Democratic gubernatorial candidate Doug Jones used his latest campaign stop in Birmingham on Wednesday to host a virtual debate of sorts with his absent Republican opponent, U.S. Senator Tommy Tuberville.
The event, held at the Carver Theatre for the Performing Arts in the city’s jazz district, saw Jones aggressively cross-examine footage and audio bits collected from the Republican senator’s tenure in Washington. With only 13 days left in the midterms, Tuberville still refuses to debate Jones despite repeated overtures from Jones’ campaign and others.
“Tommy, you don’t owe me a debate,” Jones said on Wednesday. “You owe the people of Alabama some answers.”
A notable clip that Jones singled out was Tuberville’s early U.S. Senate campaign promise to “donate every dime” of his federal salary to veterans groups if elected, a promise that Tuberville has since walked back. Jones also highlighted Tuberville’s objection to the PACT Act, which provides federal compensation to veterans who suffered adverse health effects from exposure to toxic substances during their service, as well as the senator’s notable 2023 hold on U.S. military nominations, which left hundreds of senior military positions unfilled for nearly a year. Tuberville’s objection stemmed from a Pentagon policy announced by then-U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to allow leave and reimbursements for travel expenses to pregnant service members seeking legal abortions following the dissolution of Roe v. Wade.
“Tommy Tuberville said he was standing on principle,” Jones said. “It’s a hell of a principle folks when you put our nation at risk and when the consequences of your personal crusade is being borne by the men and women serving our country and the families that they’re supporting.”
Jones went on to say that his “proudest moment” while in the U.S. Senate was the elimination of the so-called “widow’s tax” on spouses of U.S. veterans whose death was service-related.
Expanding Medicaid in Alabama has been one of Jones’ largest talking points throughout his campaign, with the former U.S. senator arguing that Alabama “can’t afford not to” expand the program. He criticized Tuberville for saying expansion was unaffordable without offering a plan to tackle the cost.
“Most people, almost all people on Medicaid, unless you’re elderly, are working,” Jones said. “The health insurance, the subsidies were allowed to lapse. That cost Alabamians a lot of health insurance.”
Jones also warned that new requirements for SNAP benefits now obligatory under the Big Beautiful Bill, which Tuberville supported, have radically shifted substantial costs to the state and forced thousands off food assistance as a result.
“Our legislative leaders that have run the legislature for the last eight years spent money like drunk sailors,” Jones said. “While they had COVID money, they built prisons with it. They didn’t put back money to help people. They didn’t expand Medicaid. They didn’t put back money to help food assistance. They didn’t do the things that good stewards of your money should be doing.”
Jones also alleged that Tuberville’s support of data centers derives from tech stocks the senator has collected in his expansive stock trading while in office. According to MarketBeat, Tuberville has completed 1,029 total trades over his five years in office, accumulating a trade volume of $30.15 million. Tuberville has also been a vocal critic of federal legislation to prevent stock trading by members of Congress.
“That’s why he’s so gung-ho on the data centers, because he’s going to make money on them for a while,” Jones said.
If elected governor, Jones said he would support amending the Alabama Ethics Act to prohibit stock trading among constitutional officers.
“Tommy Tuberville would rather protect the small interest in Montgomery that is making money off of your state government rather than to give the services to the people of Alabama that will lift all boats and all communities.”
Following the speech on Wednesday, Jones reiterated his desire to eliminate the current state grocery tax, which state Republicans have recently announced will be on the docket for the upcoming legislative session, as well as his belief in a one-year moratorium on data center construction in Alabama.
“We can put guardrails in place to protect communities and to put some accountability measures in place to make them live up to what they’re doing and put money back into the communities,” Jones said.
The Associated Press released a poll on Wednesday showing that only 55 percent of Democratic voters believe their votes will be counted fairly in this upcoming election, down from 75 percent for the previous midterms in 2022. A vast majority of those same Democratic voters also indicated that attempts by President Donald Trump to influence the election were a major concern.
Jones mentioned that he was coordinating with his campaign legal team to plan for any “shenanigans” moving forward for the election date.
“I do think our elections have been secure, but I am concerned about what may happen at a polling place to challenge voters,” Jones said.
The Carver Theatre lies within a few city blocks of the 16th Street Baptist Church, where, in 1963, four Black schoolgirls were killed when a bomb fabricated by members of the United Klans of America detonated on the side of the church. Two of the four perpetrators, Bobby Frank Cherry and Thomas Blanton, would later be prosecuted by then-U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama Doug Jones.
