Donald Trump

(MONTGOMERY, AL)-- Alabama Republican Roy Moore has announced he is running for U.S. Senate again in 2020 after failing to win the seat two years ago amid sexual misconduct accusations.

Moore announced his campaign Thursday, seeking an eventual rematch against Democratic Sen. Doug Jones. The announcement upends an election viewed by Republicans as a top priority in 2020 and ignores President Donald Trump's warning that he "cannot win."

Moore joins a crowded GOP primary field vying to challenge Jones.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday discouraged Alabama Republican Roy Moore from running for U.S. Senate in 2020, saying that Moore cannot win and the "consequences will be devastating" for his party and policies if Democrats retain the seat.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump headed to Alabama on Friday to survey the damage from a deadly tornado that devastated a small town, killing nearly two dozen people.

Trump was expected to tour rural Lee County in eastern Alabama, where 23 people died Sunday in a massive EF4 tornado that carved a path of destruction nearly a mile wide with 170 mph (270 kph) winds.

It was one of at least 38 tornadoes confirmed to have touched down across the Southeast in a deadly weekend outbreak.

Alabama's governor is distancing herself from President Donald Trump on the issue of trade, saying import tariffs like those supported by the Trump administration would hurt the state.

Gov. Kay Ivey released a statement yesterday saying import tariffs could cause retaliatory tariffs that would drive up the cost of items made in Alabama and sold abroad.

The administration already has imposed new tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese imports, plus steel and aluminum from China, the European Union, Canada and Mexico.

The votes are in after yesterday's primary election, but that wasn't enough to decide the Republican candidates in a number of key statewide races.

Several GOP races will be on a runoff ballot next month, including for Attorney General, Lieutenant Governor, and one seat in U.S. Congress.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of yesterday's election came in the race for U.S. House District 2. Veteran U.S. Representative Martha Roby was forced into a runoff with Bobby Bright, a former Democrat who switched parties after losing the seat to Roby back in 2010.

Japanese automakers Toyota and Mazda have reportedly chosen Alabama as the site of a new $1.6 billion joint-venture auto manufacturing plant, a person briefed on the decision said Tuesday.  

 The plant will employ about 4,000 people and will be built in the Huntsville area in Limestone County, said the person, who asked to remain anonymous because the location hasn't been officially announced. Officials in Alabama are expected to hold a news conference Wednesday afternoon to announce the plant site.

A former Marine who has launched a write-in campaign for the U.S. Senate seat in Alabama says he believes residents are not being properly represented by the two other candidates.

Ret. Col. Lee Busby appeared on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" this morning. He says winning is "doable" even though the election is only two weeks away. Busby is a former aide to John Kelly who is now President Donald Trump's chief of staff. He is running as an independent candidate against Democrat Doug Jones and Republican Roy Moore.

A woman accusing Alabama U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of initiating sexual contact when she was 14 said on national televison today that she was "absolutely not" paid to tell her story publicly.

The declaration by Leigh Corfman on NBC's "Today" show comes after Moore's supporters claimed without evidence that reporters were offering thousands of dollars to women for accusations.

The state election is being closely watched as several GOP senators have called Moore to drop out, and President Donald Trump has remained mostly quiet on the issue.

President Donald Trump will be moving his visit to the Yellowhammer State up. Senator Luther Strange’s campaign team recently announced the President will attend a campaign rally in Huntsville at 7 p.m. on Friday.

President Trump’s visit comes just four days before the Republican runoff election between sitting U.S. Senator Luther Strange and Roy Moore, Alabama’s former chief justice. The two men are locked in a heated race for the Republican nomination for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ former Senate seat.

U.S. Sen. Luther Strange made his case to state Republican party leaders on Saturday, urging them to vote for him in a GOP runoff next month because of his "conservative accomplishments" and the endorsement of President Donald Trump.

Former Chief Justice Roy Moore, who faces Strange in the runoff, lashed out at Strange's financial backing from the GOP establishment and said the "Washington crowd" was trying to buy the Senate seat from Alabama.

Alabama Senator and former Attorney General Luther Strange is pulling out all the stops to maintain his Senate seat – including calls from the President.

Strange’s campaign announced yesterday that President Donald Trump has recorded robocalls telling Alabama voters to “go to the polls and vote for Luther Strange.” Trump says his administration is accomplishing many of his campaign promises, but he “needs Luther to help us out.”

Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks is offering to withdraw from a GOP Senate primary if all other Republican candidates also agree to withdraw, paving the way for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to be the party's Senate nominee this fall.

 Brooks is a Sessions ally and says he cannot remain silent about the treatment Sessions is receiving from President Donald Trump.

