Put your money where your mouth is, the challenge goes — and Republican Sen. Jeff Flake (Ariz.) is doing just that. Flake tweeted Tuesday that he was making a personal donation of $100 to Doug Jones, the Democratic candidate for Senate in Alabama:
Jones is fighting to win the Alabama seat against Republican Roy Moore, who stands accused by multiple women of conducting inappropriate sexual relationships with them while they were teenagers and he was a district attorney in his early 30s. One of Moore's accusers says he groped her when she was just 14, while another says he tried to sexually assault her in the parking lot of a restaurant when she was 16.
After the allegations were reported by The Washington Post, the White House and other top Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (Wis.) distanced themselves from Moore. But on Monday, President Trump reversed course, calling Moore to offer his endorsement; the Republican National Committee quickly followed suit by reinvesting money and staff into Moore's campaign just weeks after withdrawing support.
On Monday, Flake, who is not running for re-election, broke from his party colleagues, tweeting, "A Roy Moore victory is no victory for the GOP and the nation." Alabama's special election is Dec. 12, and Real Clear Politics currently shows Moore leading Jones by an average of 1.5 percentage points.