Doug Jones' culture war conundrum

The Democratic nominee in Alabama's Senate election needs widespread African-American support, without repelling white voters wary of Roy Moore.

By GABRIEL DEBENEDETTI 10/09/2017 07:07 AM EDT

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Democrats would seem to have the perfect foil to President Donald Trump’s culture wars in Alabama Senate hopeful Doug Jones, a mild-mannered attorney who made his name prosecuting Ku Klux Klan members.

But the former U.S. attorney and civil rights advocate, whom Democrats now believe has an outside shot of upsetting firebrand Roy Moore in a Dec. 12 special election, is staying away from challenging the presidential attacks on professional athletes’ anthem protests and defense of Confederate monuments, which are designed to motivate Trump’s base.

His problem: Jones is going to need the state’s Democratic-leaning African American population to turn out for him, and taking on the president would likely be an attention-grabbing way of motivating them. But Jones is also likely to need a good deal of support from white suburban voters — including many who lean Republican in a state that supported Trump by 28 percentage points last year — to keep the race close. Two recent polls have the contest within single digits.

So Jones is betting that focusing on Moore’s own contentious past statements, rather than Trump’s jabs about the NFL, will be enough to energize the base voters he needs without alienating conservatives who are wary of Moore. The former judge was ousted twice as the Alabama Supreme Court's chief justice for refusing to comply with federal orders on hot-button social issues — and his provocations have gotten no less dramatic since then.

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http://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/09/doug-jones-alabama-democrat-senate-culture-war-243547