Oops! Fox News published a story Monday declaring that Trump-backed Rep. Barry Moore had lost Tuesday’s Alabama Senate runoff… before the vote was counted.
Moore went on to win the race.
The premature article, authored by Fox News producer Trent Baker and published Monday, had the headline: “Former Navy SEAL Jared Hudson defeats Trump-backed Barry Moore in Alabama Senate runoff election.”
The story detailed Hudson’s supposed victory in very specific terms.
“President Donald Trump’s endorsement wasn’t enough to boost Republican Rep. Barry Moore of Alabama to victory in the ballot box showdown for the southeastern state’s Republican Senate nomination,” the now-deleted article read. It claimed Hudson had “edged out the House Freedom Caucus member despite Moore’s backing from Trump, JD Vance and John Thune.”
The article stayed live for just 20 minutes before Fox News quietly pulled it. The outlet issued no correction and no public statement explaining the error.
The actual result, called Tuesday night, was a resounding Barry Moore victory.
The MAGA pick defeated Hudson in the Republican runoff for the Senate seat being vacated by Tommy Tuberville, who is running for Alabama governor rather than seeking re-election.
Moore told supporters Tuesday night that his relationship with Trump was a defining factor.
“When I call him, he takes my calls,” Moore boasted. “Look at my record, the most conservative member in the Alabama delegation, an ally of the president. The president has endorsed me because he’s seen me in the fire. I never bow down.”
Hudson, a former Navy SEAL sniper who had built a nonprofit focused on training law enforcement to combat human trafficking, ran as an outsider and framed himself as “a warrior for President Trump’s America First Agenda.”
Hudson had been endorsed by conservative activist Riley Gaines and former Sen. Markwayne Mullin, now DHS Secretary.
Moore is now the clear frontrunner for Tuberville’s Senate seat in November. Alabama has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since Doug Jones’ narrow 2017 upset — a seat Jones lost to Tommy Tuberville in 2020.