Both men vying for the seat have been married for decades.
Republican Roy Moore and Democrat Doug Jones may be the names appearing on the ballots in Alabama’s senate election on Tuesday, but they didn’t get there alone. Both candidates’ wives have been supporting their husbands’ campaigns for months—and sometimes making headlines in the process.
Kayla Moore, for example, was trending Monday night for remarks she made while lambasting the media for unfairly covering sexual misconduct allegations against her husband. Speaking in Midland City, she employed an unusual defense to claims that «we don’t care for Jews» after Roy Moore suggested last week that Jewish billionaire George Soros was going to hell.
«I just want to set the record straight while they’re here,» Kayla Moore said. «One of our attorneys is a Jew. We have very close friends that are Jewish, and rabbis, and we also fellowship with them.»
Keep up with this story and more by subscribing now
Kayla Moore, the president of the Foundation for Moral Law, has been fiercely fending off critics of her husband ever since several women came forward to accuse him of attempting to have sex with them as teenagers. In November, she characterized the reporting on Roy Moore as a witch hunt and vowed to set the record straight, writing on Facebook that «we are gathering evidence of money being paid to people who would come forward.»
But even her own relationship with her husband has come under scrutiny lately.
Then known as Kayla Kisor, the young mother met her future husband in 1984 at a church function, according to the Washington Post. She filed for divorce from her then-husband in December 1984 and had it finalized in April 1985. Roy Moore has said they began dating «early in the new year» before getting married in December 1985—which some have interpreted to mean that the duo was courting while Kayla Moore was still legally married.
Roy Moore’s campaign denied this. «Regardless of when they met, Judge and Kayla did not date while she was still with her ex-husband or legally married,» campaign spokesman Brett Doster told the Washington Examiner .
The sex scandal also thrust another facet of their relationship into the spotlight. Roy Moore has said his now-wife first caught his eye while she was at a dance recital about eight years before the 1984 church event. If that timeline is right, it means he became enamored with her when he was about 29 and she was about 15—a minor, just like his alleged victims.
Roy and Kayla Moore have four kids and five grandkids.
Louise Jones has been laying a lot lower than her counterpart. She’s mostly been phonebanking for her partner’s campaign, holding coffee chats with undecided voters and meeting supporters like Representative John Lewis, a Georgia Democrat.
She emerged on December 6 to whip up excitement among women voters in her hometown of Cullman. Louise Jones appeared alongside equal pay activist Lilly Ledbetter and former first lady of Alabama Marsha Folsom, according to WHNT.
«He has been driven by his values, and justice and calling of public service,» Louise Jones said. «»I think that it could not be more clear who is the best person to be the next senator for the state of Alabama.»
Louise Jones, whose maiden name is New, attends Canterbury United Methodist Church in Mountain Brook with her husband, according to AL.com .
Together they have three kids and two grandkids. Their 25th wedding anniversary is Tuesday.
