WASHINGTON: Democrats registered a stunning victory in Alabama on Tuesday night, when their candidate Doug Jones defeated a firebrand Republican, Roy Moore, in one of the most Republican states.

The defeat forced President Donald Trump to warn Republicans on Wednesday that they could lose their “razor thin” majority in Congress if they did not put up strong candidates in the 2018 congressional elections.

Mr Jones received 671,151 votes, which is 49.9 per cent of the total votes cast. Mr Moore received 650,436 votes, 48.4pc of the total.

The election in this remote southern state drew the attention of the entire nation after the Republican candidate was accused of sexually harassing more than a dozen women, first as a lawyer and then as a judge.

Democrats and women rights activists from across the United States rallied behind Mr Jones to ensure that his Republican rival does not get elected. They were already upset with Mr Trump’s victory in the 2016 presidential election as he too faced similar charges but the voters ignored the women who had accused Mr Trump of harassing them and elected him.

Rights activists feared that the victory of a second high-profile suspect would send a wrong signal and encourage women’s harassment at the workplace.

President Trump, however, saw the Alabama election from a different perspective. In early message to Republican voters, he urged them to ignore the allegations and vote for Mr Moore because a defeat can disturb an already thin Republican majority in the Senate, which will make it difficult for him to implement his policies.

Before Tuesday, Republicans had 52 members in the Senate and Democrats had 46 while two independent Senators, Angus King and Bernie Sanders, caucused with the Democratic Party.

When Senator-elect Jones is sworn in in January, the Republicans will control 51 and the Democrats will control 49 out of a total of 100 seats.

Tuesday’s election was held to fill a vacancy created by former Senator Jeff Sessions’ resignation in February this year to serve as US Attorney General. The term of the new senator ends on Jan 3, 2021 and losing the seat to a Democrat has placed the Republicans in a precarious position.

The allegations against Mr Moore and the party positions in the Senate made the Alabama Senate race one of the most hotly contested in recent US political history.

Motivated by their leaders, both Republicans and Democrats turned out in high numbers and a total of 98pc voters used their voting right on Tuesday.

Exit polls showed that African-American voters played a key role in ensuring Mr Jones’ victory. The Washington Post’s exit polls indicated that black voters would make up 28pc of the voters, greater than their 26pc share of the population.

The defeat in the Deep South, where Republicans have dominated Democrats for decades, has apparently stunned Republicans who on Wednesday were blaming each other for the failure.

“If last night’s election proved anything, it proved that we need to put up GREAT Republican candidates to increase the razor thin margins in both the House and Senate,” tweeted President Trump.

He said he had originally endorsed another Republican candidate, Luther Strange because he knew that Mr Moore will not be able to win the general election. “I was right! Roy worked hard but the deck was stacked against him,” he wrote.

CNN reported that Mr Jones’ stunning victory “sent a very clear signal heading into the 2018 (congressional) election: No Republican Senate seat is safe.”

“Democrats now have a reason to believe that they could do something that was considered unthinkable as recently as the start of this week: Retake control of the Senate next November,” it added.

CNN noted that at the start of this election cycle most political pundits thought that Democrats “wouldn’t even sniff” the majority for years to come.

Other media outlets also said that Tuesday’s victory in a Republican state has renewed hopes for a Democratic comeback next November.

Published in Dawn, December 14th, 2017