Trump Urges Alabama’s Roy Moore to Skip 2020 Senate Rematch

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump urged Roy Moore, whose 2017 special election loss made Doug Jones the first Democrat since 1992 to win a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama, to forgo a 2020 rematch, warning of "devastating" consequences.

“Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama,” Trump said Wednesday on Twitter. “This time it will be for Six Years, not just Two. I have NOTHING against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win. But he didn’t, and probably won’t.”

Donald Trump Jr. foreshadowed Trump’s engagement in a tweet Tuesday, saying Moore is the only Republican who could lose to a Democrat in Alabama and telling him to "ride off into the sunset."

Jones, a former federal prosecutor, prevailed in a solidly Republican state by running a low-key local campaign, while Moore was consumed by a national furor following allegations he had pursued relationships with teenage girls while in his thirties. Jones is up for re-election next year and could face a tough path against a strong Republican challenger.

To contact the reporter on this story: Terrence Dopp in Washington at tdopp@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Kasia Klimasinska at kklimasinska@bloomberg.net, Kathleen Hunter, Margaret Talev

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