Jeff Sessions can save Republicans from Roy Moore mess in Alabama

In the wake of the accusations leveled by five separate women against Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, one thing is clear: Whatever the facts may be, Moore is now compromised and needs to step aside. Should he remain on the ballot, the candidate I support in this race, Democrat Doug Jones, will not only continue to narrow Moore’s lead, but he may begin to overtake the beleaguered front runner, as seen in a recent poll from southeast region polling specialists JMC Analytics, which has Jones up 4 points as recent as this past weekend.

Since early last week when Moore was accused of initiating sexual relationships with teenage girls, prominent Republicans are rushing to disavow Moore, and many are calling for him to step aside ahead of the state’s election on Dec. 12. However, if Moore is to step aside, serious issues remain for Republicans, opening the door for Democrats to elect a moderate in the South, further circumscribe the Trump agenda, and promote the bipartisan compromise I am firmly convinced America needs.

{mosads}Logistically, it is too late to take Moore’s name off of the physical ballots. For this reason and in order to keep this seat, Republicans will need a candidate who can quickly mount a successful write-in campaign. Some Republican leaders, including Senate president pro tempore Orrin Hatch, have proposed that Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed when current Attorney General Jeff Sessions vacated the seat, should run as the eleventh hour write-in candidate.

However, it is clear from a recent Opinion Savvy poll released that Strange cannot win as a write-in, reaching only 12 percent of the vote in this hypothetical scenario. Given that the Democratic Party has undeniable momentum in Alabama for the first time in a long time, it is clear that, in order to hold onto this Senate seat, Republicans need a well-known and broadly respected candidate who is backed by the support of entire Republican party, especially both Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell, as well as Steve Bannon.

There is only one person who potentially fits this bill: Attorney General Jeff Sessions. To be sure, Sessions isn’t ideal, given his memory lapses regarding Russia and his estrangement from President Trump. That being said, he is the best possible choice for Republican leaders who don’t want to be saddled with either Sen. Roy Moore or a weak write-in candidate who would likely be defeated.

If Sessions were to resign as attorney general and run as a write-in candidate, the impact would certainly extend far beyond the Alabama Senate race. Sessions has already faced the possibility of forced resignation from his post multiple times. In particular, his recusal from the investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia has tainted his ability to effectively carry out his duties as attorney general.

Above all, President Trump has recurrently criticized Sessions for his recusal, and has repeatedly expressed unabashed disapproval of the job that Sessions is doing as attorney general. In Trump’s words in an interview with the New York Times, “Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else.”

In the wake of that interview, when Sessions asserted that he would not resign as attorney general, Trump took to Twitter, referring to him as the “beleaguered A.G.” Over the next several weeks, Trump tweeted a series of criticisms about the way that Sessions was carrying out his role as attorney general, and continued to hint at the idea that he would fire Sessions. Ultimately, Trump has repeatedly and relentlessly criticized Sessions to the point where the president has dramatically compromised the ability of Sessions to effectively do his job as attorney general.

Considering this, Jeff Sessions remains a hero in Alabama and would be exceedingly more politically effective, and notwithstanding more useful to the Republican Party, as the junior senator from Alabama rather than continuing on as attorney general.

Douglas E. Schoen (@DouglasESchoen) served as a pollster for President Clinton. A longtime political consultant, he is also a Fox News contributor and the author of 11 books, including “Putin’s Master Plan: To Destroy Europe, Divide NATO, and Restore Russian Power and Global Influence.”