MONTGOMERY — State Rep. John Rogers (D-Birmingham), who received international attention last year for his “kill ’em now or kill ’em later” comments regarding abortion on the floor of the Alabama House of Representatives, on Thursday told Yellowhammer News that he will support U.S. Senator Doug Jones’ (D-AL) reelection bid.
Rogers and Jones are longtime friends, but the two had a public falling out in the wake of Rogers’ abortion comments last year.
While Jones, known as a staunch pro-choice advocate, publicly denounced the comments, Rogers asserted that Jones in private told Rogers that Jones agreed with Rogers’ remarks. Rogers subsequently mounted an exploratory bid to challenge Jones in the Democratic Senate primary but ultimately concluded that he could not raise the money necessary to compete with Jones’ large war chest of out-of-state funds.
Now, things seem to be somewhat patched up — at least politically.
When asked by Yellowhammer News on Thursday morning whether he supports Jones’ 2020 candidacy, Rogers responded, “Well, he’s the only Democrat running. And I have to support the Democratic Party.”
“It’s a big hill to climb for him to run [in November’s general election], unless we could get Roy Moore [as the Republican nominee] to run against him,” Rogers continued. “And I’d love to see Roy Moore run. But it’s going to be an uphill climb.”
Moore has consistently polled a distant fourth in the GOP primary and is not expected to challenge for a runoff spot in the March 3 primary.
Rogers also shared that he is set to see Jones this weekend at a conference they will both be attending. Rogers expects the two will talk during the conference.
“[H]e has an uphill climb. And I support him 100%,” Rogers added.
This came in the wake of Jones voting twice on Wednesday to remove President Donald Trump from office.
Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
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