Tommy Tuberville Claims Win in Governor Race; Doug Jones Points to Democratic Progress in Alabama

By Shauna Stuart | For the Birmingham Times

Tommy Tuberville will be the next governor of Alabama. The Republican U.S. Senator defeated Democratic nominee and former Sen. Doug Jones.

The Associated Press called the race with 95% of the votes in — Tuberville had 52.1 % of the votes compared to Jones’ 47.9%.

Before the Associated Press officially called the race, Tuberville declared an early victory in Auburn on Tuesday night.

But over 100 miles away in Birmingham, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Doug Jones did not concede just yet. When Jones took the stage at his watch party at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Birmingham around 11 p.m., he thanked attendees for their support and assured them votes were still rolling in.

“The fact of the matter is there’s still a hell of a lot of votes out there,” said Jones. At the time, Jones said he thought a concession speech was “way premature.”

During his address to the audience, Jones spoke about the close race.

“When we started this race, look at the odds that we were given. Next to nothing. Everybody said no, there was no way in the world that a Democrat could win. There was no way that Doug Jones could win. Well, we are that close.”

Though Tuberville would win the seat, the governor’s race turned out to be the closest statewide race in Alabama since 2017, when Jones beat Republican Roy Moore for a U.S. Senate seat. Furthermore, Jones earned more votes this year than any Democrat has earned in a non-presidential cycle in over a decade, AL.com reports.

Nationally, Tuesday proved victorious for the Democratic Party. Democrats won both the House and the Senate. And in what CNBC calls a “banner night,” Democrats overtook Republicans in both the Ohio and Texas governors’ offices.

In a press conference with reporters after his watch party address, Jones praised the momentum Democrats built across the nation this election year, including in Alabama.

“We built enthusiasm, we built the infrastructure that hasn’t been in Alabama for Democrats in a long time. The key to this race has always been about giving people in the state of Alabama options — different things because it has not been that way for the last 20 years,” said Jones. “So we have built something that will last and lead into the next two years and four years after that and beyond. This is going to carry on.”

This year’s governor’s race was a historic rematch between Tuberville and Jones. Tuberville defeated Jones in the 2020 Senate election. In 2017, Doug Jones defeated Republican Roy Moore for the U.S. Senate seat, marking the first time a Democrat won Alabama’s Senate seat in 25 years.

Tuberville, who spent the past six years in the U.S. Senate, said he wanted to leave Washington, D.C. to serve Alabama better.

“It didn’t take me long to figure out that’s kind of an individual contractor, being in the Senate. You can get things done, but not a lot done,” Tuberville said during a recent interview on Alabama Public Television’s Capitol Journal.

Job creation was one of the line items in Tuberville’s campaign platform. In his list of objectives, dubbed “The Golden Age Playbook,” Tuberville highlighted his plans to bring more jobs to Alabama, including “good jobs to every corner of this state, so more Alabamians can work, earn a good living, and raise a family right here at home.”

Jones also expressed the need for more employment opportunities across Alabama.

“We need to get white-collar jobs to come to the state. Not just to white-collar areas, but also the rural areas,” Jones told Capitol Journal’s Todd Stacy. “My goal is to grow the entire state. To have jobs for young people when they get out of high school or college, where they’ll stay in state, a family. And when you do that, it brings in a better tax base.”

For the most part, Tuberville and Jones had vastly different campaign platforms. While both candidates backed eliminating the grocery tax, one of the cornerstones of Jones’ campaign was expanding Medicaid.

Sisters Lisa McNair and Kimberly McNair Brock — longtime supporters and friends of Jones — have concerns about the lack of Medicaid coverage in parts of Alabama.

“That’s really causing really big problems in the rural areas where people don’t have hospitals, and they don’t have doctors anymore. They’re suffering,” said Lisa McNair.

She recalled when the COVID-19 pandemic forced many from rural Alabama to seek help in Birmingham.

“People were coming from all over the state to come to hospitals in Birmingham because they didn’t have hospitals,” Lisa McNair said. “It’s a real thing. People need to stop pretending like it’s not and stop denying [Medicaid] from expanding here because it could help people who are hurting.”

Jones Concedes Governor’s Race, Celebrates
Democratic Victories Across Alabama

Wednesday morning, Jones conceded the race for governor but offered words of encouragement for supporters.

“As I told supporters last night, we began this campaign with both a goal and an objective in mind,” Jones said in a statement. “The goal was to win the election, but the objective was to build a more competitive political environment in Alabama that would outlast the campaign. While we came up short in this election, we accomplished so much together that I believe will bode well for Alabama in the future.”

Jones noted that this was the closest governor’s race in Alabama since 2002 and also celebrated Democratic victories across the state.

“Congressman Shomari Figures won another term despite the Republican redistricting they thought would cost him his seat. Congresswoman Terri Sewell won reelection,” Jones said. “In the Alabama State Senate, Jared Sluss and Rudolph Valentino Drake flipped seats. In the Alabama State House, Nell Brown and Allison Montgomery flipped seats. Local candidates across Alabama either won their races or finished stronger than expected.”

He went on to say, “Those are big wins. In districts that some people had written off as unwinnable, Alabama voters proved otherwise. I am proud of the candidates who won last night, every Democrat who put their name on the ballot this year, and everyone who worked so hard to elect them.”

Jones congratulated Tuberville on his victory.

“I sincerely hope he will work to make life better for every Alabamian,” Jones said. “He deserves our support as he and his administration tackle the tough issues ahead.”

But Jones stressed that Alabama’s future is the responsibility of all the state’s residents.

“I encourage every Alabamian to stay involved, to hold our elected leaders accountable, and to make sure their voices are heard, not just on election day, but every day,” ones said. “We certainly have more work to do. But we have already begun to change Alabama. What we accomplished together gives me tremendous hope for Alabama’s future.”

Outcomes for other state offices and judgeships are on the Secretary of State’s website.