An ugly racial dispute over the state party’s 2018 leadership could throw Alabama’s Super Tuesday presidential primary contest into chaos and doom Sen. Doug Jones’ reelection bid.
Alabama Democratic Chairwoman Nancy Worley warned if the Democratic National Committee attempts to block Alabama delegates from next year’s convention, “open rebellion” would ensue.
The move came as state party officials accused the national party and Jones of being racist over pressure to increase the representation of Hispanic, Asian, youth, gay, and disabled party members in a new “Diversity Caucus.” State officials argue that the changes the national party want to make to the state party’s executive committee would reduce the influence of black Democrats. More than half of the state party is black.
DNC Chairman Tom Perez notified the Jefferson County Democratic Party chairman that the DNC will not approve a delegate selection plan from Alabama until new leadership is elected. The state party refused to hold another state party leadership election as called for by the DNC, so the DNC no longer recognizes Worley and Vice Chair Randy Kelley as officers of the DNC and yanked their credentials for its summer meeting in San Francisco last August.
The DNC also stopped its $10,000-a-month payment to the state party, saying the state party has “fallen far short of meeting its basic obligations” in building party infrastructure and “chronically underperformed in virtually every aspect of operation.”
“Alabama is the only state party in the country from which the monthly payment has been withheld. We have not had to take this serious action with any other party,” Perez said.
“If we don’t have an approved plan, we cannot go to the convention,” the county party chairman, Richard Mauk, has said.
“The worst-case scenario is that we don’t have a primary and yes, that’s totally unprecedented,” he said.
Alabama has 52 delegates that will be awarded proportionally and presidential candidates have a until Nov. 8 to file for the primary. In 2016, Hillary Clinton got 78% of the Alabama primary vote while Bernie Sanders picked up 19%.
Worley told the Washington Examiner the DNC’s move to cut funding only forced the state party to tighten its belt, and the presidential primary won’t affect that.
Her vice chair said outside mediators, such as the presidential candidates or national civil rights organizations might step in and resolve the issue. Kelley said he thinks Jones, who has sided with the DNC over his state party and faces an uphill reelection battle, does not expect to be reelected, pointing to the record black turnout that helped narrowly boost Jones into the Senate in a deep-red state.
“Without the same black vote turnout, in my opinion, he will not return,” said Kelley.
