Republicans watching to see how much Trump's endorsement worth in Alabama Senate race

Republicans in Washington are keeping a close eye on President Trump and whether he has the political juice to push Sen. Luther Strange to victory in the deadlocked special election contest for an Alabama Senate seat.

Trump's foray into the campaign with a scheduled Friday evening rally in a key Northern Alabama battleground is risky.

Strange has trailed Roy Moore in public opinion polls, and many of Trump's usual allies are working feverishly against him to elect the upstart challenger.

A rebuke in Alabama, Ground Zero for the president's political base, could leave Trump politically diminished heading into the 2018 midterm elections and impact how much pull he has with Republicans on Capitol Hill in the months ahead.

Most Senate Republicans, desperate to prevent Moore from bringing his fiery conservatism to Capitol Hill, are banking on Trump to be the coup de grace in this race. "The question is will he have an impact on the primary runoff, and I'm saying oh hell yeah he will," Sen. David Perdue, R-Ga., said.