Politics

‘I wouldn’t vote for him’: Alaska senators say they don’t support Roy Moore

On the eve of Alabama's hotly-contested special U.S. Senate election, both of Alaska's Republican senators said they didn't support sending embattled Republican candidate Roy Moore to Washington.

Moore is facing allegations of inappropriate behavior with underage girls as he runs for what has long been a safe Republican seat. A number of members of his own party, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, asked him to step aside last month. But, more recently President Trump and the Republican National Committee have put their support behind Moore. As voters head to the polls, some analysts have said his opponent, Doug Jones, now has a shot at handing the seat to Democrats.

The original allegations, reported first in the Washington Post, came from women who said that when Moore was in his 30s, he pursued them as teenagers. One woman described a sexual encounter with him when she was 14 and he was 32. Other allegations followed.

When stories originally surfaced, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said she "was horrified" and that if they were true, then Moore should withdraw immediately, her communications director Karina Petersen said.

"I have not endorsed Mr. Moore. My hope is that the voters of Alabama will do the right thing and not send him to the Senate," Murkowski said in a written statement on Monday.

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, also urged Moore to step aside earlier in the race, said his spokesman Matthew Shuckerow.

"The election of Roy Moore will ultimately be decided by the voters of Alabama. But if I were a resident of Alabama, I wouldn't vote for him," Sullivan said in a statement on Monday.

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[Alabama Senate campaign, an unlikely nail biter watched by the nation, races to finish line]

Sullivan said that if Moore is elected he "believes the many allegations against him – which are highly disturbing – absolutely warrant an ethics investigation," Shuckerow said in an email.

Julia O'Malley

Anchorage-based Julia O'Malley is a former ADN reporter, columnist and editor. She received a James Beard national food writing award in 2018, and a collection of her work, "The Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska," was published in 2019. She's currently writer in residence at the Anchorage Museum.

Nathaniel Herz

Anchorage-based independent journalist Nathaniel Herz has been a reporter in Alaska for nearly a decade, with stints at the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska Public Media. Read his newsletter, Northern Journal, at natherz.substack.com

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