GOP/GUNS/JEFF SESSIONS/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “At a recent gathering here hosted by the BamaCarry gun-rights group, Republican candidates vying to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former U.S. Senate seat all invoked the same person: President Donald Trump…
In the run-up to the Aug. 15 special-election primary, the GOP candidates are sparring over who would best advance Mr. Trump’s agenda and remain most loyal to him. Despite the president’s tumbling approval ratings nationally, Mr. Trump, a New York businessman who made numerous campaign trips to Alabama during the presidential election last year, remains popular in this deeply conservative state, where he won 62% of the vote in November…
The race’s three leading contenders align with different factions of the GOP. Sen. Luther Strange—a former state attorney general named to Mr. Sessions’ seat by the ex-governor—is backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.), prompting some to cast him as the establishment candidate.
Mr. Brooks is part of the insurgent wing of the party as a member of the ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus. Mr. Moore, who was suspended from the Alabama Supreme Court over his defiance of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision legalizing gay marriage, has a fervent following among evangelical Christians.
If no candidate wins a majority in the primary—a likely scenario, analysts say—a runoff for the GOP candidate would take place Sept. 26, followed by the general election on Dec. 12. A Republican primary victor is widely expected to go on to capture the seat.”
-Arian Campo-Flores, “Alabama GOP Senate Hopefuls Fight Over Dedication to Trump,” The Wall Street Journal online, Aug. 6, 2017 07:00am