Alabama Democrat Doug Jones Elected To Senate
By Mia Hurta
Staff Reporter December 20, 2017 In December, Democratic candidate Doug Jones was elected for Alabama senate over Republican candidate Roy Moore. This was quite a change of expected events considering Alabama hasn’t voted Democrat since the early 1990s.
Jones won by less than a two percent margin, which may seem like a close race but considering the circumstances of this “special” election that is quite the accomplishment. One of the factors that made this election special is that Moore had allegations against him for unwanted advances and sexual assault. More specifically this assault was towards teens when Moore was in his early 30s. Some Republican leaders called for Moore to resign from the ballot, however, at the time it was too late. There also is other controversial reasons many people don’t support Moore. He has said that the Supreme Court ruling to legalize gay marriage “is even worse” than the Dred Scott ruling to uphold slavery. He also has embraced groups like white supremacist and received money for campaigns from a neo-nazi group. These things definitely played part in this change of history, however, Democrats see hope in this change. Hillary Clinton tweeted after the election results were in, “Tonight, Alabama voters elected a senator who’ll make them proud. If Democrats can win in Alabama, we can—and must—compete everywhere.” Since Alabama is a heavily red state people were skeptical that voters would be willing to switch their vote, even though the circumstances were that the Republican candidate was an alleged pedophile. This change gives promise for 2018 and faith in people’s ability to come together despite political parties. |
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