ABOUT A MILE north and west of this hotel ballroom in Birmingham, two bombs were set off. The first was in 1963 at the 16th Street Baptist church. It was detonated by four Klansmen and killed four young black girls. The second came in 1998, at an abortion clinic on 10th Avenue South and 20th Street. It was set by a maniac named Eric Robert Rudolph and killed a police officer and blinded a nurse. As a U.S. attorney in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Doug Jones helped prosecute both cases.

As he took the stage Tuesday night as the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate here in Alabama, Jones seemed to keep both these events in mind as he responded to last weekend’s events in Charlottesville and President Donald Trump’s waffling response.

In the Deep South state of Alabama, Jones isn’t shrinking from a fight against white nationalism. “Fifteen years ago, I actually went up against the Klan, and we won,” Jones began his victory speech Tuesday night. “I thought we’d gotten past that, but obviously we haven’t.”

All of a sudden, it matters who Doug Jones is.