Alabama Democrats look to build on Doug Jones win

Dec. 22--Off a seemingly impossible win earlier this month, Alabama Democrats say they'll bring energy to the 2018 state elections and hope to capitalize on groundwork laid by Doug Jones' Senate campaign.

At the same time, Democrats will have to reckon with a strong Republican Party organization and their own less-than-inspiring recent history on the state level.

"Money is always going to be a problem for Democrats," said Janet May, chair of the Montgomery County Democratic Conference. "Our numbers are so paltry. What we've got is a workforce now. We've got an infrastructure that shows us how to get the vote out."

Buoyed by an energized Democratic base and a host of controversies surrounding Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore, Jones eked out a 1.5 percent victory on Dec. 12, becoming the first Democrat elected to the U.S. Senate from the state since 1992, and the first to win a statewide election since 2008.

But going into the 2018 elections, Democrats will have plenty of work to do. The party contested fewer than half of the seats in the Alabama House of Representatives in 2014, and currently holds just 33 of the 105 seats there. Democrats occupy seven of the Alabama Senate's 35 seats (one Montgomery seat will remain unoccupied in the coming session). In 2016, the party won only 14 of 42 district attorney races and 26 of 63 circuit court judgeships, with more than half of its wins coming in Jefferson County. Before Jones' victory Dec. 12, most of the party's statewide candidates struggled to top 40 percent of the vote in recent contests.

Still, Democrats interviewed last week expressed optimism, saying the Jones campaign capitalized on momentum that began building after the election of President Donald Trump in November of 2016. Kathryn Drago of the Tuscaloosa Democrats said the numbers of people attending the party's monthly meeting went from about a dozen or so to 90 shortly after Trump's election.

"We saw a steady stream of people, especially in the last several weeks," she said. "In Tuscaloosa, there was a solid number of volunteers -- it was an unbelievable outpouring."

The senator-elect's campaign worked closely with local Democratic organizations to develop and identify voters, and managed to flip normally Republican counties, including Madison and Lee.

"They revealed what the technology and science of the new campaigns can do if you have the financial resources to do that," said Sheila Gilbert, chair of the Calhoun County Democratic Party. "It's down to such a science."

Richard Mouk, chairman of the Jefferson County Democratic Party, said "money" was the chief thing Jones brought.

"We have always been lacking in monetary funds for operations," he said. "Doug was able to attract a lot of investment for people and entities, volunteers. And a lot of enthusiasm."

The victory turned on strong support from the African-American community, large wins among young voters and peeling off enough suburban Republican voters -- where Moore traditionally underperforms -- to win. Maintaining that coalition, said Joe Reed, the chairman of the Alabama Democratic Conference and a longtime powerbroker in the party, will depend on next year's circumstances.

"That will depend on the opposition and the candidate," he said. "People rose up in this election because they didn't think Roy Moore should represent Alabama."

May also said much of it will depend on holding Jones to his promises.

"We've got to keep our young people engaged and show them their vote matters, not only in electing candidates but in making candidates keep their promises to the black community," she said.

Whether that translates into improved candidate recruitment remains to be seen. Gilbert said there was "interest" in running, though the numbers won't be known until qualifying ends in early February.

"I've been approached by people who are interested in running against Republicans who have not run before," Mouk said. "I had several people running for legislative seats, for county commission races, I think it's a great thing for us."

Still, the Democrats will go into the 2018 elections in better shape, thanks in part to the work done by the Jones campaign, which for months seemed to function as the state Democratic Party.

"We had to completely rebuild the state voter file," said Wade Perry, Jones' campaign manager. "Everything we did, we did from scratch because it wasn't there."

Perry said last week he was not sure how that file would be used and distributed, but Democratic activists -- and candidates -- are eager to get their hands on it.

"What Doug has done is refreshed that data," said Will Dodd, a spokesman for Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox, who is running for the Democratic nomination for governor. "That is going to be helpful for Democrats running statewide or locally from this way forward."

The Moore campaign tried to make an issue of Jones' support of abortion rights as well as Senate control over nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court. Former Alabama Chief Justice Sue Bell Cobb, also seeking the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, said those sorts of national issues will be off the table in the 2018 elections, which might help state Democrats.

"Nationally, there will be more folks that take more of an interest in the South," she said. "We were so red, and a lot of that was because we weren't putting up good candidates. When we put up good candidates, viable candidates, we're going to be successful."

But the party may also face a conflict between factions loyal to Reed and a reform caucus at elections to the State Democratic Executive Committee next year. The state party stayed on the sidelines for most of the Senate campaign, and Gilbert, who led efforts to reform the party, says her group will field candidates at the next SDEC elections early next year.

"We're working hard to get the Democratic Party up to where it needs to be, doing what it needs to do," she said.

Reed, whose ADC helped turn out black voters on Dec. 12, said he wants people of "all colors, all persuasions" to join the party.

"I said before the party does not need reforming, it's the people who need reforming," he said. "We ought to welcome everyone in the party to build the party. They come, all work together and try to get it done."

Perry said Jones is "intensely interested" in putting the state party back together.

"This is a great time to rebuild the state party," he said. "There are so many new faces, old, young, black and white, newly energized and ready to go to work."

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