Election Night in Alabama

CNN�s election coverage is always a spectacle to watch. As I watched the network last night, I was gripped by the suspense that they broadcasted throughout the night. It was like watching college football. The studio is brightly lit and there are screens everywhere. You�ve got John King in the corner with his digital, touchscreen board rambling on about what could happen and comparing what is happening to previous elections and then you�ve got a panel of Democrats and Republicans debating statistics. And they go in depth with their statistical analysis. They break down the exit polls, talking about white women, black women, married women, women with children, etcetera. On the bottom of the screen you have multiple charts and displays popping up next to �Breaking News� alerts. And throughout the entire cinematic experience, everybody is talking quickly and spitting out data with dramatic music in the background.

            If you love statistics, it is definitely something that you would enjoy. CNN does a very good job in covering election results. Other networks have not been able to bring the same intensity that CNN creates in their studios. Some people may argue that CNN is just doing this for ratings and while they are right, it�s still a good thing. This kind of suspense makes elections exciting and might excite viewers to vote next time if they didn�t participate this time around.

            Speaking of elections, tonight�s main story is about last night�s election in Alabama where I watched CNN as the results started to pour in. For a while, Roy Moore held a lead and supporters at his headquarters started to get excited. At around 10:00 PM, more precincts in Jefferson Country (the largest county in the state) started reporting and Jones won the county in a landslide (he got 70% of the vote). Out of the eight biggest counties in Alabama, Jones won six of them. This is characteristic of many modern elections. Democrats carry the cities and Republicans carry the rural areas and suburban neighborhoods. Jones was able to milk the more populous counties enough to win last night�s election. (here is a detailed analysis of last night's election)

It�s a big deal and Democrats are ecstatic about the victory, and they ought to be. However, a common reaction among Democrats is that since we won this senate race in Alabama, the deep south is now in the playing field. That is simply not true. Doug Jones did not win last night�s election, Roy Moore lost it. Ask anybody about Doug Jones� policies or anything about him and most people will not have an answer for you. He is not a revolutionary candidate. Nothing about him is unique, including his extremely generic name: Doug Jones. He�s just a guy, moderate and respectable. Compared to the circus that was his opponent, Jones did not have to work that hard to convince Alabamians to vote for him. All he needed to say was, �I am not a pedophile. I�m Doug and you won�t have to be embarrassed to be from Alabama if I get elected.�

Moore, on the other hand, was an interesting figure. Even without the allegations of sexual misconduct leveled against him, he would be easy to beat in a less conservative state. According to a campaign spokesperson, Moore �Probably thinks that homosexuality should be illegal.� In 2011, Moore also stated that getting rid of all of the amendments past the tenth would �get rid of a lot of problems.� His wife claimed that their family is not anti-Semitic because they have a Jewish lawyer. The man rode a horse to vote yesterday.

If I were forced to choose between a guy named Doug Jones and an ultraconservative, almost laughable person named Roy Moore, I wouldn�t need to analyze Jones� policies or his past very much to make that decision. A lot of Democrats have determined that this election means that they can win in the south now. That is not the case. The circumstances surrounding this election and the perfect environment allowed Doug Jones to win. It had nothing to do with his policies or some memorable speech. Democrats need to recognize this before gaining a false sense of arrogance like they did last year during the Presidential election. This result should give them hope in turning over the Senate and maybe the House, but the electorate has not shifted very much since 2016. Doug Jones won by less than 20,000 votes last night in an election with 20% voter turnout. Unless a bunch of Roy Moores decide to run in the midterms next year, Democrats need to rethink their strategy and run new candidates with bold ideas for office. That�s all for this week. 

Here's some footage of John King and his super cool digital board.