Trumpism Wins in Alabama, Even If Trump Doesn't
MONTGOMERY, Ala.—Judge Roy Moore’s victory in the Alabama Senate primary came in the face of opposition from millions of dollars in Republican establishment money and the president himself. And that means there will be more insurgent candidates like him in the 2018 midterm cycle.
Though Moore didn’t have $10 million from a super PAC connected to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and a rally with President Trump like his opponent Luther Strange, he had a loyal following in Alabama and the vehement backing of the political machine controlled by Steve Bannon, the former White House chief strategist who has returned to the helm of after leaving the White House became laser-focused on the Alabama race, deploying several staffers here. Bannon himself came to Alabama for a rally on Monday night, where he made a rare public speech casting the race as the beginning of a “reckoning” against establishment figures like Karl Rove and Ward Baker. Bannon was careful, however, not to publicly criticize Trump.
