When the national party urges everyone to vote against him, when they pull his funding, making him appear guilty in everyone's eyes, when the entire media broadcasting propaganda monster and the entire Washington DC establishment is against you, it can cause an effect on the more wishy washy of your supporters.
And it did. 25,000 write in votes thanks to Richard Shelby, and the loss was by 25,000 votes.
Thanks again Richard Shelby.
And having said that I will always vote against the court of public opinion.
Some need to look back in their family history to find out how many relatives were "old men" in their thirties married to girls sixteen or younger. There was a time that men didn't think of marriage until they were able to provide for a wife and family and women were old spinsters if they were not married before the mid twenties.
Yes, as you stated, it was all just political.