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Is the New South old news, or can it rise again?

32 0
25.02.2026

The upcoming gubernatorial race in Alabama looks to be a rematch, if the front-runners, as expected, win their respective party nominations in the state’s May 19 primary elections: Doug Jones vs. Tommy Tuberville, senators past and present.

We know Doug Jones, who improbably won a U.S. Senate seat in 2017, the first Democrat to achieve that feat in his home state in more than two decades, and then only with the problematic and scandal-ridden Roy Moore as his Republican opponent. Turns out that a Donald Trump endorsement can’t quite overcome sexual misconduct allegations.

Years before that, Jones had led a team of state and federal attorneys who won convictions against two Klan members in the 1963 bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church that murdered four little Black girls. Those efforts in the early 2000s brought a measure of belated justice to the victims, and Jones did earn some home-state admiration from those eager for Alabama to shake off its “Bombingham” past.

Making a case for his candidacy, Jones is shining a light on bipartisan cooperation and legislative success during his sole Senate term as proof that he can get things done.

We know a lot about Tuberville, as well, who bested Jones when he ran for reelection. Though the former Auburn football coach hardly dazzled voters with his government savvy — tossing out mangled info........

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