US-SEN: Will Roy Moore winning hurt the GOP in 2018?

[Nichlemn]

I really doubt it (to any kind of significant degree). It won't be *good* for them, but the notion that swing voters in Nevada or wherever are going to be heavily influenced by a special election a year prior to me stinks of a "too-cute-by-half Beltway contrarian theory" that unfortunately even Nate Silver seems to have bought into. Even if Moore makes a bunch of stupid comments over the next year, is there any evidence that politicians doing this negatively effects their party? Did thousands of non-MN voters flip to Dems when say, Michele Bachmann said something dumb? Did Roland Burris' probable corruption cause significant Democratic losses in states other than IL?

I think it's a lot more plausible that a Jones win gives the Democrats a lot of enthusiasm (and probably most critically, an actual Senate seat).