We may get a replay of this race in Mississippi, FWIW. There’s another racist blowhard who already hasn’t conceded losses in the past (coincidentally making claims identical to Moore’s that high black voter turnout is a sure sign of fraud) named Chris McDaniel, getting a lot of support from national fascist groups to run for the Senate in 2018, against the incumbent Republican Roger Wicker, who’s just your mainstream run-of-the-mill hard-right racist who knows how to keep his mouth shut about it when the cameras are rolling.
Differences from the Alabama race–
Pro-Wicker:
Wicker’s got a long enough history of speaking at CCC (read: modern Klan) events that McDaniel may not be able to peel away enough of the racist votes. The Alabama election results will likely push fence-sitters toward Wicker.
Pro-McDaniel:
There is no evidence McDaniel sexually assaulted any minors. The Alabama election may push conspiracy nuts to double down on the crazy, and there does not appear to be any end to the crazy.
Pro-Republican:
Mississippi is a deep red state that’s simply not competitive for statewide offices. Trump carried the state with an 18 point margin. The Democrats haven’t yet fielded a credible candidate.
Pro-Democrat:
Trump won Mississippi by a smaller margin than Alabama, so they “only” need to gain 9-10 points, rather than 14 like they successfully did in Alabama. Mississippi has a larger black population than Alabama, so if black voters mobilize on a similar scale, it could make for a larger swing. Regular election year turnout should be higher than special elections, which tends to favor Democrats a little, although it’s still not likely to match Presidential election year turnout. If the Democrats manage to field a good candidate, there is plenty of material that could be used in a campaign to paint whichever Republican as deeply racist – but whether or not that would actually work to make the Republican more appealing to Mississippi voters is a legitimate question.
My take – Wicker’s already so racist, the Trumpites won’t see any reason to turn on him. He’ll win the primary, then the general, but he’ll win the general by less than 18 points over some placeholder Democrat if that’s any consolation.