TOTALLY GEEKED!

Moore gave brief remarks to his supporters, but did not concede the race, saying a recount was still possible. But state law requires a half-point margin or less to trigger a recount, and Jones bested Moore by 1.5 points.

After suffering decades of stinging losses, Alabama Democrats celebrated a historic night. House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, who is just 35 years old, pledged that it would spark a resurgence for the party.

“This is just the beginning,” Daniels said in a phone interview. “This gives us the momentum we need.”

But it wasn’t just Democrats who were overjoyed by the result Tuesday night. Alabama is an overwhelmingly Republican state, and Jones received votes from many in the GOP who could not abide the thought of Moore winning. There were more than 22,000 write-in ballots cast, making up almost two percent of the electorate.

After Jones was declared the winner, a veteran Republican in the state, Hatton Smith, called my cellphone. Smith, who was an adviser to Luther Strange in the Republican primary, said, “We got a bunch of Republicans here that want to tell you something.”

He held up his phone and the sound of a group of people cheering loudly came over the phone.

“It’s good over evil,” Smith said. “The state of Alabama won.” He added: “Here’s to 2020 when we defeat Doug Jones.”

Moore, a former judge who was removed from office twice before running for the Senate, was hit by multiple allegations from women who said he sexually pursued them when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers. One woman said Moore touched her sexually when she was 14; another said he sexually assaulted her when she was just 16 years old and he was an assistant district attorney.

Moore vehemently denied the allegations, but several high-profile Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said they believed the women. Trump, however, never abandoned Moore, even recording a robocall for him in Alabama that decried Jones as a “puppet of Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer.” Trump won the state last year by 28 points, and his failure to push Moore over the finish line could spell trouble for the unpopular president’s political strategy going forward.

Jones’s victory also endangers Republicans’ tax reform legislation in Congress, which passed by a narrow majority in the Senate earlier this month. Both the Senate and the House will have to pass another combined version of the tax bill to send it to the president’s desk. With one fewer Republican in the chamber, McConnell can lose only one vote and still push through the bill, which has not attracted any Democratic support. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., has already voted against the legislation once, and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, has made several demands regarding health care that must be met before she’ll support it again. McConnell could rush the vote before Jones is seated in January, however.