MONTGOMERY (REUTERS) - Republican candidate Roy Moore on Wednesday (Dec 13) still had not conceded defeat after a bitter fight with Democrat Doug Jones, who US media projected as the winner, for a US Senate seat in deeply conservative Alabama the night before.

Mr Moore said in a video statement that there are military and provisional ballots still to be counted, and that the campaign was waiting for certification by the Secretary of State.

The stunning upset by Mr Jones makes him the first Democrat elected to the US Senate from Alabama in a quarter-century and will trim the Republicans' already narrow Senate majority to 51-49, endangering President Donald Trump's agenda and opening the door for Democrats to possibly retake the Chamber in next year's congressional elections.

The ugly campaign drew national attention and split the Republican Party over accusations from several women that Mr Moore pursued them when they were teens and he was in his 30s.

Mr Moore, 70, a Christian conservative who was removed from the state Supreme Court in Alabama twice for ignoring federal law, denied the sexual allegations and said he did not know any of the women who made them. Reuters has not independently verified the allegations.

Mr Trump endorsed Mr Moore even as other party leaders in Washington walked away from him, but Mr Jones, 63, a former federal prosecutor, portrayed the campaign as a referendum on decency and promised the state's voters he would not embarrass them in Washington.