The Republican National Committee (RNC) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) will not support GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore in Alabama’s special election, even after President Trump stood by him on Tuesday.
Officials with the RNC and the NRSC, the party’s Senate campaign arm, told The Associated Press they have no intention of reconsidering their decision to pull support for Moore, who has been accused of pursuing sexual and romantic relationships with teenage girls while he was in his 30s.
The two GOP committees severed ties with the candidate earlier this month, ending their financial and field support for his campaign. Dozens of Republican officials have called on Moore in recent days to withdraw his Senate bid.
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Moore has denied the allegations, though he has acknowledged that he may have dated teenage girls in his 30s. He has so far rebuffed the GOP’s pleas to step aside as the party’s Alabama Senate candidate.
But while he has faced pressure from many Republicans, Moore received a boost from Trump on Tuesday, when the president, speaking at length about the allegations for the first time, defended him and slammed the notion of letting a Democrat win the Senate seat.
Trump also stressed that Moore had denied the allegations.
“He denies it. He totally denies it,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “Roy Moore denies it — that’s all I can say.”
Several women have come forward in recent weeks with allegations that Moore sought sexual and romantic encounters with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s. One of his accusers, Leigh Corfman, was 14 years old when an alleged sexual encounter with Moore took place.