July 17, 2018

Alabama Republican Who Refused to Back Trump Survives Brutal Primary

Martha Roby was forced into a runoff because of her opposition to Trump following the infamous Access Hollywood tape.

Rep. Martha Roby, R-Ala., attends a House Judiciary Committee hearing on oversight of the Department of Justice.Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call/ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

After an unusually fractious debate among Republicans about Rep. Martha Roby’s fealty to President Donald Trump—which resulted in a bitter runoff for the GOP nomination Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District—Roby has defeated former Rep. Bobby Bright to officially clinch a spot on the November ballot.

Roby, the four-term incumbent, failed to win a majority of the Republican vote last month, setting the stage for Tuesday’s runoff. Under normal circumstances, she would have been poised to secure the Republican Party nomination on her first try. But there were other factors this time around. In October 2016, she did something radical—at least for a modern Republican—for which she’s since been labeled a traitor: She said could not vote for Donald Trump for president in the wake of the infamous Access Hollywood tape. “I cannot look my children in the eye and justify a vote for a man who promotes and boasts about sexually assaulting women,” the Alabama congresswoman said at the time.

Shocking, right? Roby’s opponents certainly thought so, and they’ve been eager to use it against her in the primary race to position themselves as the true, dyed-in-the-wool Trump Republicans. However, last month, Roby managed to secure the endorsements of Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. 

Even those endorsements didn’t stop Bright from trying to use her own words against her. Bright, a former Democrat who represented the district until Roby unseated him in 2010, released an ad following a Fox News interview last week in which Roby said she had “no regrets” about her 2016 stance.

“Martha Roby is doubling down on her disloyalty to the president and the Republican Party,” said an ominous voice in the ad. “A vote for Martha Roby is a vote for open borders, a vote for abortions, a vote for higher taxes.” Nevermind that Roby has in fact expressed support for Trump’s border wall, is staunchly anti-abortion, and voted in favor of the Republican tax plan last year. Roby has a record of voting with the Trump White House 97 percent of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight. 

Roby will now face off against political newcomer Tabitha Isner, the Democratic nominee who has served as a minister in the Christian Church. 

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate