Doug Jones: “A New Lease on Life” for the Alabama Democratic Party

Doug Jones: “A New Lease on Life” for the Alabama Democratic Party

Birmingham, AL –  Days after the Alabama Democratic Party elected new statewide leadership, Doug Jones says the energy surrounding the party signals a turning point and an opportunity to build the strong two-party system Alabama has been missing.

“This state benefits from a healthy two-party system, and we haven't had it in a while, and we’re going to have it,” Jones said during his weekly livestream Sunday. “You could feel going into this particular reorganization, regardless of how the elections were going to turn out, you were going to have a really healthy political party to challenge the status quo going forward.”

At the Alabama Democratic Party’s reorganizational meeting on Saturday, State Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton was elected Chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, with Caroline Self elected Vice Chair. Val Bright was reelected Secretary, Ben Harris was reelected Vice Chair for County Affairs, Lillian Thomas was elected Vice Chair of Youth Affairs, and Bradley Turner was reelected Vice Chair for Labor. Josh Coleman and Donna Foster were elected as the party's new representatives to the Democratic National Committee, joining Charlie Staten.

“At the end of the day, you have a new slate of officers, and I want to congratulate those officers,” Jones said. “It wasn't the bitterness, it wasn't the divisiveness, it wasn't the animosity that you've seen over the last few years. Everybody has a mission, everybody knows, and everybody was excited.”

Jones said that renewed energy didn't begin with Saturday's leadership elections. It has been building throughout the election cycle as Democrats stepped forward to compete across Alabama, including a full slate of candidates for statewide constitutional offices.

“I told the whole Change Ticket today that this was their work,” Jones said. “This was really them stepping up and putting forth, all seven of the constitutional office candidates plus our two PSC candidates, our legislative candidates, our congressional candidates, our Senate candidate. All of those folks gave this party a new lease on life.”

That new energy was on display Wednesday night in Montgomery, where Jones was joined for a public town hall by Chair Bobby Singleton and other members of the party's new leadership, Congressman Shomari Figures, Democratic nominee for Lieutenant Governor Phillip Ensler, Senator Vivian Figures, and Democratic nominee for Commissioner of Agriculture and Industries Ron Sparks.

When Jones introduced Singleton as the new Chair of the Alabama Democratic Party, the crowd rose to its feet in a standing ovation.

Watch Jones' full livestream HERE.

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