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*It may come down to black voters vs. white evangelicals in Alabama’s Senate race, with Democratic contender Doug Jones needing an Obama-like turnout of African Americans to upset his GOP opponent Roy Moore in Tuesday’s election.
Moore’s evangelical base has stuck with him through decades of controversy — including two removals as state Supreme Court chief justice and multiple allegations that he pursued sexual relationships with teenage girls while in his 30s.
African-Americans make up the majority of Democratic voters in Alabama (27% of the state’s electorate). Needing them to match Moore’s rabid base, Jones has focused his final two weeks of the race on trying to earn the black vote.
He campaigned last Friday in a predominantly black church on the anniversary of Rosa Parks’ 1955 arrest for refusing to give up her seat to a white passenger. On Saturday, he marched in the Christmas parade in Selma, the site of the “Bloody Sunday” voting rights march in 1965. Jones on Sunday visited nine churches in Tuscaloosa, courting largely black voters.
He’s campaigned alongside Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, a civil rights icon, and at historically black colleges and universities including Tuskegee, Alabama State and Alabama A&M. He’s a regular call-in guest on African-American radio shows — both in-state and those that are nationally syndicated. Rep. Terri Sewell, Alabama’s only Democrat in Congress, has helped Jones make inroads with black leaders.
Thanks to an influx of online donations after the sexual allegations against Moore emerged, Jones is flush with enough cash to flood broadcast and cable TV and radio, including African-American stations.
But some black leaders have criticized Jones, saying he hasn’t offered enough details about what he’d do for African-Americans if he wins.
“I think many of them are asking ‘What are you going to do for me today?'” said State Rep. John Knight, the chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus, who is supporting Jones. “We try to explain to them it’s much more than just Doug Jones. It’s the future of this state, it’s their future, it’s the image of Alabama, it’s attracting jobs here.”
A CNN exit poll found that only 15% of white voters in Alabama backed Barack Obama in 2012, while 95% of black voters there supported Obama’s re-election. Jones’ campaign hopes to see African-Americans make up 27 to 28% of the electorate in Tuesday’s special election.
That wouldn’t be enough on its own: Black voters were 28% of Alabama’s electorate in 2012, and Obama still lost the state by 23 points. To win, Jones will have to pick off moderate white voters, too — or hope that they stay home — on top of African-American turnout close to Obama levels.
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