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In the special election in Alabama on December 12, Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore and gained the Senate seat, defying the 25-year history of the red state controlled by the Republican Party. It caused a national sensation.
The Republican and Democratic National Committees fully engaged in this election, striving for the controlling seats of the Senate. Donald Trump, Steve Bannon, former President Barack Obama and other top politicians were actively campaigning for the candidates. The loss of the Republican seat is the second blow for Trump after Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI earlier in December.
This special election supplemented the senator vacancy after Jeff Sessions, Attorney General of the United States, had taken office. Moore defeated Strange who succeeded to Senate in the beginning of the year in Alabama Senate primary runoff within the Republican Party. In 2016, Donald Trump had 62.1 percent of the vote against Hilary Clinton's 34.4 percent, a big Republican win in Alabama. This year, Trump initially supported Strange and then endorsed Moore after Strange’s loss, and campaigned for them personally.
Democratic Alabama US Senate candidate Doug Jones addresses supporters at the election night party in Birmingham, Alabama, the US, on December 12, 2017.
Why the color change?
Normally in the red state, which has been Republican controlled for 25 years, it is hard for the Democratic Party to change the color in such a short time.
However, unknown candidate Jones defeated Moore, who hit headlines throughout the country because of sexual assault allegations, with 671,151 votes (49.9 percent) against 650,436 (48.4 percent).
According to the State Law of Alabama, a gap smaller than 0.5 percent will automatically trigger a recount of votes. After John Merrill, Secretary of State, publicly announced the result, Moore still refused to concede.
Jones' win trimmed the Republican Senate majority from 52-48 to 51-49, and weakens Republican control of the Senate, a big turnaround since the 2016 general election, and indicates that the Democratic Party could continue to win in the mid-term elections next year.
Once the Republican Party loses its majority, it will be hard to provide legislative support to Trump’s policy and agenda, and easier for the Democrats to pursue impeachment on “Russiagate”, sexual assault and other allegations.
Defeated Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore arrives on his horse to cast his ballot in Alabama, the US, on December 12, 2017.
The dramatic changes within the Republican Party deserve to be mentioned. In the last month before the election, Moore refused the demands of many Republican senators to quit the race because of sexual harassment accusations.
At the beginning of December, after Flynn’s guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel, the Republicans turned around to root for Moore in order to support the majority Senate seat and withstand the Democrats’ initiatives on the impeachment of Trump.
The President tweeted seven times to publicly support Moore and surprisingly participated in a rally and delivered an unusual speech in Florida to campaign for him. Steve Bannon, Trump’s former White House senior strategist, popped up in Alabama to promote the “damaged political goods, Moore.”
Workers set up an artificial "swamp" outside a venue where Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore will hold a rally in Midland City, Alabama, the US, on December 11, 2017.
Quality matters
Some political marketing experts regarded this as a gambling at the cost of the overall image of the Republicans. There are some disagreements within the Party: the Republicans clearly knew Moore was a political burden, but in order to keep the Senate seat, it risked national condemnation to support him in spite of principles of the party, during the anti-sexual-harassment movement.
It is proven again that political quality matters more than campaigning. Moore’s loss at the election was caused by his own behavior, and also the low approval rating of President Trump.
The Art of War by Sun Tzu and The Art of Media War by Trump and Bannon proved to be less effective this time.
Worse still, Trump suffered triple losses: not only have the Republicans lost a Senate seat, but also generated another wave of accusations of sexual harassment against the president, and a loss of confidence in Bannon’s campaign strategies and tactics.
(CGTN)
