Alabama Democrats hope to turn midterm momentum into lasting support

Alabama Democrats couldn't notch a win in a statewide race on Tuesday, but party leaders say the wins downballot were more than just moral victories; they were a sign of new life.

The party has struggled to be competitive for nearly two decades, plagued by infighting while navigating the challenges of a deep red state. But the party elected Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton as chair in August in a move that party members have called a unifying effort while the Republican redistricting attempt to remove Shomari Figures from U.S. Congress galvanized voter turnout.

"I feel really good about where we were on Tuesday," Singleton said. "The results weren't satisfying inasmuch as we wanted to win at the top, but being within four points was a win for us. That's something that hadn't happened in this state in 25 years. Now we want to build on that and grow, to continue to get quality candidates. Doug Jones ran a hell of a race; that was the key factor, the fact that we had not had a lineup like that in a while."

While Jones fell short, Figures handily won reelection despite the Republican gerrymandering—a trend seen across the country as a blue wave swept through as an apparent rebuke to the first two years of President Donald Trump's second term in office. Democrats were also able to flip four seats in the Alabama Legislature despite facing gerrymandered maps there, too, making their first dent in the Republican supermajority in more than a decade.

"This campaign was never about me; it was always about giving the people of Alabama choices, fresh ideas, and hope for a better future," Jones said in his concession on Wednesday. "We brought new people into the political process and helped lay the groundwork for Democrats to compete in elections for years to come. And the results across Alabama give us a lot to celebrate. 

"Across all 67 counties, Democrats improved on past election performances. Congressman Shomari Figures won another term despite the Republican redistricting they thought would cost him his seat. Congresswoman Terri Sewell won reelection. 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. 

"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."

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels said Singleton's leadership played a key role in the party's success on Tuesday.

"Bobby Singleton understands the chess game of politics better than most," Daniels said on Alabama Politics This Week. "So now I have a partner in the party that understands the political process side so that we can communicate more effectively; so that's all I needed. Someone that understands how to fundraise. Someone that understands how to organize. He's not a 'high-level organizer'—this guy is on the ground. This man has been a city council member, a state house member, a state senator, and he's still involved in the grassroots of his own community. What better person could you have as your party chair?"

When it comes to laying the groundwork for upcoming elections, Daniels said the party needs to take this momentum and focus it into further developing the county and continue the party's messaging on affordability while letting the Republican Party sort out its new identity crisis.

"I can assure you there'll be a lot of folks running from Trump after (Tuesday) night," Daniels said. "And so for me, that's gonna turn into an internal war for them. And my grandma's always told me 'When these boys get into a fight, you just sit back and watch.' But I will say this: I'm very hopeful that we're able to really put the extremism on the shelf and focus on the issues that impact people."

Singleton said there are already signs that the election is going to help the Democrats work across the aisle with the Republican leadership in the Legislature.

"I think they got the message loud and clear; they didn’t win by the points they’re used to winning by," Singleton said. "They see it coming. I think it’s going to be a humbling effect. I've already had some of these conversations with Republican leadership; they see it, and I think we are going to be in a great position with Republican supermajority to work across the aisle."

A huge turnout in Montgomery sealed the victory for Figures and helped lift Democrats across the board, largely in apparent response to the attempt by Republicans to reshape the district to favor themselves.

"They awakened a sleeping giant," said Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed. "The response here was a seismic one that spanned generations from our civil rights veterans to young people all really organizing and amplifying the message we needed."

The birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement saw a 50 percent turnout in the county, a number that organizers were optimistically targeting and were thrilled to see materialize on Election Day.

The "All Roads Lead to the South" rally in May in response to the redistricting fight brought national leaders and attention that Reed said helped the movement gain momentum.

"Some just thought that was a show; it wasn't," Reed said. "That was a spark to what would be a common theme over the summer: we have to fight for our voting rights. This was not a time to sit it out."

Reed is hopeful that Montgomery—and Alabama by extension—proved itself Tuesday to an extent that the long-sought national support will flood into the state.

"There's a lot of potential to invest in the South," Reed said. "I've already talked to Derrick Johnson, the NAACP president, about how Mississippi organized. I've talked with Sen Raphael Warnock about how Georgia organized. The Civil Rights Movement is an ongoing movement: it never stopped, it changed ... In the not-too-distant future I think we're going to attract more national investment and we will see more walls come down in future election cycles."