Donald Trump Jr. tweeted images of emails regarding his 2016 meeting with Russian lawyer on Tuesday. Trump Jr. forwarded the thread to Kushner and Manafort. Click the title for annotations...

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Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill says he has questions he wants answered before turning over Alabama voter data to President Donald Trump's commission investigating alleged voter fraud.

 Merrill said Friday that there are a "number of questions we have to get answered."  He said security is one issue, but declined to name the other concerns.

Fellow Republicans are pressing President Donald Trump to come clean about whether he has tapes of private conversations with former FBI Director James Comey.   

And if he does, they want the president to hand them over to Congress or else possibly face a subpoena.

The request is a sign of escalating fallout from riveting testimony from Comey last week of undue pressure from Trump. Trump has responded to Comey's assertions by accusing him of lying.

Lawsuits have been filed claiming President Donald Trump’s foreign business dealings violate the Constitution. The impending litigation could test the relationship between President Trump and his pick for U.S. Attorney General – Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions.

The lone Democrat and black person in Alabama's congressional delegation says she is skipping the inauguration of president-elect Donald Trump.  

Representative Terri Sewell of Selma tweeted Wednesday that she can't accept the disrespect shown to Representative John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights veteran who grew up in Alabama.

Trump criticized Lewis after the congressman questioned the legitimacy of the election and said he isn't attending the inaugural. Dozens of other congressional Democrats have since said they won't go, either.

The state of Alabama has joined a lawsuit seeking to block new rules from the Obama administration that crack down on coal mining near waterways.

Thirteen states, led by Texas, filed that lawsuit in federal court yesterday. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton says the new “Stream Protection Rule” imposes what he calls “mandatory, one-size-fits-all” regulations that violate states’ rights.

The U.S. Department of the Interior says the new regulations will protect over 6,000 miles of America’s streams by preventing coal mining debris from being dumped into nearby waterways.

Attorney General Loretta Lynch, in her final speech as head of the Justice Department, said worries of difficult days ahead should be a call for action, not despair.

Lynch spoke at Birmingham's 16th Street Baptist Church where four girls were killed in a KKK bombing in 1963. In the speech for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Lynch echoed King's words after the bombing to not give into despair.

Lynch praised the work of President Obama's administration to achieve justice for all citizens.

The confirmation hearing for Senator Jeff Sessions is set to begin this week.

The Alabama senator has been nominated for the U.S. Attorney General post. Sessions’ nomination has drawn criticism from groups like the NAACP because of comments he made regarding the Ku Klux Klan and his prosecution of three activists accused of voter fraud in Perry County, Alabama. The son of the defendants in that case has come forward to endorse Sessions for Attorney General.

Within the next five months, President-elect Donald Trump could appoint a majority of the board for the Tennessee Valley Authority. The TVA is the nation's largest government-owned utility.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports three Democratic members of the board, including Chairman Joe Ritch, are leaving after the Republican-controlled Senate failed to confirm President Barack Obama's reappointment of the three directors last year.

Governor Robert Bentley's office says he has interviewed suspended Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore and 10 other people for the U.S. Senate seat now held by attorney general-designee Jeff Sessions.

Bentley spokeswoman Yasamie August says Moore was interviewed at the recommendation of the Alabama Republican Party. Moore is fighting what amounts to a permanent ouster after being convicted of violating judicial ethics rules over his opposition to gay-marriage.

A failed voting-fraud prosecution from more than 30 years ago is likely to re-emerge as a contentious issue during Senator Jeff Sessions' confirmation hearing for attorney general.    He was dogged by his handling of the case as U.S. attorney during his 1986 confirmation hearing for a federal judgeship.  

The chief of staff to Mobile Mayor Sandy Stimpson is apologizing for his role in having a cedar tree cut down at a public park and used as a prop for President-elect Donald Trump’s rally last weekend.

Colby Cooper, who has served as Stimpson’s chief of staff since 2013, says he became “overzealous” in making sure every detail was covered for the weekend’s rally.

Alabama members of the Electoral College are gathering to cast their votes for Donald Trump.

Electoral College members will meet at state capitals across the country to cast their votes for president. Alabama Republican Party Chairwoman Terry Lathan said the state's electors are "rock solid 100 percent" behind Trump.             

Trump won Alabama with more than 62 percent of the vote. All of Alabama's nine electors told The Associated Press that they intend to stick with Trump. 

President-elect Donald Trump is coming to Alabama this weekend as part of his post-election victory tour. Trump will hold a rally in Mobile at 3 p.m. Saturday.  

The event will be held at the 40,000-seat Ladd-Peebles Stadium.

The stadium was the site of one of Trump's first large rallies of the presidential campaign. The Trump campaign says the visit is a way to say thank you to voters. Alabama overwhelmingly supported Trump over Democrat Hillary Clinton in the November election.