UKC

Wow, a bloody nose for trump. A reliably red state is blue until 2020.

GOP candidates will be terrified now looking at 2018.

In reply to Roadrunner5:

"Roy Moore once called for eliminating 17 amendments — including the ones that allow women and black people to vote"
http://uk.businessinsider.com/roy-moore-amendments-2017-12?r=US&IR=T

I don't expect that there are many black people or women in Alabama. And he had the support of Trump as well. It's shocking that he lost. (Not quite as shocking as the fact he was able to run for office in the first place.)

In reply to Roadrunner5:

I was thinking an appropriate headline would be "Alabama doesn't elect paedophile to Senate".

That said Moore still had a majority of white working class votes but lost because educated republicans voted Democrat or put a third name on the ballot and a huge effort was made to get the black voters out.

In reply to dread-i:




26% are black

In reply to Roadrunner5:



There are special circumstances though eh? It wasn't his policies or Trump's support that lost him the election, any other candidate would have been safe

In reply to Tyler:


But "any other candidate" didn't get through the Republican state primary. It seems to me that there is an emboldened/embittered predominantly white male section of the American electorate that pushed Trump to the White House and will favour Trump-like candidates in Republican primaries. Hopefully, they will suffer the same fate as Moore.

Martin

In reply to Roadrunner5:

I heard on the news that 70%+ of white males voted for Moore and 97% of black women voted for Jones. No idea what mechani#ms exist for collecting that data but if true they point to very divided electorate. Troubling times.

In reply to Darron:


Moore is God squad too, so he will have mopped up those votes. Still good news, hopefully no recount.

In reply to Darron:


Plus ca Change!

A commentator on Radio 4 said last night, that what this election has shown the world is that things are still the same in Alabama as they were in the days of segregation and George Wallace.

In reply to Martin Hore:


I agree with the first point but do not believe they will suffer the same as Moore, turn out for this election was not normal and the margin of victory for Doug Jones sim. If it wasn't for the kiddie fiddling allegations Moore would have romped to victory. He probably would have won (even with the allegations) if he had been only slightly less racist and that would still leave someone pretty repugnant. Only a small proportion of the GOP base are being turned off by people like Trump and Moore and they may be attracting traditionally non-voters to the booths in sufficient numbers to counter those who are.

In reply to summo:


Moore has yet to concede, as it's close enough that overseas votes could trigger a recount. Wonder if the Russians have been busy ?

In reply to Chris the Tall:

Can they recount?

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/dec/12/alabama-court-gives-last-mi...

In reply to Chris the Tall:

I'd have thought overseas voters (Russians aside) would be more likely to vote in favour of the Democrat candidate. They're likely to be a bit better educated than average, and perhaps tend to have a slightly more um.. cosmopolitan outlook.

In reply to Roadrunner5:

On the subject of Moore and his supporters:

https://www.thepoke.co.uk/2017/12/13/funniest-stunned-silence-will-see-year...

Not the sharpest tools in the box...

(But dangerous nonetheless.)

In reply to krikoman:


I suspect roughly half the population are female as well. Which I think was the point of the statement.

In reply to Tyler:

No idea why you got a dislike for a pretty much spot on observation,

CB

In reply to deepsoup:


I don't think Alabama has a large overseas diaspora of educated liberals working for international businesses. The vast majority will be posted overseas serving in the military which could have a very different outlook.

In reply to Removed User:


... By the Black voters.

In reply to summo:


Maybe those Christians might just be getting a hint of what Jesus thinks about characters like Moore and Trump ; millstones, necks and the sea come to mind.

In reply to Pete Pozman:


Sadly just like the pope, his voters there seem to believe in forgiveness or redemption and thus tolerate sexist pedos in positions of influence.

In reply to Pete Pozman:


At least they got to vote, I was reminded of an old joke told by I think Dave Allen in the Civil Rights era

A black guy was on his way to vote down in Alabama, when the local redneck sheriff stopped him

“Where do you think you’re going boy?”

“I’m going to vote Sheriff”

“Well boy, to vote in this county, you got to be able to write and to read!”

“I can do that Sheriff, I’m educated”

“Prove it boy, write your name” The sheriff hands him a ball point pen and a sheet of waxed paper
Of course the black guy can’t write anything

“Well that didn’t go so well did it boy! Now lets see if you can read” The sheriff hands him a copy of the Jewish Times – in Hebrew.

The black guy takes it, looks at it and says “Well I ain’t sure of the small print but I can sure read the headline, it says “Ain’t no blacks voting in Jefferson County today””

In reply to krikoman:

>> I don't expect that there are many black people or women in Alabama.

>26% are black

And half of those black people are women.
He alienated ~50% of the voters (women) and another 13% black men. One might have thought he'd have a big hill to climb to get anywhere. That's without his teenage girl problems.

Even with all that against him, it was a very narrow contest.

"With all counties reporting, the Alabama Secretary of State reported Jones with 49.92 percent of the vote, and Moore with 48.38 percent of the vote."
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doug-jones-wins-alabama-senate-race-special-el...

American politics are somewhat frightening.

In reply to Pete Pozman:


By the Democratic party. Apart from street level campaigns they dominated the media campaign spending over 10 million dollars in the last few weeks.


I happen to think it's a great result by the way. Not only for the US but for the rest of the world too. Not only will it make it very difficult for Trump to get legislation passed in the senate but it makes it much more likely that the Republicans will lose their senate majority at next year's mid term elections at which point Trump becomes a lame duck.

In reply to Roadrunner5:
It is a good result. It certainly leaves the GOP with a problem in that Steve Banning will try and get in a lot of fringe players for next year who may well win their primaries but will pretty unelectable.

Hopefully Moore will now disappear without trace - or perhaps better still not, and he will hang around for next year, 'helping' other candidates

In reply to cb294:

Maybe the disliker is Donald himself!

In reply to wbo:


Which would be a Good Thing...

In reply to summo:


I don't think pope Francis is on the record defending pedophiles. He is on the record for standing up to Trump though.

In reply to Darron:

Jones got the black vote out. They didnt think he would but he went old fashioned and knocked on doors.

Yes iit is a very divided nation. If this whole Russia thing does get Trump out it will never be accepted and could well lead to violence.

In reply to Tyler:

His 'black people were happier as slaves' comment finished any hope of the black vote.

It is a special situation but that's a very red state. A state he won by 30 points a year ago.

In reply to Chris the Tall:


As he still hasnt learned no means no

(c) someone on twitter