Roy Moore, the controversial former Chief Justice who once defied an order to remove a Ten Commandments monument, is squaring off against the Donald Trump-endorsed incumbent, U.S. Sen. Luther Strange, in an Alabama Republican primary runoff in the special election for the Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat. All of that means that there may be enough peculiarities in this race that the results will be tough to extrapolate into a prediction of how other upcoming GOP primaries will go (new polling shows that Moore would dominate Democrat Doug Jones if he makes it to the general election; Strange would defeat Jones, but by less. As WND reported, Breitbart Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle even suggested the race was “a flashpoint in a larger war inside the GOP for the heart and soul of the party.”

“If Alabamians send Moore to the U.S. Senate, they will be sending a message to the swamp in Washington, D.C., that they do not support Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and others’ efforts to dilute the agenda that President Trump campaigned on,” he wrote. Trump and McConnell quickly closed ranks behind Moore after Senator Strange conceded, underscoring their desire to keep the seat in Republican hands. Both Moore and Trump are populist politicians who have made a political career by running against the establishment.”

Mike Pence also stumped for Strange, but former White House strategist Steve Bannon was stumping for Moore, dividing conservative loyalties further. Moore is the state's former chief justice who was twice removed from his duties for defying federal courts over same-sex marriage and the public display of the Ten Commandments. Roy Moore, a former State Supreme Court chief justice, defeated Senator Luther Strange on Tuesday in the Republican runoff to fill the United States Senate seat vacated by Jeff Sessions, now the attorney general.
Justice Roy Moore and U.S. Senator Luther Strange face off in Alabama’s special election in what political analysts claim is a deepening rift between the Republican Party's establishment and anti-establishment factions. Moore is projected to win the primary runoff.