The tussle for Jeff Sessions’s senate seat

By I.K. | WASHINGTON

WHO’S the Trumpiest of them all? For the Republicans in Alabama vying for Jeff Sessions’s old senate seat, vacated after Donald Trump appointed him attorney-general, that is the most important question. In last year’s election, 62% of voters in Alabama cast their ballot for Mr Trump. Among those likely to vote in the Republican primary on August 15th, he boasts an approval rating of 85%. Rather than meaty policy questions, perceived closeness to the president will in all likelihood be a decisive factor as voters go to the polls next week.

Polling suggests that three candidates have a realistic chance of reaching the run-off in September. Leading the pack with 30% of the vote is Roy Moore, a culture warrior whose chief accomplishment was to be ousted from his post as chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court on two separate occasions after he defied federal court rulings, citing religious objections. In 2003 Mr Moore refused to remove a gigantic 5,280lb (2,400kg) monument displaying the Ten Commandments, which he had installed in the court. And in 2016, he ordered state justices to refuse marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Duelling for the second spot are Luther Strange, the former state attorney-general who has filled the seat since Mr Sessions’s departure and whom many regard as the establishment candidate, and Mo Brooks, a congressman who has insisted that Democrats are waging a “war on whites”.