Doug Jones, a former federal prosecutor running for the Democratic nomination in Tuesday’s special election primary for U.S. Senate in Alabama, sounds confident he can win in a state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in over two decades.
“The Trump administration has not only galvanized a lot of people out there who are truly opposed to a lot of [his] policies, but it’s also caused a lot of hesitation and second guessing on the part of a number of people who say, ‘we just really need that backstop, we need the checks and balances,’” Jones said in an interview. “That’s what we’re seeing.”
Tuesday’s primaries will decide which Republican and Democratic candidates face off in December’s general election to fill the seat vacated by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. If no candidate earns a majority of the vote, the top two vote getters advance to a run-off in September.
Although a majority of Americans disapprove of the president nationwide, in Alabama, the opposite is true. A majority approve of the job Trump is doing. That’s why Republican candidate former Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange, who was temporarily appointed to fill the open Senate seat, U.S. Representative Mo Brooks, and former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore are trying to one-up each other in proving who is more loyal to the president.