538 nails the OP: Republicans Shouldn’t Assume Roy Moore Was An Outlier | FiveThirtyEight
For a normal Senate election, the Republican would win by 28 or 29 points. But these aren’t normal times:
[ul]
[li]Subtract 10 points because of the national political environment.[/li][li]Subtract 10 points because of Moore’s problems other than his alleged assault of girls.[/li][li]Lose 10 points due to swings and changes in voter turnout because of the Moore scandal.[/li][/ul] Jones needed all 3. He got them, courtesy of Steve Bannon and Moore’s other enablers.
What about abortion? Didn’t matter, or rather it mattered for about 1% of the Alabama electorate: most of the anti-choice folk were committed against Democrats. I’m not convinced that this result can be generalized to other electorates though. The Role of Abortion in the Alabama Senate Race May Not Be What You Think | by John Hagner | Medium
FTR: Link to article about Moore’s accuser, who alleged that he sexually assaulted her when she was 16. As it happens, she had voted for Trump. She said she feared that she would be raped by him when he attempted to pull off her shirt. Woman Says Roy Moore Sexually Assaulted Her When She Was 16