It’s a political earthquake, of sorts. Maybe a small one. A 3.0 or a 4.0, at least.

Just before 10 p.m., Roy Moore had 173,483 votes (56.5 percent) and was leading temporary incumbent Luther Strange who had 133,509 votes (43.5 percent) in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate in Alabama. AP has called the race for Moore and Strange has conceded. Moore’s victory comes as RINO Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee) announced he won’t seek reelection.

President Trump, for reasons only he knows, backed the squishy Strange over Moore. Trump’s former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin backed Moore. Strange was appointed to the seat after Jeff Sessions resigned to become U.S. attorney general. In the general election on December 12, Moore will face Democrat Doug Jones who probably doesn’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell of winning, given that this is Alabama we’re talking about.

This is a defeat for President Trump, well, sort of, but not really. Moore, Bannon argued during the campaign, will do a better job pushing Trump’s agenda in Congress than Strange has done.

Moore was removed as Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court after he urged judges to ignore the U.S. Supreme Court’s truly bizarre 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges that imposed same-sex marriage on Americans.

Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Alabama) said on “Breitbart News Daily” on SiriusXM earlier today, “If Roy Moore wins, that is going to be a seismic earthquake in Washington, D.C., that is going to cause a lot of elected officials to think, you know, maybe I need to win my re-election by having done a good job.”

Interim Sen. Strange worked “hand in glove” with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky) for eight months, Brooks said.

Brooks noted that special interest money has helped the Strange campaign. “They’re used to being able to lead voters around as if they had a ring through their nose and with these massive onslaughts of millions upon millions of dollars in attack ads cause voters to vote one way, or another.”

Ken Cuccinelli II, president of the Senate Conservatives Fund, which backed Moore, said Strange’s ties to McConnell were the kiss of death.

“It’s clear that Mitch McConnell’s failed leadership is the reason why Luther Strange lost this race. McConnell’s association with Strange proved to be so toxic that not even $10 million and the president’s endorsement could save him.”

Enough said.

This item by Matthew Vadum first appeared at Bombthrowers on Sept. 26, 2017.