In an unprecedented outcome, Democrat Doug Jones won the Alabama Senate race against Republican Roy Moore to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Initially, Jones appeared to be mounting a seemingly quixotic Senate campaign. However, with allegations of sexual harassment heavily scarring Roy Moore’s campaign, Jones gained an unexpected edge towards victory. It is impossible to imagine that Roy Moore would have lost otherwise because Alabama is an overwhelmingly Republican state, where the Democratic Party has not won for an entire decade and had not even nominated a Senate candidate for the same seat in 2014.

Roy Moore is a politician and former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama. During the Senate race, three individual women made allegations of sexual misconduct against him, stating that Moore had sexually assaulted them when they were teenagers. In response, Moore vehemently denied such claims and asserted that they were the epitome of “fake news” [1]. Yet, in combination with his history as a polarizing judge, the backlash against Moore propelled Jones, allowing the Democrat to overcome the state’s deep conservatism. Jones easily capitalized on the situation and targeted African Americans and educated voters to turn their backs on the Republican Party.

When the allegations first surfaced, only a small fraction of the Republican Party appeared troubled by the news. While President Donald Trump and the Republican National Committee urged Alabamians to vote for the GOP candidate, some notable Republicans denounced Moore. Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Alabama Senator Richard Shelby both vehemently professed that they would not vote for their party’s nominee [1].

Conservative voter turnout echoed Rice and Shelby’s morals by not voting at all. This proved to be crucial since if those votes had been cast in Moore’s favor, then he would have emerged victorious. Yet, this result confirms that most Americans are adopting a zero tolerance policy on the issue of sexual harassment. Jasmine Yi ‘19 asserted that she was “glad that the voters of Alabama decided to put aside their political view in order to elect a morally sound candidate as senator.” Moreover, Alex Smyth ‘19 expressed similar sentiments: “I’m really thrilled to hear that a Democrat was able to win a seat in Alabama.” A number of Republicans also recognized this shift, stating that they had feared the worst from a Moore victory. With Moore as senator, supported by the president and the Republican National Committee, the party would face the dilemma of siding with a racially-tinged alleged pedophile at a moment when the public is shifting dramatically toward zero tolerance for such behaviors.

The polls have demonstrated that the public favors ejecting accused sexual predators — a finding underscored by Moore’s loss. Obtaining the label as the party that condones sexual predators in its ranks can only accelerate this trend. Aside from the political risks for both parties of harboring alleged sexual offenders, Democrats are especially incentivized since they appeal to a different demographic than Republicans.  Democratic appeal to women more so than men and are more likely than Republicans to believe the accusers and to favor a member of their own party resigning when accused [2]. Clearly there is a political risk to doing the right thing. Republicans now might want to consider doing the same; the outcome in Alabama should make that clear.

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2017/12/12/alabama-senate-race-importance-goes-beyond-tax-reform-vote.html

[2] http://time.com/5049665/republicans-democrats-believe-sexual-assault-accusations-survey/