Senators serve for six years. It will be a loong time before that theory is tested, and the lessons derived from the election results will have weight until at least that time. Moore could also reasonably retire or die of old age before running in another primary.

I agree that this election in Alabama is difficult to generalize from though, there are many factors at play. Still, I'd prefer less ambiguity here.

The special election fills the seat until the 2020 election, so It'd be ~2 years until the primary.

Good point. Two years of tactical validation is still too many, but I suspect we agree on this much.