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U.S. Senate candidate Roy MooreWKRG

September 21, 2017 (LifeSiteNews) — As President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence prepare to visit Alabama to campaign for Sen. Luther Strange, conservative endorsements are piling up for his opponent in the U.S. Senate race, pro-family icon Roy Moore, who says Strange is part of “the swamp” that Trump promised to drain.

The race has taken a “strange” turn as several prominent conservatives and Trump supporters, including former top aide Steve Bannon, are campaigning for Moore — pitting themselves against the president. Trump first angered conservatives by endorsing Strange in the 10-man primary, which Moore won with Strange coming in second. Conservative Congressman Mo Brooks came in third and later endorsed Moore in the runoff election, which is Tuesday.

Moore, the former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, is known as the “Ten Commandments Judge” for his court-stymied attempt to place a permanent Ten Commandments monument in the state judicial building as a rebuke to secular “separate of church and state” activists.

Moore also led a principled fight to thwart the U.S. Supreme Court’s de facto imposition of national “same-sex marriage” after the Court’s 2015 Obergefell ruling by defending Alabama’s constitutional amendment declaring natural marriage as preeminent law in the state. That, like his placement of the Ten Commandments monument, ended up costing Moore his job as Chief Justice.

Credentials like that make it difficult for conservatives not to stand behind Moore in the race.

Strange is a close ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell but opposed by talk show host Mark Levin and other leaders on the Right as ineffectual and unprincipled. The McConnell-allied Senate Leadership Fund has spent millions to help Strange — first by running negative ads against Rep. Brooks and now turning its fire on Moore.

Big names for Moore

A host of big-name conservatives and groups are backing Moore in the race, including Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, Fox News talker Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, Sarah Palin, former South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint, Iowa Representative Steve King, Family Research Council Action, and Gun Owners of America.

Bannon and former Trump foreign policy adviser Sebastian Gorka will be in Montgomery on Thursday night to rally for Roy Moore. Trump is scheduled to attend a Strange rally on Friday night in Huntsville. Pence is reportedly coming to Alabama to campaign for Strange on Monday.

For his part, beyond Trump’s endorsement, Strange has been endorsed by the National Right to Life Committee and the National Rifle Association.

Birmingham talk radio host Matt Murphy of the “Matt & Aunie” show had this to say regarding Trump's backing of Strange in Alabama, where Trump is very popular: “What I would say to Mr. President, and if I get the opportunity, I’m going to say this Thursday night — Mr. President, Alabama loves you, and Alabama supports you, but Alabama does not need you telling us who to vote for, for the United States Senate. We’ll handle that on our own, and we’ll send you a good conservative. We’ll send you someone that is going to do the right thing — to drain the swamp up in Washington D.C., a swamp you claim to want to have drained.

“Mr. President, we love you, and we support you, but we don’t need you coming to Alabama to tell us what we know not to be true,” Murphy continued. “To suggest Roy Moore is not a conservative is simply not the case. And the president, God bless him — he’s got a lot on his plate — he has to be taking bad advice from someone.”

The following are among the many notable conservatives who have endorsed Moore:

Bob Vander Plaats, The Family Leader
Tim Wildmon, American Family Association Action
Brian Brown, National Organization of Marriage (NOM)
Mat Staver, Liberty Counsel
Troy Newman, president, Operation Rescue
Brent Bozell, chairman of ForAmerica (and president of the Media Research Center)
“Chaps” Klingenschmitt, Pray in Jesus Name Project
“Activist Mommy” Elizabeth Johnston