Doug Jones is running for Governor

November 23, 2025 – MOUNTAIN BROOK – Former U.S. Senator Doug Jones announced that he will soon file paperwork with the Alabama Secretary of State's Office to run for Governor of Alabama as a Democrat.

Jones is a former U.S. Attorney for President William J. Clinton (D). He was elected in a special election in 2017 defeating former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore (R) in 2017. He served just three years in the Senate before losing in a landslide to former Auburn Coach Tommy Tuberville in the 2020 general election.

Jones is the only Democrat elected statewide in the last 17 years and the only Democrat to represent Alabama in the Senate since 1996. That gives him far greater name recognition than any other Democrat likely to be on the ballot.

Jones made the announcement on the left wing The Voice of Alabama Politics TV broadcast. They described it as a major shake-up in the state's political landscape; but is it?

Jones was never really very popular. In 2017 he was a first time candidate who beat Moore largely because of allegations that Moore had had inappropriate contact with minor girls back when he was single in the 1970s. Incumbent Senator Richard Shelby (R-Alabama) actively encouraged Republicans not to vote for Moore and the Mitch McConnell controlled Republican Senate Leadership Committee refused to fund Moore's campaign after a brutal Republican Primary battle where Moore defeated McConnell's handpicked candidate – Senator Luther Strange (who was appointed by then governor Robert Bentley (R). Despite massive spending by national Democrats to elect Jones, Moore still led in the polls by 3 to 5%. An overconfident Moore made the tactical error of leaving the campaign trail the final weekend of the race to attend the Army versus Navy football game. While Moore had no get out the vote (GOTV) effort, Jones had the best GOTV effort that Chuck Schumer and millions of dollars could buy. The result was Jones winning 673,896 votes (50%). Moore received just 651,972 (48.3%). 22,852 Republicans (1.7%) followed Shelby's advice and wrote in some other candidate. If Moore had had that 1.7% of disaffected Republican voters he would have defeated Jones.

Many of Jones' 2017 supporters thought that he would be a classic southern Democrat who served as a brake on the more over the top liberal tendencies of Democratic. That proved to be wrong. Jones voted against Trump Supreme Court nominees and with his patron – Chuck Schumer – instead of a centrist like Sens. Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, or John Fetterman. Jones spent much of his term in the Senate attacking his personal enemies in the Alabama Democratic Party. At Jones' urging the Democratic National Committee voted to invalidate Alabama Democratic Party election and took away voter credentials from Alabama Democratic Party Chairwoman Nancy Worley and Vice Chair Randy Kelley. Jones and the DNC then organized a legally dubious state Democratic convention where Worley and Kelley were replaced by Rep, Chris England and former Rep. Patricia Todd (Kelley has since been elected the Chairman of the Alabama Democratic Party).

Jones made matters worse by endorsing former Vice President Joseph R. Biden over President Donald J. Trump. Trump may be divisive nationally; but no president has been more loved by the people of Alabama. Jones embraced Biden. Tuberville emphasized his support for Trump. The result was Senator Jones lost re-election in a landslide to Tommy Tuberville in 2020. Tuberville had more voters than Moore and Jones combined for in 2017. Tuberville received 1,392,076 votes (60.1%). Jones who outspent Tuberville actually got 170,000 more votes in 2020 than he had in 2017; but his 920,478 votes were still just 39.7% of the vote. 3,891 (.2%) wrote in someone else.

Jones faces stiff competition to even get the Democratic nomination. Rev. Will Boyd, Chad "Chig" Martin, Jalel Brown, and Yolanda Flowers are already in the race,

If he even gets the Democratic nomination, Jones will likely face Tuberville again. Early polling shows Tuberville with 53% support (more than enough to win), Jones with just 34%, and 13 percent are undecided. Only the most naïve political analysts believe that all of the undecideds will one show up and two all break to the challenger.

On the positive side for Jones, he has a lot of wealthy friends in Washington, in California, and around the country. Jones raised $31,053,566.07 for his 2020 campaign against Tuberville. If he can somehow convince those liberal out of state donors who backed him in 2017 and 2020 to come out for him one more time he can buy a lot of media time in Alabama; but he had a lot of money last time and still lost by almost 472,000 votes. No Democrat has won a governor's race in this century and Democrats have won only one Alabama governor's race since George C. Wallace elected to his last term as Governor in 1982. A voter born then would be 43 years old today. Maybe Doug Jones is the most charismatic most popular Democrat since George C. Wallace? Maybe, but he will have to be to win this.

The Democratic Primary is May 19, 2026.

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