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Alabama Primary runoff: Roby tries to fend off challenger Bright

The short answer is: “Access Hollywood.” Roby withdrew her endorsement of Trump in 2016 after the release of a recording that showed him boasting about physically accosting women.

Polls will close at 8 p.m. Eastern time Tuesday night.

Why was Martha Roby in trouble in the first place?

The short answer is: “Access Hollywood.” Roby withdrew her endorsement of Trump in 2016 after the release of a recording that showed him boasting about physically accosting women. His behavior, Roby said, made him “unacceptable.”

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But a few weeks later, Roby’s solidly conservative district — which includes Montgomery, the state capital, and stretches across Alabama’s rural southeast — voted overwhelmingly for Trump. His surprise victory over Hillary Clinton put Roby suddenly at odds with the incoming president and leader of her party.

So, will she survive?

It’s not clear, but the odds appear to be on her side. One big reason for that is the nature of her primary opponent: Bobby Bright, a former mayor of Montgomery who previously served in Congress as a Democrat. While Roby’s apostasy in the presidential race has been a problem for her, Bright has his own baggage, including his past support for Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as speaker of the House.

Establishment Republicans have also mounted a determined rescue mission to help Roby. Congressional leaders helped her raise far more money than Bright and the national Chamber of Commerce has run ads supporting her campaign. She finished last month with about $731,000 in the bank versus about $173,000 for Bright.

Most importantly, at the urging of Rep. Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., the speaker of the House, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., his deputy, Trump endorsed her for re-election, in effect absolving her for her rejection of his campaign in 2016.

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In June’s primary, Roby captured 39 percent of the vote to Bright’s 28 percent, short of the majority she needed to have kept the seat outright. The winner of Tuesday’s runoff will face Tabitha Isner, the Democratic challenger, in November.

Why did Trump forgive her?

“Forgive” might be putting it strongly, but the president gave Roby an important kind of political absolution. In a series of tweets — after the first round of voting but well before the runoff — Trump attacked Bright as a Pelosi-supporting former Democrat and urged Republicans to re-elect Roby.

The race is an example of Trump playing nice with congressional leaders, who view Roby as a cooperative lawmaker. It’s also a classic case of a onetime Trump critic bowing to political pressure: Roby has strenuously wooed Trump since his inauguration, voting predictably for his priorities and recasting herself as a fierce supporter of the White House.

And what if Bright wins?

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It would be a sign that Trump’s endorsement does not solve all political problems in a Republican primary. It would also underscore how malleable partisan labels continue to be for a certain generation in the Deep South: Bright may be a former Democrat, but so are many conservative voters in Alabama, and the combination of his populist message and longtime local prominence have made him appealing to some on the right.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

Alexander Burns © 2018 The New York Times

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