AL governor candidate Doug Jones speaks in Phenix City on redistricting, Supreme Court
During his visit to Phenix City last week, Alabama gubernatorial candidate and former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones criticized the U.S. Supreme Court and spoke about the importance of getting out the vote to combat redistricting.
Jones, who won the Democratic primary in May, is facing Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the Republican nominee, for the governor’s office — a rematch of their 2020 U.S. Senate race.
Gaines Chapel A.M.E. Church hosted the community meeting with Jones on June 4, allowing Jones to give a speech before he answered questions from the crowd.
For the majority-Black audience, the contested redistricting in Alabama and recent Supreme Court decisions took center stage
He has never seen a Supreme Court ”marching so quickly to take away people’s rights,” Jones told the audience. The court has stopped giving the appearance of being nonpartisan, he said.
“It always appears that there are at least five justices on that court who look at a case in front of them and say, ‘How do we want this to end, and let’s find a way to get it there,’” Jones said. “That’s not the way a judge is supposed to act.”
Judges are supposed to review the facts and apply them to reach a conclusion, he said. They are twisting the law to reach the conclusions they want, Jones said.
In 6-3 decision along ideological lines June 2, the Supreme Court allowed Alabama to use a congressional map that eliminated one of its two majority-Black districts. A lower court had determined the map intentionally discriminated against Black voters, violating the 14th Amendment.
“With the help of the Supreme Court, the Alabama governor, the lieutenant governor and our legislature have allowed Alabama to rejoin the old Confederacy,” Jones said. “That’s exactly what happened with regard to the Voting Rights Act.”
Getting out the vote
Despite the challenges of having one less majority-Black district poses and Alabama’s history of voting Republican, Jones sees an opportunity in this year’s election.
Many people have gotten complacent in the last few years, he said, and especially people who don’t think their vote counts because of gerrymandering.
“Alabama is a red state they tell me,” Jones said. “They tell me Democrats can’t win. I just look at them and say, ‘Well, I did it one time, and we’re going to do it again.”
The turnout for the primaries May 19 was a good sign for the Democratic Party, he said.
More than double the number of Democratic ballots went out that day than there were four years ago, Jones said. The number of Democrats who voted increased, he said, while the number of Republicans who voted decreased.
Nearly 200,000 more Democrats voted in 2026 than turned out in 2022, according to AL.com.
“That is significant because I’ve always said the way we win these elections is to get our voters out to vote,” Jones said. “We go into counties like Russell (County) and others. We make sure that we narrow the gap.”
Democrats don’t have to win those counties, he said, but they can help narrow the gap statewide.
“I’m so proud of you guys right here in Russell County,” Jones said. “You increased the Democratic turnout by 61%. And, guess what the Republicans did? They went down 26%.”
Jones also called for more Democrats to run for office.
“We’ve had holes in our ballot,” he said. “Republicans have gone unopposed. What that means is that the people are not getting choices.”
