WASHINGTON (AP) – Senate Republicans reckoned Wednesday with an insurgent’s win in Alabama that poses clear threats to their own grip on power and the leadership of Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
Nearly $10 million spent by a McConnell-backed super PAC couldn’t save incumbent GOP Sen. Luther Strange, who had been endorsed by President Donald Trump as well. It came the same day that McConnell, short of votes, pulled the plug on the latest and possibly final GOP effort to repeal and replace “Obamacare.”
Coming together, the events raised questions about McConnell’s leadership within the Senate and outside, casting doubt on his reputation both as a seasoned political operator and a nearly unbeatable vote-counter on Capitol Hill.
“I’d hate to think about where we would be without Sen. McConnell’s efforts. But I think we’ll learn from it, and we’ll adjust,” McConnell’s No. 2, Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, said of the victory of rabble-rousing former jurist Roy Moore, known for hanging the Ten Commandments in his courtroom in defiance of federal court orders. “We’re all listening and watching very closely and trying to understand the message that’s being sent.”
To some conservative campaign operatives, there was little question about that message.