MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore has been a rare sight on the traditional campaign trail in the days ahead of a critical U.S. Senate race. He’s appeared at only a handful of rallies in front of friendly audiences and steadfastly has shunned reporters from the mainstream media.

Moore’s past campaigns have never been heavy on public appearances, but his relative absence from the spotlight this time has been noticeable.

Moore has focused on meeting with small groups of supporters and an aggressive social media campaign out of camera range as he tries to win Tuesday’s election against Democrat Doug Jones — a contest that was supposed to be an easy GOP victory — until November, when a number of women stepped forward to accuse Moore of engaging in sexual misconduct when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers.

Moore has denied the allegations and refuses to back down.

Dodging the mainstream spotlight is classic Roy Moore, according to Alabama campaign consultant David Mowery. Moore did the same when he campaigned for Alabama Supreme Court chief justice in 2012, when he defeated Mowery’s client, Democrat Bob Vance.

“We never knew where he was and then we’d get a picture from somebody showing us some church marquee saying, ‘Judge Moore is here on Saturday,”’ Mowery recalled. “He’s out there, he’s just with his base, and usually in small events.”

Moore’s stealth effort has left Jones resorting to mockery as the Democrat crisscrosses the state trying to pull an upset in Tuesday’s special election, buoyed by the possibility that enough Republicans will abandon the 70-year-old Moore in the wake of the allegations.

“Roy Moore is in hiding. He’s kind of like the groundhog. He comes out every so often to see if he can see his shadow,” Jones said Saturday.

Mowery said the temptation is to obsess too much over what Moore is doing.

“You lose the forest for the trees worrying over the opponent,” he said.