BIRMINGHAM, Ala.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, kicked off his campaign for governor Friday, saying voters deserve a choice and a leader who will put aside divisions to address the state\u2019s pressing needs. <\/p>\n
\u201cWith your help we can finish what we began. We can build the Alabama we\u2019ve always deserved,\u201d Jones told a packed crowd at a Birmingham campaign rally featuring musician Jason Isbell. <\/p>\n
He said the state has urgent economic, healthcare and educational issues that are not being addressed by those in public office.<\/p>\n
The campaign kickoff came on the eighth anniversary of Jones\u2019 stunning 2017 Senate win over Republican Roy Moore, and Jones said Alabama proved back then that it can defy \u201csimplified labels of red and blue.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou stood up and you said something simple but powerful: We can do better,\u201d Jones said. \u201cYou said with your votes that our values, Alabama values, are more important than any political party, any personality, any prepackaged ideology.\u201d <\/p>\n
His entry into the race sets up a possible rematch with Republican Sen. Tommy Tuberville, who defeated Jones by 20 points in the 2020 Senate race and is also now running for governor. Both parties will have primaries in May before the November election.<\/p>\n
Before running for office, Jones, a lawyer and former U.S. attorney, was best known for prosecuting two Ku Klux Klansmen responsible for Birmingham\u2019s infamous 1963 church bombing.<\/p>\n
In an interview with the Associated Press, Jones said families are having a hard time with things like healthcare, energy bills and making ends meet. <\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are struggling,\u201d he said. \u201cThey are hurting.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jones used part of his speech to describe his agenda if elected governor. He said it is time for Alabama to join most states in establishing a state lottery and expanding Medicaid. Expanding Medicaid, he said, would protect rural hospitals from closure and provide healthcare coverage to working families and others who need it. <\/p>\n
He criticized Tuberville\u2019s opposition to extending Affordable Care Act subsidies in the Senate. Jones said many Alabama families depend on those subsidies to buy health insurance \u201cto keep their families healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alabama has not elected a Democratic governor since Don Siegelman in 1998. <\/p>\n
When Tuberville ousted Jones in 2020, the Democrat won about 40% of the vote, which has been the ceiling for Alabama Democrats in recent statewide races. <\/p>\n
Retired political science professor Jess Brown said Jones lost in 2020 despite being a well-funded incumbent, and that\u2019s a sign that he faces an uphill battle in 2026. <\/p>\n
\u201cBased on what I know today, at this juncture of the campaign, I would say that Doug Jones, who\u2019s a very talented and bright man, is politically the walking dead,\u201d Brown said. <\/p>\n
Jones acknowledged being the underdog and said his decision to run stemmed in part from a desire that Tuberville not coast into office unchallenged. <\/p>\n
Jones pointed to recent Democratic victories in Georgia, Mississippi and other red states as cause for optimism. <\/p>\n
Tuberville, who formerly led the football program at Auburn University, had \u201cno record except as a football coach\u201d when he first ran, Jones said. And \u201cnow there are five years of being a United States senator. There are five years of embarrassing the state.\u201d <\/p>\n
Jones continued to question Tuberville\u2019s residency, saying he \u201cdoesn\u2019t even live in Alabama, and if he does, then prove me wrong.\u201d Tuberville has a beach house in Walton County, Fla., but has repeatedly said Auburn is his home. <\/p>\n
Tuberville\u2019s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment but has previously noted his commanding defeat of Jones five years ago. The Republican senator spent part of Friday with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth in Huntsville to mark the official relocation of U.S. Space Command from Colorado to Alabama. <\/p>\n
Jones\u2019 2017 victory renewed the hopes, at least temporarily, of Democratic voters in the Deep South state. Those gathered to hear him Friday cheered his return to the political stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m just glad that there\u2019s somebody sensible getting in the race,\u201d Angela Hornbuckle said. \u201cHe proved that he could do it as a senator.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chandler writes for the Associated Press. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BIRMINGHAM, Ala.\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the last Democrat to hold statewide office in Alabama, kicked off his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93756,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28848,51542,51544,3705,1431,51543,42332,1902,11859,48,52,51,47,50,49,1459,35172,2211,225,51541,72],"class_list":["post-93755","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-alabama","tag-alabama-governor","tag-auburn-university","tag-campaign","tag-family","tag-governor-friday","tag-hard-time","tag-healthcare","tag-jones","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-part","tag-public-office","tag-race","tag-state","tag-tuberville","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93755","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93755"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93755\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93755"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93755"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93755"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}