MONTGOMERY, Alabama (AP) – With United States Senate control on the line, Alabama’s career is shaping up to be a contentious showdown between a college football coach backed by President Donald Trump and the body’s most threatened Democrat. , who will need to motivate. its base and court moderated voters to gain political survival.
Armed with Trump’s backing and fame for years on the sidelines, former Auburn University football coach Tommy Tuberville easily defeated former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions in the Republican second round Tuesday, and quickly set out to attack Senator Doug Jones, who managed a surprising political surprise in a 2017 special election to become the first Democrat in Alabama elected to the Senate in a quarter century.
Tuberville never held public office, but presented himself as a better party with Alabama voters in his victory speech.
Democrat Doug Jones is running for re-election with the slogan One Alabama. Well you can’t go wrong about it. What Doug really means is a liberal Alabama, ”said Tuberville on Election Night.
After achieving an improbable victory, Jones is not giving up his chances of another in a race prepared to be expensive and combative.
“My message will be very simple: we have to have leadership. We are in times of crisis. I want them to see the record, “Jones said, adding that he wants to talk about jobs, education and health care.
David Mowery, an Alabama-based political consultant, said the “gavel is stacked” against Jones in a state where Trump had 62% of the vote in 2016, but it would be a mistake for Republicans to think that the race will be easy.
Jones now faces the wind against a presidential election year and a Republican candidate without the luggage of his 2017 opponent, Roy Moore, a religious right-wing candidate who was polarizing before being accused of sexual misconduct.
“I think Tuberville is probably a two-touchdown favorite,” Mowery said. “But (Jones) won the first time. So obviously there is a possibility, right? To use a terrible football metaphor, you still have to play the game. “
Jones hoped to increase Democratic participation to win the last time, including black voters representing 27% of the state, and persuade some undecided voters and moderate Republicans to side with him or participate in the elections.
“I think the DC perspective that this race is a dump for Republicans has always been wrong and is getting more wrong every day,” said Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster who works for some pro-Jones groups.
McCrary said Democratic turnout should be higher for the presidential race, particularly among black voters and young voters, two key groups for Jones. And while Trump is expected to win Alabama easily, his margin in November could be narrower than in 2016, McCrary said.
Republicans have made the once reliably red state recovery a priority, and see it as their best shot at getting a seat in the battle for partisan control of the Senate.
“We want that seat back. … It is going to be a battle, but we are going to win the war, “said Alabama Republican Party President Terry Lathan.
Trump said Wednesday that Tuberville would be a “great senator” and denounced Jones as “not doing the job.” The president lobbied to deny Sessions the opportunity to regain the Senate seat he left to become his attorney general, severely criticizing his refusal to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
The 100-day race is shaping up to be costly and contentious.
One Nation, a group aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has set aside $ 3.2 million in advertising time in Alabama, and Club for Growth, a conservative organization focused on economic issues, has begun issuing a purchase $ 1.3 million ad against Jones.
Jones has racked up $ 9 million in campaign donations, according to the latest fundraising reports.
Democrats have stepped up attacks on Tuberville, pointing to his handling of the case of an Auburn soccer player accused of legal rape of a 15-year-old girl, and his involvement in a hedge fund where his partner pleaded guilty to fraud.
“‘Sen. Jones obtained justice for four girls killed during church by the Klan. Tommy Tuberville thought a suspension from one game was enough when one of his players raped a girl. Who cares more about your daughter’s future. “The Alabama Democratic Party tweeted Wednesday morning. As United States Attorney, Jones prosecuted members of the Klan behind the church bombing in Birmingham in 1965.
The Tuberville campaign has said law enforcement officials handled the case of the player, who returned from suspension after an agreement to plead guilty to a misdemeanor. Tuberville’s participation in the hedge fund was a mistake he paid for, they said.
McCrary said what Tuberville tells him is that “Alabama has a Republican DNA in a presidential election year,” but that the current health and economic crisis in the United States could leave voters open to an experienced moderate.
“I think this race is near,” he said.
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