Trump-Backed Barry Moore Wins Alabama Senate Race to Succeed Tommy Tuberville
Republicans are projected to keep Alabama's open Senate seat, handing President Donald Trump another win for one of his earliest and most loyal supporters.
Rep. Barry Moore is projected to win the race to succeed Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, according to Decision Desk HQ. Moore defeated Democratic nominee Everett Weiss, an attorney.
Tuberville, the former college football coach, decided to leave the Senate after a single term to run for governor of Alabama, opening the seat that Moore set out to fill.
Trump carried Alabama by 30 points in 2024 and endorsed Moore's campaign to keep the seat in Republican hands. The Cook Political Report rated the race solid Republican, and the projection confirmed that advantage held.
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Tuberville's departure set up a succession fight in a state where Trump remains one of the most powerful forces in politics, and Moore wasted little time making clear that he intended to run as the president's candidate.
“Didn't Wait to See Which Way the Wind Was Blowing”
Moore made his long relationship with Trump a centerpiece of his campaign. In his announcement video, he described himself as the first elected official in the country to endorse Trump for president in 2015.
He said in that video that he “didn't wait to see which way the wind was blowing,” presenting himself as an ally whose support came well before Trump reached the White House.
That loyalty now moves to the Senate, where Republicans will be counting on every seat they can hold after a rough night in several other states.
Moore entered the race after three terms in the House and as a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. He won the Republican nomination by defeating Navy SEAL Jared Hudson in a June runoff. Weiss also came out of a runoff but faced an uphill climb in one of the most Republican states in the nation.
With the projection, Republicans successfully defended a seat left open by their own incumbent, a result the party badly needed as results from other states turned against it overnight.
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Farm, Military and Business Roots
Moore's background mixes military service, private business and years in state government. According to his biography, he grew up on a family farm in Coffee County and joined the Guard after high school.
He served six years in the National Guard and Reserves while studying agricultural science at Auburn University, where he was also part of the ROTC Army Ranger Challenge Team.
He later worked in the animal pharmaceutical industry before returning to Enterprise to start an industrial waste-hauling business, Hopper-Moore Inc., which also worked as a general contractor.
From Montgomery to Washington
Moore was elected to the Alabama House of Representatives in 2010 and represented District 91 for eight years. There, he chaired the Military and Veterans Affairs Committee and served as vice chair of the Small Business and Commerce Committee.
After an unsuccessful bid for Congress in 2018, he won his House seat in November 2020 and took office in January 2021. His first committee assignments were Agriculture and Veterans' Affairs, areas that matched his personal background. He has since won reelection twice.
Now the Enterprise native, who currently represents Alabama's First District, will carry that record and his close ties to Trump into the upper chamber when the new Congress convenes in January.