Alabama Democrat officially declared winner in US Senate race

Democrat Doug Jones was officially declared the winner of the US Senate race in the southern state of Alabama on Thursday, whittling down the slim Republican majority in the chamber.

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill certified the results of the December 12 special election and dismissed claims of voter fraud by the campaign of the defeated Republican candidate, Roy Moore. With Jones’ upset victory in a Republican bastion, the party of President Donald Trump now holds 51 seats in the Senate and the Democrats 49 — the slimmest of majorities. The Alabama result dealt a stinging blow to Trump, who had thrown his support behind Moore, a conservative Christian. Moore appeared to be the favorite in the contest being held to fill the Senate seat held by Jeff Sessions, whom Trump had named attorney general. And Trump had easily captured the state in last year’s presidential election. But Moore’s campaign was rocked in the final days of the race by allegations that the former judge had engaged in sexual misconduct decades ago, including molesting a teenage girl. Moore — a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court — has refused to concede and even launched a last-minute legal challenge of the results, but a judge dismissed his suit, which called for certification of the results to be delayed. Jones won 49.97 percent of the vote compared to Moore’s 48.34 percent, a margin of nearly 22,000 votes out of 1.35 million cast — a record for a special election.