One of Doug Jones's advantages in the Alabama Senate race is that his opponent has been fielding weeks of bad publicity. Republican Roy Moore is now accused of sexual misconduct by eight women. He denies the charges and one woman's story just lost some credibility last week, but the scandal has undoubtedly convinced some Alabamans that the Democrat may be the better bet.
Jones, however, is now dealing with some bad press of his own.
On Friday, the Jones campaign sent out a brochure featuring a black man with the text, "Think if a black man went after high school girls anyone would make him a senator?"
The Root fumed that the ad had "upset black voters across Alabama."
"A racist flyer might cost Doug Jones the election because the entire democratic party is trash," one headline read.
The incident even made it on ABC.
"Mailers don't vote - it's people who vote," Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL) said when asked about the controversial mailer, avoiding a direct answer.She did, however, relent that the Jones campaign had made a mistake.
Following the backlash, Jones himself admitted they probably should have altered the language, but he stands by its overall premise.
"That mailer kind of speaks for itself. You know, maybe we could've used a little bit different language," he said. "But, I've been working in the criminal justice system as a prosecutor for a long time, and I've spoken about this issue before. I think it speaks for itself."
Strangely, the Jones campaign isn't the first Democratic ticket to be accused of publishing racist literature. In Virginia, gubernatorial candidate Ralph Northam took some heat for mailings that omitted African-American lieutenant governor candidate Justin Fairfax. That decision was made by a labor union who hadn't endorsed Fairfax and the beef was between them, Northam insisted. He, of course, still went on to win.
After weeks of staying silent (except to rail against Jones's liberal agenda), President Trump threw his full support behind Moore Friday, telling supporters at a campaign rally in Florida to "get out and vote" for the Republican because they can't let a liberal Democrat get that seat. Plenty of other top Republicans, though, refuse to endorse Moore. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) even donated to his opponent.
New polls show that Democrats are turning out in droves to get Jones the seat.
Alabamans vote on Tuesday.
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