Trump-backed Barry Moore wins Alabama Senate primary runoff

Kathleen Hunter

U.S. Senate candidate Barry Moore speaks during the DC Blockchain Summit in Washington on March 17. Photo: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Rep. Barry Moore defeated former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson on Tuesday to secure the Republican U.S. Senate nomination in deep-red Alabama.

Why it matters: President Trump endorsed Moore in January. His win over Hudson, who ran as an anti-establishment political outsider, is another sign of the president's grip on GOP primaries.

AP called the primary runoff election in favor of Moore about two hours after polls closed Tuesday.
Moore led in the May 19 primary, with Hudson narrowly edging out state Attorney General Steve Marshall for the second runoff spot.
Marshall was initially a front-runner but slid in polls after Trump endorsed Moore, an early backer of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

Context: The seat is open because Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R) is leaving after one term to run for governor. He won in 2020 by ousting Democrat Doug Jones, who'd taken the seat in a 2017 special election against scandal-plagued Roy Moore.

Jones' win was for the remainder of Jeff Sessions' term, which opened up when Sessions left to become Trump's attorney general.

The big picture: Rep. Barry Moore is well-positioned to keep the Senate seat in Republican hands in November.

No Democrat has won a full Senate term in Alabama since Richard Shelby's 1992 re-election.
Shelby switched to the Republican Party in 1994, holding the seat until he retired from the Senate in 2023.

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Trump-backed Barry Moore wins Alabama Senate primary runoff

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