The Atlantic

The Republican Nightmare Is Just Beginning

In 2018, party strategists fret, they’ll face a tough electoral landscape—and a bumper crop of fringe candidates.
Source: Carlo Allegri / Reuters

Washington Republicans have put the fiasco of Alabama’s special election behind them, but their electoral nightmare may just be beginning.

Roy Moore’s stunning defeat Tuesday night was met with quiet sighs of relief throughout the GOP establishment, where the culture-warring ex-judge and accused child abuser was widely regarded as radioactive. Yet even as Moore’s political obituaries were being written, party strategists were bracing for the army of Moore-like insurgents they expect to

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