Alabama is a state that generally only gets national attention for football, but on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, all eyes focused on Alabama for the special election that would choose the successor of now Attorney General Jeff Sessions. At around 9 p.m. that day, I had pretty much given up hope and was beginning to prepare a very, very different article than this one.

Nevertheless, my home state pulled through and kept a predator, and a bigot, out of the United States Senate.

From 2015 to 2017, it has been a tough period politically for our country. Every issue has become polarizing and everyone has an opinion and a platform on which to make it heard.

The rise of Donald Trump has divided our country. Trump's presidency has been a disaster, filled with firestorms of Tweets and feuds with new people almost daily. Alongside his retweeting of Jayda Fransen and his slumping approval rating, it seems that many people have begun to realize that electing Trump was a mistake.

So, when it came to electing a credibly accused pedophile endorsed by Trump, or a Democrat, Alabama chose the Democrat. Something not many people truly expected to happen.

Roy Moore represents the worst of Alabama. He is anti-marriage equality and falls into the old white country stereotype that accompanies Alabama as a state.

Living in Alabama for 10 years showed me the best and the worst of a state that stays in the news mainly for football. The area I lived in was diverse in thought and in culture, but the southern evangelical Christian way of life still shows dominance. Homosexuality is frowned upon, Obama is the worst President and Trump was the best thing to happen to American politics.

Yet, Alabama refused to elect a candidate that would have represented a move backwards. Moore rode his horse to his polling location, again making a laughing stock of Alabama on national television.

Somehow, in the hours that followed, Doug Jones flipped a total of 12 counties that were won by Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Showing a surge of Alabamians, specifically African Americans, that mobilized to stop Roy Moore from cementing himself as the face of Alabama politics.

In reality, the decision should not have been this close. Policy-wise, Doug Jones is a better option than Moore to begin with.

Moore's website itself should make it impossible for any decent, free-thinking human being to have cast a vote for him.

Here are a few excerpts from Moore's campaign website:

"Homosexuality should be against military policy as was the law prior to Bill Clinton."

"I oppose abortion, same-sex marriage, civil unions, and all other threats to the traditional family order."

He also advocates for small government while at the same time supporting a border wall "if a wall is our only option" according to his site. There are a lot of things our government wastes money on, but a wall would be the epitome of wasteful government spending.

Moore has also made remarks that can not even be considered "controversial" and are truly just appalling.

Discussed in depth here, Moore does not think any constitutional amendments after the 10th need to exist. He has also asserted that America has not been great since the slavery era, amidst other prejudiced comments which included him claiming that Muslims should not be allowed to serve in Congress.

There is no spin to that comment, there is no way to justify it. A man whose campaign claims to support freedom of religion believes someone should be barred from serving the country because of their religion.

Doug Jones is not that fantastic of a candidate. He believes "healthcare is a right" and is in no way an ideal candidate for those that would rather have a conservative in the seat. Yet, he was the clear option when Roy Moore is lined up next to him.

Not only is Moore definitely racist and homophobic, he has been credibly accused by 8 different women of sexual misconduct, at times they were underage and he was in his thirties. His reputation of going after underage women surfaced during the campaign and may have been the final blow to a disastrous candidate.

One of the biggest talking points was Moore's view on abortion as opposed to Doug Jones. The abortion topic is one that Alabama Republicans can never seem to get over, and Moore is staunchly pro-life.

I am politically pro-choice, but it really is not simple and being so-called "pro-life" is something that makes sense - it is a view that can be reasonably held. Abortion is not a happy topic and the celebratory way it has been embraced by hyper-feminist corners of the internet is disturbing.

However, there is no way that one can be pro-life and support a candidate like Moore. Anti-LGBT politicians contribute to the crazy high suicide rate amongst the gay community. Do those lives not matter?

On top of that, there is no way a pedophile can truly be "pro-life." Rape and predators contribute to mental issues for their victims and lives can be altered for the worse as a result of these actions; pedophiles have no place in our society.

Roy Moore would have been a stain on American politics and specifically Alabama and its Republican Party. Doug Jones was the choice, and Alabama prevailed.

Inspiring candidates tend to determine elections and Roy Moore was an inspiringly repulsive candidate. Alabama chose country over party.

We saw where Alabama will draw its line, and for once, I am proud of Alabama.