In the wake of allegations that Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore molested a teen girl, many voters in his home state of Alabama have either dismissed the claims or intend to vote for Moore regardless.
The story, which cites allegations of inappropriate sexual advances brought by four women, has garnered substantial media attention and scandalized the elite political class of both parties. However, initial polling and interviews suggest that it has not had as sizable an effect among the people who will decide Moore’s political future; namely, Alabama voters.
While recent poll suggests Moore has lost some ground since the allegations were levied, Moore’s core constituency, evangelicals, seem unperturbed. Thirty-seven percent of evangelicals surveyed said they were more likely to vote for Moore after learning of the molestation allegations, according to a JMC Analytics poll released Saturday.
Support for Moore among Alabama Republicans remained at 63 percent, in a Decision Desk HQ poll conducted in the wake of the WaPo report. The poll, which is based on phone interviews with 515 likely voters, also demonstrated that 54 percent of those surveyed do not believe Moore should drop out of the race.
Moore, a firebrand religious conservative running to take Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s former seat, was accused of undressing and groping a 14-year-old girl while he was a 32-year-old assistant district attorney, according to WaPo’s report.
Interviews conducted following the allegations have confirm these results. Of the more than 15 Alabama Republican voters that NBC News interviewed one day after the WaPo report, none said the allegations altered their support for the evangelical social conservative. (RELATED: 63 Percent Of Alabama Republicans Still Support Roy Moore, Poll Says)
“I don’t know whether he did those things. It’s not for me to say, or judge, whether he did those things,” Jerome Cox told NBC News Friday. “What I do know is that he’s done a lot of good for the state of Alabama. He’s stood by his convictions.”
Cox, who serves as a pastor at Greenwood Baptist Church in this small city 20 miles northwest of Montgomery, added “I voted for him in the primary, in the runoff and I’ll be voting for him again on Dec. 12.”
Tony Emfinger, a 57-year-old barback at the Big Star Tavern across the street from Greenwood Baptist, called the veracity of the allegations into question, citing the long period that elapsed between when the inappropriate conduct allegedly occurred and the timing of the report.
“Why would they wait until now to come forward with this unless someone put them up to it?” Emfinger said.
Doubts stemming from the timing of the report remained a consistent theme amongst interviewees eager to downplay the importance of the allegations.
“Not until this race did the media go digging around on him,” Charles Bodenheimer, a 39-year-old garbage truck driver from Tallassee, Ala., told NBC News. “If [the allegations] are true, then why did [the women] wait so long to say anything?”
“This is Republican town, man,” a Greenwood resident who declined to give his name said. “[Moore] could have killed Obama, and we wouldn’t care.”
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