Once a long shot in the most conservative state in America, Democratic Party candidate Doug Jones has narrowly defeated controversial Republican Roy Moore in the special US Senate race in Alabama.  Moore isn't conceding just yet.

Moore's camp is contemplating a recount and actually directed journalists to the state elections chief for the details.  But Alabama law doesn't mandate an automatic recount unless two candidates are within one half of a percent in the vote count.  Doug Jones won with more than 673,236 votes to Moore's 652,300.  That means the candidates are separated by only 1.5 percent, but that's still three times the threshold for a recount.  Past recounts in Alabama state elections didn't move the final tallies by the margin that Roy Moore would need to win.

The loss is a major blow to the Republican party, which held the seat for 25 years.  And it's a stunning loss for Donald Trump who personally endorsed Roy Moore and held two campaign rallies for him despite allegations that Moore had sexually molested teenage girls as young as 14 during the 1980s.  Moore denied the allegations, although not believably in the minds of many Americans who are pushing the national culture into taking more seriously allegations of sexual impropriety.

But even before the pedophilia allegations, Moore was a flawed candidate.  He's on the record wanting to outlaw homosexuality and banning Muslims from serving in Congress.  Moore is a long-time divisive US culture warrior with draconian views on Women's Reproductive Rights.  That made him more appealing to former White House strategist Steve Bannon and the so-called "alt-right" neo-fascist wave, who believed that having Moore in the Senate would give Trump a staunchly loyal and like-minded ally.  And Republicans are savaging the former Trump aide and head of the far-right Breitbart news website over it.

"I'd just like to thank Steve Bannon for showing us how to lose the reddest state in the union," said Josh Holmes, former campaign aide to Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell.

"Not only did Steve Bannon cost us a critical Senate seat in one of the most Republican states in the country, but he also dragged the President of the United States into his fiasco," said Steve Law, leader of the Senate Leadership Fund, a major campaign financing organ.

"Tonight's results are clear - the people of Alabama deemed Roy Moore unfit to serve in the US Senate," said Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado.

The conservative National Review wrote, "Steve Bannon loses Alabama," squarely blaming "Bannon's political project, the goal of which is to replace incumbent Republicans with insurgents just like Moore".

GOP campaign consultant Rick Wilson said, "Bannon and Moore confused Breitbart comments section counts for votes."

And Republican media pundit Ana Navarro wrote, "Pedophilia lost.  Bigotry lost.  Homophobia lost.  Racism lost," and that "Morality won.  Values won.  Sanity won.  Decency won."

www.nationalreview.com/corner/454600/steve-bannon-loses-alabama