Democrat Doug Jones Defeats Roy Moore For U.S. Senate Seat In Alabama
(CBS) -- Democrat Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore in a hotly contested Alabama Senate race, in a special election for the seat vacated by attorney general Jeff Sessions.
The Jones win dealt a blow to President Trump, who had endorse Moore, despite allegations that Moore sexually assaulted young, teenage girls years ago.
It was the first Democratic Senate victory in a quarter-century in Alabama, one of the reddest of red states, and proved anew that party loyalty is anything but sure in the age of Trump. It was a major embarrassment for the president and a fresh wound for the nation's already divided Republican Party.
The victory by Jones, a former U.S. attorney best known for prosecuting two Ku Klux Klansmen responsible for Birmingham's infamous 1963 church bombing, narrows the GOP advantage in the U.S. Senate to 51-49. That imperils already-uncertain Republican tax, budget and health proposals and injects tremendous energy into the Democratic Party's early push to reclaim House and Senate majorities in 2018.
While multiple news agencies called the race, Moore said he was not ready to concede.
Moore campaign manager Rich Hobson told a somber crowd at Moore's election night gathering that: "Some people are calling it. We are not calling it."
President Trump tweeted congratulations to Jones, saying write-in votes aided the Democrat but "a win is a win."
