Prominent conservative endorses Democrat Doug Jones over disgraced Republican Roy Moore in Alabama
Two days after getting shellacked nationwide by voters, the Republican Party took another startling blow on Thursday when its candidate in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama was accused of sexually assaulting a number of underage women. Various Republicans in the Senate are now calling on Roy Moore to drop out of the race. However, one prominent conservative is taking things much further by endorsing Moore’s Democratic opponent.
Conservative political pundit Erick Erickson tweeted on Thursday evening that “In light of this Roy Moore story, worth noting one of his prominent supporters is convinced the ‘anti-Trump GOP’ is working with Democrats below the radar to hand this seat to the Dems. Says that’s why it is so quiet over there.” There is no publicly available evidence to support Erickson’s assertion. However, Bill Kristol, a conservative political pundit and Editor at the Weekly Standard, chimed in response: “As it happens I’ve not worked with Democrats ‘below the radar’ in AL. But Iet me say loud and clear: I’d vote for Doug Jones over Roy Moore.”
This amounts to a de facto endorsement of Jones. That’s remarkable, as it’s the rare instance of an ideological conservative endorsing a liberal Democratic candidate due to the sheer abhorrent nature of the Republican candidate in that race. It’s unlikely that Kristol and Jones are aligned on any of the issues, but Kristol feels that strongly about keeping accused child molester Moore out of the Senate.
A generation ago, President George H.W. Bush made a point of telling Republicans not to vote for Republican candidate David Duke in Louisiana, due to Duke’s affiliation with the Ku Klux Klan. In so doing, Bush purposely handed that election to the Democrats. Now we wait to see if any Republicans in Congress have the kind of courage required to concede the Alabama race to the Democratic candidate in order to keep the repulsive Roy Moore out of the U.S. Senate. Observers may not want to hold their breath.
