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MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Democrat Doug Jones on Thursday will be officially declared the winner of a U.S. Senate race after a judge rejected Republican Roy Moore's last-ditch effort to stop the certification of Jones' historic upset in a deep-red state. Montgomery Circuit Judge Johnny Hardwick denied Moore's request for a restraining order to stop Alabama's canvassing board from certifying Jones' victory on Thursday. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill said Jones will be certified as the winner of the Dec. 12 election on Thursday afternoon. He will be sworn in on Jan. 3. A spokesman for Jones earlier...

Doug Jones was certified by Alabama's state canvassing board today as the winner of the Dec. 12 special election for the U.S. Senate, despite a last ditch legal challenge by opponent Roy Moore. Jones issued a statement immediately after the certification. "I am looking forward to going to work for the people of Alabama in the new year," Jones stated. "As I said on election night, our victory marks a new chapter for our state and the nation. I will be an independent voice and work to find common ground with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to...

(CNN)Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill confirmed Thursday morning that Democrat Doug Jones will be certified the winner of the Alabama special Senate election despite Republican Roy Moore's refusal to concede and request for a new election. "Will this affect anything?" Merrill said on CNN's "New Day," referring to Moore's challenge. "The short answer to that is no." Merrill said he would meet Thursday afternoon with Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey and the state Attorney General Steve Marshall to certify Jones' win, and that Jones would indeed be sworn in when the Senate returns in January. "We will sign the documents...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Roy S. Moore, the first Republican to lose a United States Senate race in Alabama in 25 years, moved late Wednesday to block state officials from certifying the victory of his Democratic rival on Thursday afternoon because of “systematic voter fraud.” In a complaint filed in the circuit court here in Alabama’s capital, Mr. Moore’s campaign argued that such fraud had tainted the Dec. 12 special election, which Mr. Moore lost to Doug Jones by fewer than 22,000 votes, and that the Alabama authorities had inadequately investigated claims of misconduct. If the election is prematurely certified, Mr....

Roy Moore's campaign launched a last-minute court battle late Wednesday to block his loss in Alabama's special Senate election from becoming official. Democrat Doug Jones defeated Moore, a Republican former justice of the state Supreme Court who was endorsed by President Donald Trump, in the Dec. 12 election to assume the Senate seat of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Moore has refused to concede the election, which he had been widely expected to win before allegations of sexual misconduct with underage girls emerged late in the campaign. Moore has denied all of the allegations. The Alabama State Canvassing Board is scheduled...

A mysterious super PAC that spent millions of dollars backing Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama's Senate race was heavily funded by the Democratic Senate Majority PAC. Chris Hayden, spokesman for the Senate Majority PAC, said Tuesday that the group was the primary backer of the PAC called Highway 31, which spent $6 million on hard-hitting advertising, mailings and other efforts to help defeat Republican Roy Moore. Because of reporting and payment schedules, Highway 31 didn't disclose its donors during the campaign despite its heavy spending. "Yes, SMP was the contributor to Highway 31. There were a few small donations when...

GOP Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, who chairs the Rules Committee, said further particulars cannot be made public, in order to respect the confidentiality afforded to victims. “While the Rules Committee has been eager to provide this information in a transparent manner, it has been our priority to protect the victims involved in these settlements from further harm,” the senator said in a statement attending the report.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell mocked Steve Bannon on Friday at a press conference on Capitol Hill. “Let me just say this: The political genius on display throwing away a seat in the reddest state in America is hard to ignore,” Mr. McConnell, Kentucky Republican, said. Mr. Bannon was behind the campaign for Republican candidate Roy Moore in Alabama. Mr. Moore, a controversial figure from the start of his campaign, was embroiled in scandal after a Washington Post report alleged he pursued sexual relationships with teenage girls, one as young as 14, as an adult man.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell used a holiday season press conference Friday to deliver a lump of coal to Steve Bannon, mocking the former White House adviser’s “political genius” for costing Republicans an Alabama Senate seat. McConnell, R-Ky., made the remark 10 days after the Bannon-backed Roy Moore lost a special election to Doug Jones, giving Democrats their first victory in an Alabama Senate race in a quarter century. Moore faced multiple allegations of improper conduct with teenagers decades ago and touted extremist views that repelled many women and minorities. “The political genius on display, throwing away a seat in...

