Trump loses Alabama Senate seat to Democrats in shock defeat

President Trump on Tuesday managed to lose a US Senate seat in the conservative Deep South that Democrats had not won in decades. He did it with a dreadful political mistake, defying the GOP establishment and his own daughter Ivanka Trump to back Roy Moore, a candidate accused of sexual assault and child molestation, but who was supported by the radical wing of the party headed by

Steve Bannon

. Moore lost by less than one per cent (about 20000 statewide votes)to Democrat Doug Jones, with the result narrowing Republican majority in the chamber to 51-49.

Democrats rejoiced and gloated over the result once their got over their disbelief at the stroke of good fortune. America does not get more conservative than Alabama, and President Trump had carried the state in 2016 by over 28 per cent votes. But Trump decided to heed the advice of party hardliners, mainly Steve Bannon, is backing a loathsome candidate who believes America was better off when there was slavery and women couldn’t vote. Consequently, Jones won an unexpected, shock victory in a state where Democrats have never won more than 40 per cent of the vote and are usually also-rans.

Expectedly, neither Moore not Trump would come to terms with the shock result. Moore said the margin was narrow enough to merit a recount, although GOP bosses, never too enthusiastic about his candidature in the first place, rebuffed him. Trump as usual washed his hands of Moore and said he always knew he was going to lose in a grudging congratulatory message. But he was said to be seething at the result, which is certain to change equations within the party and dilute the hands of Steve Bannon, the former

White House

advisor who continues to have an inside line to Trump.

Jones victory "is about a rising tide of Americans who won’t swallow the bilge President Trump is pushing. Make no mistake: If Trump and his would-be Pygmalion, Stephen K. Bannon, can’t sell their mix of cultural resentment and paranoia in Alabama, they will be hard-pressed to sell it anywhere,'' one columnist gloated as the country’s liberal establishment and media rejoiced at the result.

Among those who had implicitly warned against Moore’s character and candidature was Trump’s own daughter Ivanka, who said there was a ''special place in hell'' for people who hard children, even as Moore sought to escape the stigma of assaulting underaged women and children. Moore was considered so loathsome that even the state’s senior senator Richard Shelby was said to have voted against him, while many other GOP lawmakers simply did not turn up to support him.

With the Republican majority now down to 51, President Trump will have a tough time advancing his agenda in the Senate, including his ability to confirm judges and ward off inquiries into his conduct that a recharged Democrats will now pursue. It also opens up the possibility that Democrts could retake the Senate in 2018 when a third of the seats will be up for election.