Former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville has recaptured a Senate seat for Republicans by defeating Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama.

Jones had widely been considered the Senate’s most endangered Democrat, and Republicans had made winning the once reliably conservative seat a priority in 2020.

Tuberville has never held public office. He aligned himself closely with President Donald Trump and declared in the primary campaign that “God sent us” the president.

Jones won the seat during a 2017 special election in which GOP Senate candidate Roy Moore was publicly accused of sexual misconduct involving young women decades ago. In the Senate, he often voted with Democrats and was criticized by Tuberville for his vote to convict Trump in the Senate impeachment trial this year.

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