With the count-down approaching for Alabama’s special election to fill U.S. Attorney General Jeff Session’s seat, the state Democrats collectively held their noses and accepted assistance from the establishment Democrats.
Over the weekend, Senator Cory Booker (D-NJ) and former Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, arrived to rally the black vote for Democrat candidate Doug Jones in hopes of edging out the Red State’s choice of Judge Roy Moore at the last minute. Jones has shied away from bringing in national Democrats, but the disappearing enthusiasm for his candidacy prompted a change of heart.
Dem Firepower?
Current polls (I know, but who can believe polls) have both candidates neck and neck coming into the final stretch which is only hours away, and RepresentativeTerri Sewell(D-AL) thought it best to bring in the firepower of current black leaders to whip up the seemingly lethargic interest in Doug Jones from black Alabamans. Sewell had these hopeful words to say regarding Jones’ candidacy:
“We in Alabama have worked too hard to go backwards,” said Sewell, the only Democrat in Alabama’s congressional delegation. “We want to be forward leaning. And there’s only one candidate in this race who has earned the right to be the United States senator. We need a United States senator whose integrity and character will not be questioned on Day One.”
Patrick was stomping in Selma with candidate Jones greeting parishioners of Brown Chapel AME Church, the meeting place in 1965 where protestors began the march across the Edmund Pettis bridge and into history on what was dubbed Bloody Sunday. During an interview with reporters, Patrick was a man of few words:
“Alabama has a chance to regain its voice for integrity and grace, its patience and listening, its willingness to hear all sides and a chance to do what’s right for the good of the whole.”
He wasn’t clear on precisely when Alabama lost its voice for integrity, but, apparently, they have and need to get on the stick to repair the damage. But with waning crowds and embittered attacks on everyone involved in the race, perhaps 2018 would be a fresh start for Democrats in Alabama.
Taking One for the Team
Booker visited Montgomery with this message:
“I know you all made, already, a million phone calls, but I’m here to try to get some folk woke,” said Booker, addressing a crowd of roughly 200 at Alabama State University in Montgomery, three hours after Patrick appeared with Jones in Selma. “Some people don’t understand: the opposite of justice is not injustice. It is inaction and indifference.”
In other words, sorry the subject of this special Senate leaves a bad case of festering hives, but take one for the team, please.
As for Jones, he remains cautiously optimistic about his chances and feels he has done everything in his power to reach out to voters, saying “This campaign has got the wind at its back because we are bringing people together from all across the state.” 
The State of Lethargy
But Mr. Jones, a crowd of roughly 200 isn’t going to move the needle much in the state where Trump dominated in 2016 with a 28-point wham-bam-no way ma’am directive of Mrs. Clinton’s popularity. The canvassing campaign stumping rallies were, well, lethargic, to say the least with low attendance in a political-fatigued Republican stronghold.
Within hours, we will know the outcome of this contentious race and maybe then, when the voters have spoken, Alabama will be able to take a much-needed vacation from the glare of the media spotlight.
