Linda Peterson is a seventy-one-year-old retired computer-sales
executive in Auburn, Alabama. She lives alone with her dog, Otis, and
she always votes Republican. She’s been following the state’s G.O.P.
Senate runoff, which takes place next Tuesday, closely. The race to fill
Jeff Sessions’s former seat has come down on the Republican side—the
side typically expected to win—to a pair of tall, white, Christian men whom
a surprising number of conservative Alabamans consider unfit for the
office, yet preferable to a Democrat (in this case, a lawyer named Doug
Jones known for his civil-rights-defense work).
“I don’t like either one of them,” Peterson told me. “You’ve got Roy
Moore, who’s a little too far right. An extremist, who would take it all
to a whole new level. And then you’ve got the other one—his name is
Strange, and he is just strange.” Luther Strange, the six-foot-nine
interim senator and former state attorney general, is regarded by many
in Alabama as owing his current position to a willingness to go easy on
the disgraced former governor, Robert Bentley, who resigned, in April,
after pleading guilty to campaign-finance violations—but not before
naming Strange as Sessions’s successor.
Moore, on the other hand, is a former Alabama State Supreme Court chief
justice who was twice removed from that position. In 2001, he
commissioned a two-and-a-half ton monument to the Ten Commandments for
display outside the Alabama judicial building, where it sat until a
federal judge ordered that it be taken away. Moore’s first unseating
came a year later, ordered by the Alabama Court of the Judiciary.
Earlier this year, Moore, who favors commuting by
horse,
suggested that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were America’s divine
punishment for “distancing
ourselves”
from God. This was just months after he’d defied the federal ruling
allowing same-sex marriage, leading to his second removal from office.
President Trump and the Senate Majority Leader, Mitch McConnell, back
Strange. Steve Bannon, Sarah Palin, Mike Huckabee, and Chuck Norris—the
conservative actor and martial artist, who has complimented the judge’s
“spine of
steel”—support
Moore. This week, as Palin and Sebastian Gorka announced plans to stump
for Moore, and Trump and Pence prepared to do the same for Strange, I
spoke with several Republicans from Alabama about the pair of
conservative candidates. (On Monday, one poll showed Moore with a
narrowing, eight-point lead over
Strange.)
Most of them sounded like Peterson, who told me, “I feel like we don’t
have much to choose from.”
“If you asked me what Roy Moore’s campaign platform is, I’d refer you to
Will Ferrell’s movie ‘The Campaign.’ It’s America, Jesus, and
football,” Christopher Reid, a thirty-three-year-old attorney and
conservative radio host in Vestavia Hills, said. Reid was serious. “I’m
an Alabama football fan, so I agree with him on that. I’m a Christian,
too, and I love America. But his whole rallying cry is ‘I’m one of you
guys, and I’m going to fight these battles!’ But he doesn’t tell us how.
I mean, he’s going to impeach all these federal judges? For what? You
don’t kick judges out because you dislike their rulings.” Reid went on,
“I don’t think Roy has a serious respect for the law. He’s about ‘the
law of Moore.’ He doesn’t subscribe to checks and balances. He rails
against activist judges, but he’s the most activist judge. He’s like a
three-year-old child trying to get his way.” Reid doesn’t think that
Moore would accomplish much in Washington. “McConnell would put him on
some crap committee and not let him near a microphone. I mean, he didn’t
know what DACA was, for
crying out loud!”
And what did Reid think about Moore’s opponent? “He’s good on guns, very
pro-life. The idea that he’s a moderate guy just isn’t correct. His
problem is he’s so closely aligned with McConnell and he got the
appointment from our former governor, Dr. Love.” (Bentley’s
campaign-finance violations were connected with an alleged extramarital
affair.) Reid called Bentley “the most hated individual in the state.”
Still, Moore has some unfortunate friends, too. “If Sarah Palin endorses
you, that’s a problem,” he said. “I’d rather have the devil endorse me
than Steve Bannon. And the fact that a President is involved in a
primary of this nature—during the North Korean crisis—should tell the
voters here that Roy Moore is scary.” He added, with a shudder, “I think
Moore could actually lose to Doug Jones.”
Anthony Morlandt, a thirty-seven-year-old oral-cancer surgeon in
Birmingham, has been trying to parse the candidates’ views on
health-care reform. “A lot of my patients are heavy smokers from the
poorer parts of the state,” he said. “Alabama has one of the highest
oral-cancer rates in the country. Many don’t qualify for charity care
and can’t afford the premiums for private payer and don’t qualify for
Medicaid. So I’ve been following these primaries, mainly with an
interest in candidates’ stances on A.H.C.A., repeal or replace.” He went
on, “Luther Strange has more information available. He seems a bit more
invested in the process. I can’t find much on Roy Moore. He makes a lot
of general statements about repealing Obamacare, but he doesn’t say
anything about the A.H.C.A. Ultimately, there aren’t a lot of details
from either candidate about the specific issues that affect Alabama,
which I think are: the underserved, the disabled, and the elderly. Maybe
those nuances will come out later.” Morlandt wasn’t entirely sure how
he’d vote—he hasn’t “had a chance to look closely” at Doug Jones yet—but
added, “As a Christian, I don’t find myself aligning with Moore.”
According to one powerful Birmingham lawyer, who is “very familiar with
both candidates,” but has not backed either one, the real difference
between Moore and Strange “is their style and vision.” The attorney, who
asked that I not use his name, said that the two candidates would
probably vote the same way if elected. He compared Strange to Alabama’s
Senator Richard Shelby, “a very, very, very strong conservative,
and very effective advocate for the state’s business community.” Moore
reminded him of Jeremiah Denton, the late senator from Mobile, and “a
former P.O.W., who was much more vocal on some issues. That seemed a
higher priority to him than bringing jobs, industries to the state.” He
added, “There are Republicans here who want another Shelby and others
who want another Denton. There are Republicans here who think Roy Moore
can do no wrong, and others who think he’s a lunatic. I know Doug Jones
would rather run against Roy than Luther.”
What result did the lawyer expect? “It’ll hinge on turnout. Can Luther
get his people excited enough to turn out? Roy Moore’s supporters will
turn out, but he’s got a ceiling.” As for high-profile endorsements in
the race, the lawyer said, “I think the people who care about what Sarah
Palin thinks tend to care more about what Donald Trump thinks. I think
the fact that President Trump is coming to Alabama may be the factor
that carries the day for Luther.”
Linda Peterson wishes Sessions would have just stayed in the Senate.
(She called him “an abysmal Attorney General.”) Next Tuesday, she said,
“I’m going to go to the polls and say ‘eenie meenie miney moe,’ or maybe
I’ll write in Sessions. I’d rather abstain than vote for the other
party.” She added, “Security and economy are No. 1 for me. I’m all I’ve
got left, and I want to make sure that what I have is protected.”