Doug Jones was never intended to be a U.S. Senator.
His run for the seat in 2017 was equal parts vanity project and lifetime achievement award for a loyal Democrat in Alabama.
Then Roy Moore happened. The media decided Roy Moore might be a creep so any and allegations against him had to be heard publicly and given the benefit of the doubt. Call it a “Reverse Hunter Biden.”
Because of this, Jones found himself in a race he could not possibly lose. And he did not lose.
He didn’t really win, though.
This was obvious. Any casual observer of politics could see this, including yours truly.
Doug Jones’ election in 2017:
Roy Moore (R) – 48.4% – 649,240Doug Jones (D) – 49.9% – 670,551Gov. Kay Ivey’s election in 2018:
Kay Ivey (R) – 59.6% – 1,014,821Walt Maddox (D) – 40.4% – 686,774
Jones and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox got roughly the same number of votes. In contrast, the Republicans who stayed home with Moore on the ballot in 2017 showed up for Republicans in the midterms and crushed Democrats in Alabama by over 300,000 votes.
Ultimately, unless Republicans decided to sit out again, Doug Jones did not have a chance to repeat his miraculous 2017 win in 2020.
Obviously, this time around was not 2017. President Donald Trump was always going to be on the ballot and bring Republicans out to vote.
The only way that wouldn’t happen is if he had been impeached and removed from office, which Jones voted for.
Jones’ vote was almost as smart as his votes against qualified judges, hemming-and-hawing on tax cuts, voting for abortion funding and railing against guns.
This is not a guy who was trying to win.
The media and their Democrats, boosted by their circular logic and cocooned in their constantly self-reinforcing bubble, assured gullible people across the nation to send money to Doug Jones because he was supposedly “a Democrat who could even win Alabama.”
However, they forgot to talk with Alabamians about that.
He was a U.S. Senator who was running a reelection campaign based on calling his opponent an unclever nickname, criticizing a president that is wildly popular in Alabama and lying about his own record.
Riveting stuff.
But don’t forget the brilliant strategy of demanding a debate with less than one week left and ridiculously claiming he was up a point in the polls to soak rubes out of more money.
Then Election Day came, and Jones lost. He lost big. It wasn’t even close at 60-39.
What is most galling about all of this is that everyone knew this was coming, and they didn’t even care enough about their alleged causes to be honest about it.
They had to know that once the votes were cast they would be exposed.
His reelection was never going to happen. Not like this.
He knew it, his campaign knew it, the media knew it, his biggest backers knew it, his voters knew it, and yet he and his campaign kept sucking up money that could have gone to other states knowing the return on investment was never coming.
This was embarrassing, and it sets the Alabama Democratic Party back years, so maybe there is some good news here.
Lastly, while Jones and company squandered at least $26.4 million on this silly endeavor, it wasn’t the biggest failure of the evening by those who wanted to take over the U.S. Senate for U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY). That honor goes to Democrat Jaime Harrison out of South Carolina, who spent $140 million, far more than his opponent, and lost 55-43.7.
Harrison’s opponent, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) even said, “This is the worst return on investment in the history of America.”
He’s right.
Jones can at least claim he escaped that embarrassment on a wildly embarrassing night.
Dale Jackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN.
