elections across the country since Trump won the presidency.
“The Jones' campaign built a real
infrastructure and funded it,” McCrary said. “So they poured gasoline on
the fire that was already going.”
But white women who typically support
Republican candidates were a key factor in the outcome. Some crossed
party lines to vote for Jones and many others simply declined to go to
the polls.
That’s a message that will resonate all the way into the midterm elections of 2018, and beyond.
Jones’ coalition was built on women,
African-Americans, college graduates and younger voters — many of them
in and around the metropolitan centers of Huntsville, Birmingham,
Montgomery and Mobile. Black voters accounted for 28 percent of the
electorate, a slightly higher figure than their share of the population.
No comments:
Post a Comment