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Primary runoff will test Alabama Republicans’ ability to forgive political sins

Every person – and more so, if we’re absorbing campaign advertising, every politician – has transgressed.

As we all know, some transgressions are easy to atone for and others are not so easy. Political transgressions are, by all accounts, among the most difficult to atone for, but we will see about that in next Tuesday’s primary election runoff.

At least four of the Republican candidates facing a primary challenger have done something “bad”, at least in the eyes of certain conservative Alabama voters.

Their sins are these: Bobby Bright and Steve Marshall were formerly Democrats, Troy King has fairly obvious relations to gambling interests, and Martha Roby withdrew her official endorsement for President Trump during his campaign.

Bobby Bright was not only a Democrat, but he supported the house speakership of progressive matriarch Nancy Pelosi.

Attorney General Steve Marshall converted in 2011 but still at one time belonged to the party of Barack Obama, a reality which Marshall’s challenger, former Attorney General Troy King, and certainly an unknown number of conservative voters, find entirely disqualifying.

Troy King has denied taking campaign contributions tied to gambling interests, but there sure is a lot of smoke. According to Al.com, he is affiliated with a company for which he registered “…five patents for a class II gambling machine that simulates a craps table.”

Rep. Martha Roby committed a mortal sin in failing to support the president’s election, which her primary challengers were sure would lead to her political death.

Even still, she has been able to weather the storm so far, perhaps with the forgiveness President Trump has granted to her in the form of his endorsement.

Results from this primary runoff will deliver several key indications on where Alabama conservatives are, and among them will be an indication of their capacity to forgive political shortcomings but more importantly, how effectively the candidates have expiated their sins through demonstrations of fidelity to President Trump.

@jeremywbeaman is a contributing writer for Yellowhammer News

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