Jones leads over Moore in Alabama Senate race

Democrat Doug Jones has opened up an eight-point lead in the US Alabama Senate race amid multiple sexual abuse allegations against Republican Roy Moore, according to a poll released Thursday.

Jones leads Moore by 50 to 42% among likely voters in the special election to fill the seat left vacant by Jeff Sessions when he became US attorney general, now less than a month away.

Most Republican voters, 78%, still say they plan to cast their ballots for Moore, but a substantial minority 13% say they are voting for Jones. A broad 91% of Democrats say they're voting for Jones versus only 3% voting for Moore.

Similarly, Moore wins only 81% of Trump voters versus 91% of Clinton voters who say they are voting for Jones.

Jones has opened up a wide 58% to 32% lead among female likely voters. Meanwhile, 54% of women who are registered to vote had an unfavorable view of Moore, up from 39% in October. 

Moore, however, maintains majority support among white evangelicals (73%), whites without college degrees (64%), whites in general (56%) and men (53%).

Alabama likely voters are virtually evenly split on whether allegations of sexual abuse against Moore are true: 38% say they are, versus 37% who say they aren't. One in five say they don't know. A broad six in 10 Republicans, 62%, say they do not believe the allegations against Moore.

Notably, 7% of Moore backers say they believe the allegations and 19% say it's either too soon or they don't know. Three in four Moore voters (74%) dismiss the allegations.

A majority (54%) of likely voters -- including 75% of Republican likely voters and 88% of Moore voters -- say Moore should stay in the race.

Moore's overall favorable rating has dropped seven points among registered voters since October, from 49% to 42%.