Donald Trump makes desperate final push to avoid humiliating defeat in Alabama Senate vote

Donald Trump has made a final push to avoid a humiliating defeat in the Alabama senate contest, where latest polls suggest the candidate he is backing is trailing by up to 11 points.

As voting centres opened across the state for voters to cast their choice for the Republican candidate for the US senate, Mr Trump posted two early morning tweets, urging people to get behind the man has endorsed, Luther Strange.

‘Luther Strange has been shooting up in the Alabama polls since my endorsement. Finish the job - vote today for ‘Big Luther’,” he said.

A few hours later, he added: “Alabama get out and vote for Luther Strange - he has proven to me that he will never let you down! #MAGA.”

Yet Mr Strange faces a very tough task. An aggregate of polls collated by Real Clear Politics suggest he is trailing his opponent, retired judge Roy Moore, by 11 points.

Mr Strange held an eve of election rally in Birmingham in the company of Vice President Mike Pence, who went out of his way to stress the candidate’s conservative bona fides.

“Luther Strange is a real conservative. He’s a leader and a real friend to President Trump. I got to tell you, Big Luther has been making a big difference in Washington,” said Mr Pence, according to the Associated Press.

Mr Srange said: “Tomorrow, there’s a lot on the line. For the Vice President and the President and of the United States to come here on my behalf means more than I can possibly say.”

Mr Moore faces a fired-up insurgent challenge from a candidate who has sought to portray him as someone who will become a Washington insider rather than working for the people who elected him. He has received the support of Mr Trump’s ousted strategic adviser Steve Bannon, former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin, Chuck Norris, Nigel Farage and Rush Limbaugh, among others.

At a rally for Mr Moore at a farm outside of Mobile in the south of Alabama, many people who voted for Mr Trump said they were disappointed he was supporting Mr Strange rather than the judge.

Debbie Giles, said she she did not think Mr Strange would stand up for the issues that were important to her - primarily the freedom of religion. “I think Mr Trump was wrong this time,” she said. “He needs to pay attention to the people who elected him.”

Mr Bannon has said his support for Mr Moore is the first of what he hopes will be a number of anti-establishment candidates he wants to back during the 2018 midterms in a challenge to Republican leaders such as Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. He said he believed electing Mr Moore, known for his installation of a huge granite statue bearing the 10 Commandments and his opposition to same-sex marriage, would help the President.

“We did not come here to defy Donald Trump. We came here to praise and honour him,” he said, borrowing the words of Shakespeare.

“Judge Roy Moore is a good man. He’s a courageous man. Most importantly, he’s a righteous man.”

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Mr Moore claimed Republicans in Washington cared little for the voters of Alabama.

“They think you’re fools - they have no interest in what you think,” he declared. “Tomorrow, you have a chance to show what you think of the elite who are running our country.”

British right wing political Nigel Farage, who was introduced as “Mr Brexit”, had flown in at the invitation of Mr Bannon.

“I have absolutely no hesitation in putting my support and my backing behind a man like judge Roy Moore, who has shown in his career that he will always put principle before his own career advancement,” he said.

Mr Moore took to the stage wearing a cowboy hat and leather vest. He sought to hit back at claims from Mr Strange’s campaign that he is somehow soft on gun rights. To do so, he pulled a handgun from his pocket.

“I believe in the Second Amendment,” said Mr Moore. “For whatever reason, God has put me in this election at this time and all of the nation is watching.”