Trump-backed Barry Moore wins Alabama GOP Senate runoff

Barry Moore won Alabama’s Republican runoff for the state’s open U.S. Senate seat, defeating Jared Hudson and giving Donald Trump another endorsement victory in a race that had become a measure of the president’s grip on GOP candidate selection. The result positions Moore to claim the seat being vacated by Sen. Tommy Tuberville in a state where the Republican nominee remains the heavy favorite in November.

The runoff, held Tuesday, June 16, capped a compressed and increasingly combative race that began with Attorney General Steve Marshall in the field before the contest narrowed to Moore and Hudson. Alabama voters were also choosing nominees for governor, U.S. Senate and several House seats, with the state’s primary calendar already set for the June 16 runoff and the broader election landscape shaped by redistricting fallout from a recent Supreme Court voting-rights ruling.

Moore’s campaign benefited from Trump’s backing, but the runoff was widely treated as a real test of whether that endorsement alone could carry a candidate across the finish line in Alabama. Polling and the final stretch of the race suggested the answer was not automatic. Hudson’s standing improved in the days before Election Day, and AL.com reported that prediction-market bettors had staked nearly $2 million on the race overall, with more than $460,000 wagered in the final two weeks.

The closing phase also turned personal. Coverage of the race noted sustained attacks over military service records, with Moore pointing to his service in the Alabama National Guard and Reserves and Hudson highlighting his years as a Navy SEAL. That line of attack helped turn a nominally low-turnout runoff into one of the more closely watched Republican nominating contests in the country.

The outcome carries added weight because Alabama remains one of the reddest states in the nation, making the GOP nominee the clear front-runner for the open Senate seat. It also echoes a familiar Alabama warning: in 2017, Republican leaders abandoned Roy Moore, and Democrat Doug Jones won the special election for Senate. This time, Trump’s chosen candidate survived the internal test, reinforcing the former president’s ability to shape Republican nominations in states where his endorsement still matters most.