Trump's base in 2016 was defined not by race or class, but by belief in God. Evangelical Christians and Catholics came together and pushed Trump to the win, in defiance of the media, academia, Hollywood, the professional class, elite Republicans, the Democrat masses, libertarians, and self-professed moralists. Both the pope and many prominent Protestant leaders expressed antagonism toward Trump, so this mass of religious voters defied their church elders as well. This was nothing less than stunning. It was perhaps one of the great revolutions in America's religious history. Rather than a serious study of this event, we have had...

Donald Trump requires an opposition to keep him in check, but also gives them plenty of ammunition to work with. So how did they still manage to blow it?The beginning of this year presented Democrats and their sympathizers in the media with both an important job and a big opportunity. Donald Trump governs in a style that somehow manages to combine authoritarian bluster with a total lack of self-discipline. He requires an effective political opposition to keep him in check, which also gives the opposition plenty of ammunition to work with.So how is that the Left spent most of 2017...

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill announced Wednesday that a total of 366 military ballots were returned from overseas and 4,967 provisional ballots were cast. That is short of the 20,000-vote deficit that Moore needs to close.

The special election for Senator in Alabama feels like it was held in 1817, not 2017 and certainly less than a week ago. We briefly touched on some of the problems for Republicans losing a Senate seat in Alabama portends. I mentioned, in passing, that when you stack the Alabama result last week, atop the results in Virginia last month you see the GOP is heading straight for the rocky shoals of political insignificance. I ran an outfit called GOPAC in 1998. GOPAC is known in modern political lore as being Newt Gingrich's PAC. That is - or at least...

ALABAMA (WALA) - Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill is investigating a concern over potential voter fraud in last Tuesday's special Senate election. It all stems from a brief interview FOX10 News Reporter Kati Weis conducted at the Doug Jones victory party on election night when a young man made a comment that has now gone viral on social media. The interview took place just minutes after the race had been called. While live on air, in the middle of the crowded party, Kati walked up to a number of jubilant supporters at random, asking them for their reactions to...

In the entire ruby-red state of Alabama there was only one reliably conservative Republican candidate who could have lost the race for the U.S. Senate to a Democrat portrayed as a Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer liberal. And Roy Moore was the guy. Moore was a disaster even before allegations came out that as a grown man he was running around with teenage girls. He had been bounced twice from the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to follow orders from federal courts, one of those courts being the Supreme Court of the United States. Moore thought homosexuality should be illegal....

Black Alabamians deserve much of the credit for Democrat Doug Jones' stunning victory in the deep red state's US Senate special election last Tuesday. Turning out to vote in much higher-than-predicted numbers last week, black voters are being described as the "backbone" of the Democratic Party, but some on the left argue that much more needs to be done to both serve and energize black communities to ensure their engagement in crucial elections in 2018 and 2020. A multipronged approach to mobilizing black voters Guy Cecil, the chairman of Priorities USA, a progressive super PAC that invested heavily in the...

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama Secretary of State releases updated numbers regarding the write-in votes from Tuesday, December 12’s special election.

We conservatives need to get our heads right about the mid-terms or liberals will end up guzzling patriot tears and their gloating will be flat-out intolerable. We’re not doomed in 2018 – I mean, it’s not like tax reform or pulling out of the Paris Climate Scam, which have already killed millions of people, including me and you. But, if we fail to get on course for victory then we’re going to see Nancy Pelosi and the Gropeocrats back in charge and trying to make America into California. Trust me. You do not want to live in the United States...

By John "My brother is gay and h*ll yes I forgot my bankruptcy" Archibald Illustrations by Ramsey Archibald [John Archibald's son who got his job over a much more qualified applicant.] Earlier we gave you Alabama’s Top 10 Democrats. But this is Alabama. So, no matter what happened in that election – it was Roy Moore that lost, and not the party – the Dems have to be the undercard. This, folks, is the main event. So … let’s get ready to grumble. For here, in consultation with professionals, deep consideration and another coin flip, are the Top 10...

Senator-elect Doug Jones is already breaking with some prominent Democrats by refusing to call for President Trump to step down over ongoing sexual harassment allegations. “I don’t think that the president ought to resign at this point,” Jones (D-Ala.) told CNN’s “State of the Union.” In his first round of Sunday show interviews since securing a stunning victory in red state Alabama over accused sexual predator Roy Moore, Jones said he doesn’t want to get bogged down in Trump’s sexual harassment allegations and would rather work on “real issues.” “I think we need to move on and not get distracted...