The 2017 United States Senate special election in Alabama took place on December 12, 2017, to fill a vacancy in the U.S. Senate through the end of the term ending on January 3, 2021. The vacancy arose from Jeff Sessions' resignation, on February 8, 2017, to serve as the 84th United States attorney general. Democratic candidate Doug Jones defeated Republican candidate Roy Moore by a margin of 21,924 votes (1.63%). Jones became the first Democrat to win a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama since 1992.
On February 9, 2017, Governor Robert J. Bentley appointed Luther Strange, the attorney general of Alabama, to fill the vacancy until a special election could take place. Bentley controversially scheduled the special election to align with the 2018 general Senate elections instead of sooner. When Kay Ivey succeeded Bentley as governor, she rescheduled the special election for December 12, 2017.
Jones, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Alabama, won the Democratic primary election. Moore, a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama, competed with Strange and U.S. Representative Mo Brooks in the August 15, 2017 Republican primary; the two highest vote-getters, Moore and Strange, advanced to a runoff. President Donald Trump supported Strange during the primary runoff, in addition to much of the Republican establishment in the Senate, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who made the success of Strange's candidacy a major priority. Trump's efforts on behalf of Strange included tweeting and a rally in Huntsville, Alabama. Vice President Mike Pence campaigned for Strange as well. With McConnell's help, Strange outspent Moore by a margin of 10-to-1. However, Moore won the primary runoff on September 26, 2017. This was the first time that an incumbent U.S. senator having active White House support lost a primary since Arlen Specter lost to Joe Sestak in 2010.
Following the nominations, Roy Moore was expected to easily win the election as polling showed him with a clear lead and Alabama is known for its overwhelming Republican Partisan Balance.
However, the race was upended when, in mid-November 2017, multiple women alleged that Moore had made unwanted advances or sexually assaulted them when he was in his early thirties and they were in their teens (the youngest was 14 at the time), attracting widespread national media coverage of the election. As a result of these allegations, many national Republican leaders and office holders called for Moore to withdraw from the special election, rescinded their endorsements of him, and stopped funding his campaign. However, Donald Trump and many Alabama Republicans reaffirmed their support. At the time of the revelations, it was too late to remove his name from the ballot. Many Republican leaders proposed shifting their support to a write-in candidate such as Strange. Moore has stated that he never engaged in sexual misconduct, although he has not denied that he approached or dated teenagers over the age of 16 while he was in his 30s (sixteen is the legal age of consent in Alabama). In late November, retired Marine Colonel Lee Busby launched a write-in campaign.
Polling showed the race in contention due to a loss of enthusiasm for the Republican base, a significant turnout for an off-year special election, and the damage to Roy Moore's candidacy.
At 9:23 p.m. CST, the Associated Press called the election for Jones, though Moore refused to concede. Jones was the first Democratic candidate to win a statewide election in Alabama since former Lieutenant Governor Lucy Baxley was elected president of the Alabama Public Service Commission in 2008. Jones was sworn into office on January 3, 2018, becoming the first Democratic U.S. senator from Alabama since Howell Heflin left in 1997. As of , this is the most recent special election to the U.S. Senate that did not take place simultaneously with a round of regularly scheduled elections and the last time a Democrat won statewide office in Alabama.
Background
Potential appointees
Following then-President-elect Donald Trump's nomination of then-Senator Sessions to be U.S. attorney general, Robert Aderholt, a member of the United States House of Representatives, had asked to be appointed to the seat. Representative Mo Brooks had also expressed interest in the seat, while Strange had stated before being selected that he would run for the seat in the special election whether or not he was appointed. Other potential choices Bentley interviewed for the appointment included Moore; Del Marsh, the president pro tempore of the Alabama Senate; and Jim Byard, the director of the Alabama Department of Economic and Community Affairs.