Despite allegations of sexual misconduct against Roy S. Moore, the Alabama Republican Party intends to stick by its nominee for a United States Senate seat.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Alabama Republican Party said Thursday that it would stand behind the embattled Senate candidacy of Roy S. Moore, most likely leaving Republicans with a nominee facing numerous allegations of sexual misconduct and unwanted overtures to women.
The decision, which a committee of 21 party leaders reached Wednesday evening but did not formally announce until Thursday, placed the state’s Republicans at bitter and public odds with national party leaders, who had demanded that Mr. Moore leave the race here ahead of a special election in December.
Nine women have publicly spoken about their encounters with Mr. Moore, who has been accused of conduct ranging from uncomfortable to unlawful, and the state party’s choice to reaffirm its support for his campaign is a crucial procedural victory for Mr. Moore’s campaign.
“Judge Moore has vehemently denied the allegations made against him,” the chairwoman of the state party, Terry Lathan, said in a statement. “He deserves to be presumed innocent of the accusations unless proven otherwise. He will continue to take his case straight to the people of Alabama.”
She added, “We trust the Alabama voters in this election to have our beloved state and nation’s best interest at heart. Alabamians will be the ultimate jury in this election — not the media or those from afar.”
Some Alabama Republicans had privately discussed the idea of decertifying Mr. Moore’s victory in the primary, a move that could have put the Senate seat at greater risk and, perhaps more consequentially in the years to come, jeopardized the party’s relationship with the voters who swept Republicans into power in this state.
In Washington, Republican leaders set aside any such fears and have made plain their disgust for Mr. Moore, who they worry will endanger the party’s elected officials and candidates nationwide. The Republican National Committee and the National Republican Senatorial Committee cut off financial support for Mr. Moore’s campaign, and senators have openly said that Mr. Moore could be expelled if he wins the election.
On Wednesday, Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama, who had previously said she would vote for Mr. Moore but refrain from endorsing his campaign, did not answer when she was asked whether she still supported him. Instead, she replied, “The election will be Dec. 12.”
At the White House on Wednesday, President Trump ignored questions about whether Mr. Moore should step aside.
But with the state party’s decision, it is almost certain that Mr. Moore, who refused Thursday to answer questions about the allegations, will remain the Republican nominee unless he quits the race.
Mr. Moore is running against Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee and a former federal prosecutor in Birmingham, to fill the seat that Attorney General Jeff Sessions vacated this year. Although Republicans control every statewide office in Alabama, Mr. Jones is a formidable candidate and polls have shown a tightening race.
Few figures in modern Alabama politics have been as controversial as Mr. Moore, who was, in effect, twice ousted as chief justice of the State Supreme Court. He has promoted views on same-sex marriage, Islam and other subjects that have been condemned as bigoted, and he has clashed with critics over the placement of the Ten Commandments in Alabama courthouses.
But in his political career, Mr. Moore has never faced as fraught a moment as he does now. Some of the women who have come forward to detail their encounters with Mr. Moore have alleged that he assaulted them. Mr. Moore has denied most of the allegations — he did not immediately respond to the allegations that emerged Wednesday — and has, to the appeal of his supporters, depicted them as political attacks.
“Are we at a stage in American politics in which false allegations can overcome a public record of 40 years, stampede the media and politicians to condemn an innocent man, and potentially impact the outcome of an election of national importance?” Mr. Moore wrote in an open letter on Wednesday to Sean Hannity, the conservative talk show host.
“When allegations of events occurring 40 years ago — and never before mentioned during a 40-year career of public service — are brought out and taken seriously only 30 days before a critical election, we may be in trouble as a country.”
Many of Mr. Moore’s supporters in Alabama have embraced his view and are suspicious of the news organizations that have published the accounts of the nine women as part of what Mr. Moore’s wife, Kayla Moore, has called “a witch hunt.”
But Mr. Moore’s denials have not persuaded the nation’s most powerful Republican lawmakers, and more than a dozen senators have said he should leave the race.
Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama, who endorsed Mr. Moore’s opponent in this year’s primary, said this week that he would not vote for Mr. Moore next month and would instead support a write-in candidate.
