The Limestone County Republican Party this week reaffirmed its support for Judge Roy Moore, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate.

A press release said a resolution in support of Moore was unanimously adopted Tuesday at the party’s regular meeting. Moore will face Democrat Doug Jones in the special Senate election on Tuesday, Dec. 12.

Noah Wahl, chairman of the Limestone County Republican Party, said he felt it was important to pass a party resolution in support of Moore because of the negative attention surrounding his campaign. Since October, two women have claimed Moore sexually assaulted them. Seven others claim they were pursued as teens while Moore was in his 30s.

The Morgan County Republican Party recently passed a similar resolution.

“The national media is drawing their own conclusions and bypassing the idea of the presumption of innocence, which our country was founded on,” Wahl said. “One of the big reasons we (passed the resolution) is because the people in Alabama don’t want Washington and the special interests telling us how to vote.”

The local resolution says the committee believes a person is innocent until proven guilty, and that the Washington Post and “many national media have shown bias against Republican candidates.”

The resolution also paints Jones as a “Liberal Democrat” who supports abortion and whose election to office “would have a negative affect on Alabama and our nation.” Lastly, the resolution says Moore has a “30-plus year record of outstanding honesty and moral public service” and that President Trump wants Alabamians to vote for Moore to “support the conservative agenda.”

Moore and his wife Kayla appeared at a Limestone County Republican Party meeting in July.

Degrees of support

Despite the local GOP’s full-throated endorsement, support for Moore has been spotty since allegations came to light. President Donald Trump initially said he would campaign for Moore, but the White House announced this week that Trump’s schedule would not allow any trips to Alabama on Moore’s behalf.

Former White House strategist Steve Bannon campaigned for Moore ahead of the Sept. 26 Republican primary runoff but seemingly disappeared after the allegations came to light. After two Bannon associates told the Associated Press he had no intention to campaign for Moore, Bannon on Tuesday told CNN he would.

“I look forward to standing with Judge Moore and all of the Alabama ‘deplorables’ in the fight to elect him to the United States Senate and send shockwaves to the political and media elites,” he said during an interview with CNN.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said she also has no reason to disbelieve the women and is bothered by their allegations. But Ivey said she will vote for Moore anyway for the sake of GOP power in Congress.

U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby said he did not vote for Moore and instead wrote in the name of a Republican. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who previously held the Senate seat now up for grabs, said he had “no reason to doubt these young women.”

U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-5th, has been steadfast in his support of Moore. At a town hall event in Athens Monday, the congressman said he had voted absentee for Moore.

The varying degrees of support for Moore may be unchartered territory for Republicans in Alabama, which have always supported right-leaning candidates. Wahl said some Republicans have been lukewarm on Moore because the allegations against him “are so serious.”

“It’s scaring some people off from coming out with a strong endorsement,” he said. “But if people are asked for their opinion, they should come out strongly supporting the party nominee, even if they need to preface it by saying, ‘These are just allegations.’”

Dirty political tricks

Wahl is growing increasingly disheartened by what he called new Moore attack ads by political action committees supporting Jones. An NBC News report said Jones is outspending Moore 10-to-1 on television and radio ads to the tune of about $5.6 million. Moore had spent only about $600,000 as of Tuesday.

There have also been more instances of Roy Moore signs being vandalized in Limestone County, Wahl said. A large sign was thrown into the woods off Alabama 251, he said, while another on U.S. 72 near Lowe’s looked like it it had been nearly ripped in half.

“When politics gets dirty, it drives people away from it,” Wahl said. “How can you field candidates if, from just an allegation, your character can be torn apart?”

Victory in the bag?

If history is an indicator, Moore should garner the lion’s share of Limestone County’s votes. In the Aug. 15 special primary for Senate, Moore was tops statewide but finished second in Limestone behind U.S. Rep. Mo Brooks, R-5th.

Brooks did not garner enough votes to make the runoff Sept. 26. In that race, Moore generated more than 54 percent statewide and 58.6 percent in Limestone County compared to just 41 percent for Strange.

Mike Smith, chairman of the Limestone County Democratic Party, recently told The News Courier he would be disappointed if Moore won Limestone County. He said he wanted Moore to face Jones because he believes Jones can win.

“We’re not happy this is what the news is about,” he said, referring to the coverage of the allegations against Moore. “We need to be talking about public education, health care and insurance. Let’s talk about issues.”

Despite his affiliation with the Democratic Party, Smith has plenty of friends in Limestone County who are Republicans. He said he doesn’t believe Moore represents who they are as people.

“This is Caesar’s world; we shouldn’t put our faith in politics and politicians and that’s what we’ve done in Alabama,” he said. “This isn’t a reflection of the good people of Alabama; it’s a reflection of Roy Moore.”