Roy Moore hints at running for Senate again in 2020

Roy Moore, who lost his bid in 2017 for an Alabama Senate seat, hinted this week that he could be considering launching another Senate campaign.

Moore wrote in an email to supporters that Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.), who defeated Moore in 2017, will be “the first to know” if he decides to run again.

Moore also blamed disinformation campaigns for his loss to the Democrat. 

{mosads}“Even Doug Jones knows that ‘Project Birmingham’ and the disinformation campaign out of Washington, D.C., paid for by Microsoft Billionaire Reid Hoffman was all for his benefit,” Jones wrote in the email. “His call for an investigation by the Federal Election Commission was to cover his own fraudulent campaign. When and if I decide to run he will be the first to know.”

Jones last year called on the Federal Election Commission to probe disinformation campaigns to see if any laws were broken after The New York Times reported that a cybersecurity research firm used social media posts to spread disinformation during the 2017 race. 

Jones earlier this week invited Moore to run against him a second time, saying that if Moore believes he lost because of disinformation campaigns, he should run again. 

“If he really believes that and if the Republican Party really believes that then they all ought to just step aside, have a press conference with him and let’s just do it again,” Jones told Politico.

Jones defeated Moore in the special election that was triggered when former Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) was appointed as President Trump’s attorney general.

Moore faced allegations of sexual assault on the campaign trail, including accusations that he pursued teenagers when he was in his 30s.

Rep. Bradley Byrne (R-Ala.) earlier this month became Jones’s first declared challenger for his Senate seat in 2020.