Doug Jones (politician)

Doug Jones
Official portrait, 2018
United States Senator
from Alabama
In office
January 3, 2018 – January 3, 2021
Preceded byLuther Strange
Succeeded byTommy Tuberville
United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama
In office
September 8, 1997 – January 20, 2001
PresidentBill Clinton
Preceded byClaude Harris Jr.
Succeeded byAlice Martin
Personal details
Born
Gordon Douglas Jones

(1954-05-04) May 4, 1954 (age 70)
Fairfield, Alabama, U.S.
Political partyDemocratic
Spouse
Louise New
​
(m. 1992)​
Children3
EducationUniversity of Alabama (BS)
Samford University (JD)
SignatureCursive signature in ink
WebsiteCampaign website
Doug Jones's voice
Doug Jones recites an excerpt of Letter from Birmingham Jail on the Senate floor
Recorded April 10, 2019

Gordon Douglas Jones (born May 4, 1954) is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from Alabama from 2018 to 2021.[1][2] A member of the Democratic Party, Jones was previously the United States Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama from 1997 to 2001. He is the most recent Democrat to win and/or hold statewide office in Alabama.

Jones was born in Fairfield, Alabama, and is a graduate of the University of Alabama and Cumberland School of Law at Samford University. After law school, he worked as a congressional staffer and as a federal prosecutor before moving to private practice. In 1997, President Bill Clinton appointed Jones as U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama. Jones's most prominent cases were the successful prosecution of two Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 Birmingham church bombing that killed four African-American girls and the indictment of domestic terrorist Eric Rudolph. He returned to private practice at the conclusion of Clinton's presidency in 2001.

Jones announced his candidacy for United States Senate in the 2017 special election following the resignation of Republican incumbent Jeff Sessions to become U.S. Attorney General. After winning the Democratic primary in August, he faced former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore in the general election. Jones was considered a long-shot candidate in a deeply Republican state. A month before the election, Moore was alleged to have sexually assaulted and otherwise acted inappropriately with several women, including some who were minors at the time.[3] Jones won the special election by 22,000 votes, 50%–48%.[4]

At the time, Jones was the only statewide elected Democrat in Alabama and the first Democrat to win statewide office since Lucy Baxley was elected President of the Alabama Public Service Commission in 2008. Democrats had not represented Alabama in the U.S. Senate since 1997, when Howell Heflin left office. Jones was considered a fairly moderate Democrat, who supported reproductive and LGBT rights but demonstrated a willingness to work with Republicans and split with his party on certain issues.[5] Jones ran for a full term in 2020 and lost to Republican nominee Tommy Tuberville in a landslide. His margin of defeat was the largest of an incumbent senator since 2010.[6]

In January 2021, he joined CNN as a political commentator.[7] Jones was a fellow at the Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service during the spring 2021 academic semester, and was a distinguished Pritzker Fellow at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics during the fall of 2022.[8] In February 2022, the Biden administration named him as a nomination advisor for legislative affairs, advising the president on Supreme Court nominations.[1]

  1. ^ a b "President Biden Announces Additional Advisors for Supreme Court Process". The White House. February 2, 2022. Retrieved February 24, 2022.
  2. ^ "Doug Jones (@DougJones46)". Twitter. Retrieved March 28, 2022.
  3. ^ Jacobs, Ben; Smith, David (December 13, 2017). "Alabama election: Democrats triumph over Roy Moore in major blow to Trump". The Guardian. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  4. ^ Chandler, Kim; Peoples, Steve (December 13, 2017). "Democrat Jones wins stunning red-state Alabama Senate upset". ABC News. Associated Press. Archived from the original on December 17, 2017. Retrieved December 13, 2017.
  5. ^ Beaman, Jeremy (April 13, 2018). "Sen. Doug Jones has proved himself — so far — to be a moderate Democrat". YellowHammer News. Retrieved February 6, 2020.
  6. ^ Clare Foran (November 4, 2020). "Democrat Doug Jones loses Alabama Senate seat to Republican Tommy Tuberville". CNN.
  7. ^ Lonas, Lexi (January 29, 2021). "Doug Jones joining CNN as political commentator". The Hill. Retrieved February 6, 2021.
  8. ^ "Doug Jones". Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy, Institute of Politics and Public Service. Retrieved April 20, 2021.