There are so many encouraging stories coming out of the stunning win of Doug Jones in the Senate race in Alabama. Not only do we have a Democrat replacing the neo-Confederate Jefferson B. Sessions III in the Senate, but Jones is also quite a different kind of Democrat than the old guard who were in office before Sessions was elected. We also have the powerful organizing example set by black women leaders in the state. Plus stories like this one highlighted by my colleague Kelly Macias about former felons having their right to vote restored in time to cast ballots in this special election. Lots and lots of reasons to smile, to be optimistic about 2018 and beyond.
Over the next week or so, we can expect to see a boatload of analyses by amateurs and professionals alike about what this victory means and how we should build on it.
Here’s an excerpt from an email from Doug Jones himself, delivered today:
Our campaign showed what's possible when you cut through the noise and talk to voters about what matters to them. We made an unprecedented effort to reach out to millions of Alabamians, and we mobilized the grassroots in this state like I've never seen before.
Over the last seven weeks, with the help of the Democratic Party, we made over 1.3 million phone calls, sent over 1 million text messages, and knocked on the doors of 325,000 voters.
If we organize in every state like we organized in Alabama, there's no place Democrats can't win. In fact, we can get started right now.
That’s the spirit! That’s the truth.
But my question isn’t whether we can pivot off last night’s victory to make more happen in Alabama. We know that we can. The question is: Will we do so?
Will the national party pump money and other assistance into the 2018 midterms in Alabama at the level needed to secure more Democratic gains there and cut the margins of the winners in the races we lose? Or will the state continue to be viewed as a lost cause and Jones’s victory a mere fluke?
Democrats are getting slaughtered at the polls in most Alabama elections. In the Alabama House there are 105 members, only 33 of whom are Democrats, and two-thirds of those Democrats are over 60 years old. Of the state Senate’s 35 members, just 7 are Democrats, and 5 of them are over 60. The impact of this can’t be overstated.
And it should not be forgotten that Roy Moore, the guy who believes slave times were America’s best times, won in six of Alabama’s seven congressional districts. One message that delivers is the need to work harder, much harder, to reduce the percentage of white voters who continue to vote for racists, ultra-rightist Republicans.
One or two elections won’t, of course, reverse the awful margin in the legislature. Progressive gains will take a long time. And they will require a broad, long-term financial commitment from the national party to support efforts like those of the black women who were the backbone in the Jones election. Not just now and then, not just when a special election looks promising, but constantly, year round, every year.
Otherwise, all of today’s welcome cheering won’t mean very much.