Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore is leading in a new poll surveying the field of potential Republican challengers for Democratic Sen. Doug Jones’ seat in the 2020 election, despite his surprising loss to Mr. Jones in the same race in 2017.
Mr. Moore is leading the field with 27 percent of Alabama Republican voters supporting him, followed by Rep. Mo Brooks with 18 percent, Rep. Bradley Byrne with 13 percent and Rep. Gary Palmer with 11 percent, according to the Mason-Dixon Polling & Strategy Inc. survey.
The field of possible Republican challengers is still evolving, with Mr. Byrne the only candidate in the poll who has formally announced that he is running for the seat. Former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville and state Auditor Jim Zeigler have said they will run, but they were not mentioned in the survey.
Mr. Moore, who narrowly lost the December 2017 special election to fill the seat previously held by Attorney General Jeff Sessions, said in an interview in March he is “seriously considering running again,” claiming the election was “stolen” from him due to a disinformation campaign that benefited Mr. Jones.
While Mr. Moore was leading, he also had by far the highest unfavorable numbers within his own party, with just 34 percent of Alabama Republicans having a favorable impression of him and 29 percent an unfavorable one. No other Republican in the poll had an unfavorable rating higher than 8 percent.
Mr. Jones, the first Democrat to win an Alabama U.S. Senate election since the 1992 victory of Sen. Richard Shelby, who switched parties in 1994, seemed eager for a rematch.
He said if Mr. Moore “really believes” he won his seat unfairly, then they should “just step aside, have a press conference … and let’s just do it again.”
In reply, Mr. Moore said in an email to his supporters that if he runs again, then Jones “will be the first to know.”
Mr. Moore faced accusations of sexual misconduct in the weeks leading up to the election. While no charges were filed against him, Mr. Moore filed lawsuits against three women for defamation of character.
The survey interviewed 625 registered Alabama voters from April 9-11 with a margin of error of 4 percentage points.
• Bailey Vogt can be reached at bvogt@washingtontimes.com.
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