Republican Tommy Tuberville unseats Democratic Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama
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Polls have closed in the race between Sen. Doug Jones, the lone Democratic senator from the Deep South, and Tommy Tuberville in Alabama.
Jones lost to Tuberville in the race, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Jones narrowly won a December 2017 special election to replace former Sen. Jeff Sessions.
Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach, has earned President Donald Trump's endorsement, and easily defeated Sessions in a July runoff.
See the live coverage and full results from the U.S. Senate elections
Sen. Doug Jones, the lone Democratic Senator from the Deep South, was unseated in the Alabama Senate race by former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville, according to Decision Desk HQ.
Polls in Alabama closed at 7 p.m. local time and 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Election Day.
The candidates
Jones, a former federal prosecutor, narrowly defeated scandal-plagued Republican candidate Roy Moore in a hotly contested December 2017 special election to replace former Sen. Jeff Sessions, who left the seat to become Trump's attorney general.
Jones is possibly best-known for successfully prosecuting four white supremacists who were responsible for bombing a church and killing four girls in Birmingham, Alabama, in 1963.
Tuberville, who has previously coached for Auburn University and the University of Cincinnati, defeated Sessions by a 20-point margin in the July 14 primary runoff to officially become the GOP nominee.
A political newcomer, Tuberville ran his campaign largely on a platform in lockstep with President Donald Trump. And partly thanks to Trump's complicated and fraught history with Sessions, Tuberville earned the president's powerful endorsement in the runoff.
Tuberville might also have benefited from having no legislative record to attack, and importantly, not facing any major scandals or accusations of sexual misconduct.
See Insider's full guide to the race for the US Senate here
The money race
Jones has amassed a sizeable cash advantage over Tuberville, who only won his runoff in July.
Jones has raised $26.7 million so far this cycle, spent $24.8 million, and has $4 million in cash on hand as of September 30, according to the Center for Responsive Politics and Federal Election Commission records.
Tuberville has raised $8.2 million, spent $6.7 million, and has around $1.5 million in cash on hand.
Recent polls found that Tuberville led Jones in the double digits, and experts like the Cook Political Report and Inside Elections rated the race as "leans Republican" while Sabato's Crystal Ball at the University of Virginia Center for Politics rated it "likely Republican."
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