Mobile, Alabama — To voters here in Alabama, incumbent Democratic Sen. Doug Jones is almost entirely written off as a candidate for reelection. He has almost no chance to win. His speech tonight at the Democratic National Convention, therefore, was aimed less at his home state’s voters than at national Democratic power brokers.
Doug Jones really isn’t running for reelection; he’s running for a Cabinet post in a Biden administration.
Jones’s speech wasn’t bad, except that his voice sounded abnormally squeaky. It didn’t strike any notes that would turn off whatever undecided voters remain in Alabama — but it certainly didn’t do much to attract new voters, either. He paid homage, extensively and not unreasonably, to the late John Lewis, the Alabama native and hero of the civil rights movement. He spoke of the need for a unifying spirit to replace Donald Trump’s divisiveness. And he spoke of his role in convicting two of the infamous Birmingham church bombers after they had spent decades free of the prosecution they deserved.
Again, this was all fine. Jones probably even meant every word of it sincerely. It also was safe. It appealed to his party’s activists without alienating conservatives or centrists. It was almost surely exactly the sort of speech he should have given — but only if he were either nursing a lead or facing a close race where he just needs to tread water until later in the campaign.
But Jones isn’t in that position. By every poll I’ve seen, Jones is at least 10 points behind Republican challenger Tommy Tuberville, without many undecided voters remaining. His only chance to win is by taking big risks. Even to be seriously competitive, he needs to find a wedge issue to move voters away from Tuberville, away from Republicans in general, and onto his bandwagon. He needs something big and bold, something to inspire Alabama centrists while galvanizing a national constituency, too. And he needed to use this one-and-only national platform to enthuse Democrats nationwide to make his race a priority so that resources of both money and volunteer assistance could flow his way.
Jones didn’t even try to do this. Instead, he gave a nice, decent, little speech. It was a speech designed to make him inoffensive while creating at least a few vaguely warm, fuzzy feelings among national Democrats. That design succeeded.
Congratulations then go to Sen. Jones. If Joe Biden wins the presidency, Jones may get — well, not a Cabinet post, but maybe a sub-Cabinet post. Something like associate attorney general, the third-ranking post in the Justice Department. And here in Alabama, he’ll leave barely a footprint on the political landscape.
