In Rematch With Tuberville, Doug Jones Has Radical Idea: Don't Elect The Stupid Dipsh*t This Time
Maybe Alabamans will have better sense in the 2026 governor's race than in the 2020 Senate contest. We like to dream!
Former Sen. Doug Jones, who from 2018 to 2021 had the remarkable note “(D-Alabama)” after his name, wants to get his parentheses back, but this time as Alabama governor. To do that, he’ll need to beat the frontrunner, Tommy Tuberville, who has repeatedly proven himself to be among the stupidest Republicans in the US Senate, a title with intense competition.
You definitely remember Jones. In the 2017 special election to replace old Confederate statue Jeff Sessions, who had just been tapped as Donald Trump’s first of very many attorneys general, Jones defeated weird creepy former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore. Moore’s fondness for a huge unconstitutional 10 Commandments monument was exceeded by his (alleged) fondness for underaged girls. Even Alabama Republicans were eager to vote for Jones, a former federal prosecutor who brought nasty old Klansmen to justice, in part because they wanted a US senator who would be allowed to attend political events within 500 feet of a school.
But when the regular election rolled around in 2020 and much of the rest of the country was busy rejecting Trump, Alabama voters rejected Jones because Tuberville was the former f’ball coach of the Crimson Tide Auburn, the top-ranking football team that we hear has a university connected to it. (Tuberville did at least do America the favor of ending Sessions’s comeback attempt in the primary that year.) Update: Corrected to reflect the proper f’ball team and its attached university. Dok doesn’t know sportsball things but certainly should know how to get the correct facts from the world’s top search engine,Ask Jeeves.
And now Jones and Tuberville are in something like a rematch of 2020, except both are running for governor and the people of Alabama have no excuse for thinking a winning f’ball coach knows anything about governing. The Cook Political Report rates the race “Solid R,” and Jones is up against long odds in the race. Even though Tuberville’s an idiot, he still has that (R) after his name, and in Alabama, that may be all he needs.
Jones is nonetheless arguing that it’s high time that Alabama ditch what has become a de facto one-party government, and in a crazy year when Donald Trump and his party are doing all they can to make the GOP brand toxic, Jones has a wild and crazy idea: How about having a two-party system again and electing people who will focus on making state government work?
And here’s the cool part: Jones isn’t framing his campaign as a personal comeback attempt. Instead, he’s using his good reputation and name recognition to help build a future for the Democratic Party in deep-red Alabama. In a departure from previous campaign years, 2026 will have Democratic contenders in all seven of the state’s elections for constitutional office: governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, and commissioner of agriculture. First time that’s happened since 2006 — yes, that’s infuriating — and it’s a trend that we’ve been seeing pop up in red states all over the country, where local Democrats are figuring out that you can’t win elections unless you actually run in them.
Also, running candidates for seven statewide offices is a start, and, well, ummm, Alabama Dems, we want to encourage good things like that, but did you notice that Idaho Democrats are once again contesting every damn legislative seat in the state?
Don’t get us wrong, Alabamacrats! Seven is good! Thirty-five is a lot better! Thirty-five seats in two successive elections is even better! Call the Idaho Dems when you have a minute and I bet they could offer some tips!
At a campaign talk for Gunterville’s adorably named Dem-leaning civic group the “Strong Coffee Club” last week — get it? Like “tea party” but with the more robustly American breakfast drink? — Jones said,
“We’ve seen that a one party system doesn’t work. […] It gets arrogant, it gets complacent, it gets corrupt and we see that time and time again. We saw it unfortunately with a lot of Democrats in the past, we’re damn sure seeing it with a lot of Republicans now because right now you go to Montgomery, Alabama, and your voice is not going to be heard unless you come up and you’re a lobbyist with a big check, your voice is not going to be heard and that’s just the way it is.
As a column in the Alabama Reflector noted back in December, it’s possible, as a longshot bet, that Jones could be elected governor if Trump continues to screw up the economy — and that was before Great Leader added a hugely unpopular war to the midterms landscape. But given the demographic and voter registration advantages Republicans have in Alabama, Tuberville remains the favorite for November, “Even if he wears a Florida Gators jersey all year.”
But as we say, Jones is using his run for governor to shake up the system, not just seek office himself. He’s made getting rid of Alabama’s system of straight-ticket voting a top campaign issue, arguing that it leads to stagnation and increases polarization, because what about candidates actually having to argue ideas instead of simply relying on that capital letter in parentheses after their names?
In calling for an end to party-line voting, Jones is actually bucking the position of state Democratic Conference chair Joe Reed, who has critiqued a faction of Dems in the Lege who introduced a bill to end party-line votes. Reed said that anyone calling for that should be “excommunicated” from the party, claiming that ending party-line voting would be the end of Democrats in Alabama. We’re with Jones on this one, dang it!
“Alabama is one of only five states that allows such an antiquated voting system with the check of a single box,” Jones said. “We are still relying on language from the Alabama Code of 1896 to govern this part of modern day elections.”
At that same talk to the Strong Coffee Club Friday (but covered by a different Alabama-focused outlet, isn’t local journalism cool?), Jones said he’s concerned that the Voting Rights Act “won’t survive” the current Supreme Court, and said in reply to a voter's question that there’s every reason to worry that Republicans are out to roll back much of the progress that’s been made in making sure all Americans can exercise the right to vote. He argued that voting by mail and early voting have to be protected, not replaced by Republicans trying to “funnel” all voting into in-person voting, only on Election Day. To fight back, he said,
“maybe Alabama, it's time we did our own damn voting rights bill and give everybody that right to vote. Have some mail-in vote, it can be done. There is no fraud involved that would ever affect an election. There are not illegal, undocumented people voting in Alabama elections.”
We like the way this guy thinks!
Jones has also called for Alabama to finally, at long last, expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, while it still exists, and for a state lottery to improve state revenues, since people are currently driving to nearby states to purchase lottery tickets. Jones also said he supports efforts — by one of Tuberville’s GOP primary rivals — to get to the bottom of whether Tuberville even meets state residency requirements for the ballot, since his primary residence appears to be his home in Florida.
“It's the law. It's required. You can't just pick and choose what pieces of the (state) Constitution and the law that you want to abide by, which is really one of Sen. Tuberville's problems right now,” Jones said.
Finally, we sure like the nerdy YouTube chats Jones has been doing to call attention to what’s going on in the state Lege, even if that’s too wonky for words.
26 minutes on policy? Please, yes, even if it’s only a start toward more grown-up politics!
[Sand Mountain Reporter / Alabama Reflector / AL.com / 1819News / Doug Jones for Alabama
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Update: Corrected to reflect Tuberville's proper f’ball team and its attached university.
Dok doesn’t know sportsball things but certainly should know how to get the correct facts from the world’s top search engine, Ask Jeeves.
Aside from I-65 Northbound, Doug Jones is the best thing to come out of Alabama in a long while.