The dumpster fire continues to burn within the Alabama Democratic Party.
In the latest escalation amidst a highly publicized internal party battle, Alabama Democratic Party vice-chair Randy Kelley has called Senator Doug Jones (D-AL) “a racist,” according to a Monday report by the Washington Examiner.
Kelley, an African-American, was one of the candidates opposed by the Jones-led faction’s attempted coup of the party last August.
Since their entire slate lost during that election, Jones and his allies have taken the fight to a more friendly venue: the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
During the last 12 months, personal attacks have been lobbed both ways.
Alabama Democratic Party chairwoman Nancy Worley and the current leadership of the party have been accused of hindering the electoral chances of Democrats in the state, while Jones’ faction has essentially been called sore losers lashing out after their 2018 defeat.
However, the war of words certainly has not stopped there.
Worley, when the DNC first called for a new state party election earlier this year, called that directive “racial.”
Things have only amped up since then, including choice words from Alabama Democratic Conference chairman Joe Reed.
Then, there was Alabama Democratic Party secretary Val Bright recently saying that Jones and the DNC were trying to implement a “plan to strip voting rights from blacks” through attempted changes to state party bylaws that would decrease black representation within party leadership.
Worley soon thereafter doubled down on Bright’s premise, saying the DNC, Jones and their allies would “be burning in hell for taking away people’s voting rights.”
And, despite Worley and Kelley subsequently being stripped of their DNC credentials, a resolution to the squabble does not appear to be on the horizon.
Worley has said that the DNC is attempting to beat “Alabama into submission,” adding that she will not step aside from her role as chair despite the opposition.
On Monday, her vice-chair chimed in.
“This is a racist attempt to undermine our black voters and steal an election,” Kelley, also a United Methodist pastor, reportedly told the Washington Examiner.
“There is not anything wrong with Nancy Worley or the bylaws. The only thing that is wrong for them is they lost the election,” he added of the Jones-led group.
Kelley also stressed that Jones is “obsessed” with gaining control of the state party.
“Yes, Doug Jones is a racist,” Kelley emphasized. “He said during our first meeting with the DNC Credentials Committee that he has been called a Dixiecrat. If the Dixiecrats are not racist, who is?”
He continued, “It’s their last chance because they can’t win in a fair election … the closest election was the chair race [with] the gentleman that they ran against Nancy Worley, but my election wasn’t even close at all, so they have a problem with blacks. Even though we are the majority of voters. They want us to vote. They want us to pick the cotton, but they don’t want us to manage the plantation.”
The DNC has ordered that the state party hold new elections by October 19 or risk losing delegation seats at the 2020 Democratic convention. The national party is also attempting to force the State Democratic Executive Committee to adopt new bylaws approved by a DNC subcommittee last week.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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