The President of the United States Donald Trump has suffered a new defeat when judge Ray Moore, his candidate to a vacant post in the Senate in the State of Alabama, a traditional turf of the Republican Party, was defeated by the Democrat aspirant, Doug James.
Alabama is one of the most conservative states in the Union, and Trump himself obtained a resounding victory there in the Presidential elections, surpassing Democrat aspirant Hillary Clinton by over thirty percent of the votes.
Even more: in the past twenty five years, this is the first time that a democratic candidate wins any such election in Alabama.
In the case of Trump’s favorite, Judge Moore, his candidacy was not welcomed by Republican bigwigs in Alabama mainly because of several scandals in which he was personally involved. The President, however, went all out for this candidate and was also resoundingly defeated by the final vote count.
After this resounding electoral disaster, Mr. Trump is trying to back down, and now claims that the judge did not have winning cards in his hat. Actually, Mr. Trump himself is guilty of backing a bad candidate, resoundingly defeated by the vote of women, blacks and youth, who opted for Mr. James, a liberal on such issues as abortions and homosexual rights issues that are taboos among the Republican right wingers.
The conservative Judge backed by President Trump had been involved in an acid polemic because of statements considered as offensive to ethnic minorities and because of his open support to racist groups. A severe blow to his candidacy was dealt by a group of women who accused him of sexual harassment, an issue that was ignored by Mr. Trump and his Chief Advisor, Steve Bannion, who headed the political campaign of the defeated racist aspirant.
This resounding defeat of Mr. Trump!s favorite has, as its first result, a huge mark in the Presidents political score in the Republican Party, as the White House is facing widespread popular rejection of a complex fiscal reform plan widely rejected by the population.
Furthermore, the Republican majority in the Senate is now down to one vote, fifty one to forty nine, meaning that in key decisions the White House can not afford to loose one single vote.
Most important, this electoral defeat is a warning to Mr. Trump and his associates, as the mid term elections of November twenty eighteen get closer, and the flimsy Republican majority in the Senate could just evaporate.
The US political chess game is getting more complicated for Mr. Trump, and the perspective of loosing further ground could give him the idea of involving the United States in more trouble overseas.
Let’s hope not, for his and the United States own good!