It is not immaterial, you just want to ignore the fact because it undermines your claim that he was a "horrid" candidate.
The numbers prove quite accurately that he was a perfectly fine candidate that was subjected to a level of attack that has never been seen before 2017 for a single Senate race.
Entirely possible. Look what happened in Texas and Arizona... both GOP governors won by big margins last November, but the AZ GOP Senatorial candidate lost and Cruz came perilously close to losing to Beto O'Rourke. So yes... voters do separate and discriminate down-ballot.
You are oversimplifying what happened in Arizona. Sheriff Joe Arpaio cost us that race by refusing to get out, and he split the Republican vote, so they ended up with McSally, whom many Republican voters didn't trust and didn't like. They correctly saw her as a backstabbing Rino in the mold of John McCain, and simply didn't want her.
You are also oversimplifying what happened in Texas. Not only did a lot of Republicans have it in for Cruz because Trump labeled him "Lying Ted" and viciously attacked him during the Presidential campaign, but once again, the entire Democrat party across the nation was working very hard to take out Cruz. They were highly motivated because again, they wanted to Rebuke the election of Trump, and they also hated Cruz.
Cruz would have done much better if Trump hadn't been so successful in spreading that "Lying Ted" crap. Even today, there are many freepers that go nuts when you mention Ted Cruz, and will start ranting about him.
And in both cases, it wasn't a Presidential election. The Republican turnout would have been heavily boosted in both states had it been a Presidential election, and the result in Arizona would have flipped.
I realize many here in FR want Moore on the ballot, win or lose... I got that. I'd rather have control of the Senate.
I would too, but I think people have just been dastardly to Moore, and he didn't deserve the treatment he got from his "allies."
I think whomever wins the Republican nomination will win the race, and I think 700,000 is about the tippy tip top of what the Democrats can manage in Alabama in 2020.
Trump is going to get at least 1.3 million, and whomever is on the Republican ticket will get 85-95% of that same vote.
Nothing undermines that claim. Moore lost an election to a liberal dem in one of the most conservative states in the Union.
The reason that the level of attack was unprecedented was simple: the MSM was in the middle of a narrative that there was Trump remorse that was going to be proven by the special elections and then the 2018 mid-term.
However, prior to the Alabama special election, there was the Georgia 6th Congressional District special election. That was an unprecedented election for a small House district, with Hollywood pouring millions of dollars into Democrat Jon Ossoff (who didn't even live in the district he was running for). Handel won, but lost in the 2018 mid-term.
The other early 2017 special elections to fill Trump appointment seats went to Republicans in Kansas, Montana, and South Carolina. The Georgia 6th race was supposed to be the tide-turner.
When it didn't happen, the tide moved to Alabama.
-PJ
Cruz would have done much better if he hadn't been so disdainful at the convention. Texas went for Cruz over Trump in the primary, but Cruz lost a lot of that because of his behavior at the convention, and his team's targeting of Trump delegates prior to the convention.
If Cruz hadn't been such a jerk about it, Trump might not have felt the need to hire Paul Manafort to run the delegate phase of his convention.
-PJ
One other factor not mentioned is that Alabama is a "straight-ticket" state. Voters can check a single box to vote the same party in all races.
A lot of votes for the Senate candidate will benefit by default to the party of the Presidential vote. If Moore were to win the primary, voters would have to really not like him to vote straight-party and then still override that on his race.
-PJ