September 21, 2017

The Alabama Senate Debate Went Totally Off the Rails

“Sodomy, sexual perversion sweep our land.”

Former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore smiles before announcing his candidacy for US Senate in Montgomery, Alabama.Albert Cesare/The Montgomery Advertiser/AP

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Luther Strange and Roy Moore—the Republican candidates vying for Attorney General Jeff Session’s former Senate seat—took the debate stage in Montgomery, Alabama, Thursday night, in the final event before Tuesday’s primary runoff. Moore, an ultra-conservative former judge, attacked Sen. Strange, who has been holding the seat since February, throughout the debate as being the establishment candidate, having been endorsed by President Trump and supported by the super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Luther got in a few jabs, but Moore really owned the night.

Though the debate went off the rails early. In what was perhaps the most attention-grabbing portion of the evening, Moore, as a Westpoint grad and Vietnam vet, emphasized his desire for a strong military before going on to explain his plans for the economy and to lament the fact that “crime, corruption, immorality, abortion, sodomy, sexual perversion sweep our land”:  

A few more lowlights here:

Watch the whole thing here:

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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