- Voters in Alabama are sending Democrat Doug Jones to the US Senate. Jones
- Jones will become the first Democrat elected to the Senate in the deep-red state in more than two decades.
- The race was close right up to Election Day, as a massive sexual misconduct scandal plagued Moore's campaign.
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Alabama Democrat Doug Jones projected to win Senate special election in major upset
Voters in Alabama delivered a major upset Tuesday night, sending a Democrat to the US Senate for the first time in more than two decades.
Alabama voters have elected Doug Jones to the US Senate in a massive special election upset on Tuesday night. Jones will become the first Democratic senator elected in Alabama in more than two decades.
Republican candidate Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones had been vying for the seat vacated by former Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions, whom President Donald Trump appointed US Attorney General in January.
It was a close race right up to the final moments before multiple news outlets projected Jones as the winner, but as of 10:25 p.m. ET, according to CNN, Jones had pulled into the lead.
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Check the live results below, via Decision Desk HQ, which is also monitoring the results:
The race in Alabama ends after what has been a tumultuous few weeks — dominated in part by the multiple allegations of sexual assault and misconduct directed at Moore and his campaign's conflicting responses to the accusations. The matter has rocked what would have otherwise been a cut-and-dry race in deep-red Alabama, where voters have consistently delivered Republicans to the Senate for the last two decades.
For that reason, experts had been reluctant to predict the race — citing, among other things, voter turnout which had been a point of uncertainty on an election night that falls less than two weeks before Christmas. But those concerns appeared to have been unfounded hours after the polls closed. It became clear that high turnout among African-American voters and low enthusiasm among some Republican voters helped push Jones toward victory.
Experts have predicted that Jones' win could spark a gradual shift in the Republican Party's Senate majority in next year's midterm election, and, in the near term, potentially threaten Trump and his party's broader legislative agenda.
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