GOP senator: If Moore wins, more people like Bannon will follow

Sen. Richard ShelbyRichard Craig ShelbyHouse pushes back schedule to pass spending bills Top Republican says Trump greenlit budget fix for VA health care GOP senators not tested for coronavirus before lunch with Trump MORE (R-Ala.) says that a potential victory for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore in the state’s upcoming GOP runoff would prompt anti-establishment Republicans similar to former White House chief strategist Stephen Bannon to “pop out of the woodwork” and sow discord in the 2018 midterm elections.

Shelby, the senior Alabama senator, told The New York Times that if Moore wins the runoff election against Sen. Luther StrangeLuther Johnson StrangeThe biggest political upsets of the decade State ‘certificate of need’ laws need to go GOP frets over nightmare scenario for Senate primaries MORE (R-Ala.) on Tuesday, the Senate seat would become vulnerable to a Democratic challenge. 

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But if Strange wins, Shelby said, the incumbent would be sure to emerge victorious in the December election. 

“If Roy Moore wins, Bannon and all the other of those people will pop out of the woodwork everywhere,” Shelby told the Times.

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Bannon, who left the White House last month and returned to the helm of the conservative Breitbart News, is set to speak at a pro-Moore rally on Monday, alongside “Duck Dynasty” star Phil Robertson. 

Moore, a controversial former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, is running to unseat Strange, who was chosen earlier this year to fill the Senate seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff SessionsJefferson (Jeff) Beauregard SessionsMcCabe, Rosenstein spar over Russia probe Rosenstein takes fire from Republicans in heated testimony Rosenstein defends Mueller appointment, role on surveillance warrants MORE.

President Trump endorsed Strange ahead of the state’s GOP Senate primary in August. But Moore has won the support of Bannon, and has cast himself as a hardline conservative cut from the same cloth as the president.

Moore took first place in the Republican primary last month, finishing ahead of Strange. But neither candidate earned a majority of the vote, sending them to a runoff election, which is set for Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Trump is campaigning for Strange. He attended a packed campaign rally for the incumbent senator in Huntsville, Ala. Friday night, and urged supporters to vote for Strange in a tweet Saturday morning.

Strange is also backed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote GOP senator to try to reverse requirement that Pentagon remove Confederate names from bases No, ‘blue states’ do not bail out ‘red states’ MORE (R-Kent.), an establishment Republican declared an enemy by Bannon.