A recent poll of Republican voters in the U.S. Senate race in Alabama released Wednesday shows former candidate Roy Moore trailing in the GOP primary with an underwater favorability rating.
The poll from Cygnal shows Moore polling at 13 percent, placing him a distant third behind former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville and Rep. Bradley Byrne (R., Ala.). Moore's net favorability is 38 percent, and 31 percent of Republicans would consider voting for Sen. Doug Jones (D) over Moore in a head-to-head race.
Moore is one of five declared Republican candidates vying to challenge Jones in 2020. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and state Representative Arnold Mooney also registered support among primary voters in the poll featuring all five notable candidates.
This is Moore's second attempt to secure the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.
In 2017, Moore lost to Jones in a special election to fill the seat vacated by former Sen. Jeff Sessions. During that race, Moore faced several accusations of sexual misconduct with women when they were teenagers, allowing Jones to win in a state President Donald Trump carried by nearly 28 points in 2016.
Jones became the first Democrat elected to the Senate in Alabama since Richard Shelby in 1992. Shelby later switched to the Republican party.
Trump has voiced his displeasure with Moore's candidacy this time around after he endorsed him during the 2017 contest.
"Republicans cannot allow themselves to again lose the Senate seat in the Great State of Alabama. This time it will be for Six Years, not just Two," Trump declared in a late May tweet. "I have NOTHING against Roy Moore, and unlike many other Republican leaders, wanted him to win. But he didn’t, and probably won't."
Several Republican senators followed Trump's lead in criticizing Moore's campaign after he announced he was running. Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said he and his political operation will be "vigorously" opposing Moore's candidacy.
"I would oppose Roy Moore. … I will not be by myself, I hope. I think Alabama can do better than that," Sen. Shelby told Politico.
The Cygnal survey was conducted June 22 - 23, with 612 likely GOP primary election voters. The margin of error was 3.96 percent.