Why Doug Jones Keeps Running

Howell Raines: “Tuberville is certainly the favorite in the race. He is a committed loyalist to Donald Trump, who won the state by 30 points in the last presidential election. Alabama hasn’t had a Democratic governor in more than two decades.”

“And yet, during a recent visit to the state where I was born and began my newspaper career, I came to believe that Jones’s candidacy has a long-shot logic, positing a collapse of Trump’s popularity. Jones must stir voter resistance to Tuberville’s political baggage and his gift for goofy statements. At the least, Jones’s candidacy is a bravely idealistic waving of the flag in a state that is growing more diverse and lurching toward modernity in its population centers.”