with todd akin and the 'legitimate rape' comment. he was projected to win big but made those comments and national gop leaders called for him to exit. but he defiantly stayed in the race and lost by like 15pts to claire mccaskill.

obviously this aint completely apples to apples but you would think dating teenage girls would be more impactful than a few words about abortion/rape lol.

a lot of good mechanics working in jones favor too. moore spent a lot of money in a rough primary against a heavily funded opponent. jones had about a month stretch where he was airing ads uncontested and building name recognition. the rnc and nrsc have stopped financially supporting moore too. meanwhile jones was bringing in $250k a day after the allegations started coming in.

jones has kept things local and kept the national party at arms length. but hes got a nice subtle slow creep gotv operation on the ground. not a bunch of young shiny face activist groups knocking on redneck doors lol. while moore is spending his days fighting off media at press conferences...jones is doing old school legwork in churches and town halls.

i still wouldnt push all my chips to the middle of the table but i think this thing is more competitive than people would like to believe.