Well, it's official: Doug Jones is the newest Senator from the historically Republican stronghold of Alabama, and as a devout conservative and Republican, I am emphatically pleased to say: "Welcome to Washington, Senator."

Don't get me wrong, I disagree with Doug Jones on nearly every policy position that he holds, nor would I have likely voted for him if I was an Alabamian. As I mentioned in my previous article regarding Roy Moore, I encouraged him to endorse a write-in campaign for Jeff Sessions' successor, Luther Strange.

However, I am delighted to see that the people of Alabama have declared that morality is more important than clinging to political tribalism. Especially when it came down to choosing between a Civil Rights attorney and someone who stands accused of serial pedophilia.

I would caution those who are calling this a referendum on President Trump to decelerate their hasty analyses. After all, it was just one year ago that Trump won Alabama by the largest margin seen in a presidential election since President Nixon's outright throttling of George McGovern in 1972.

Although that said, I do think that this is a severe blow to both President Trump and his self-appointed Cerberus, Steve Bannon, and their pro-Trump campaign strategy. Bannon has a history of claiming to be the driving force behind GOP electoral victories, most notably of course being President Trump's. Yet the substantial hit of losing the Virginia gubernatorial race, coupled with the staggering blow of losing this one, would suggest otherwise.

Both Bannon and Trump claim that the reason these candidates lost is that they were not pro-Trump enough. Ed Gillespie's loss in Virginia was because he was lackluster in his embrace of Trump, and Roy Moore's loss in Alabama was because Trump knew he couldn't win, which he says is why he originally endorsed Luther Strange.

Are these claims true? I don't think so. If we look at this election map from the Washington Post, we see that 12 counties flipped their vote since the 2016 presidential election. You didn't misread that. Twelve, out of 67 counties that went red for Donald Trump in 2016–which translates to nearly 20%–flipped to blue just one year later.

Based on this information, I would say that the campaign strategies of both Steve Bannon and President Trump are hurting GOP candidates more than they are helping them.

As a Republican, I truly hope that my party's leaders take note from the devastating blows that we've received this year and learn to not rely on a pro-Trump strategy to carry us in elections moving forward.

For now, congratulations, Doug Jones. We'll see you in 2020.