When Nancy Worley took over as the state Democratic Party's chairwoman in 2013, she arrived at the party offices for the first time to find a note from the landlord: Pay the rent or get out.

"I kept getting notices that the power would be turned off, and everything else because money had been borrowed repeatedly," recalled Worley, a former school teacher who served as Alabama secretary of state from 2003-2007.

"Broke. Broke. Broke," became an plea Worley made before the Democratic board that May, warning that the party was about $750,000 in debt.

Today, the party might not be "broke," but it still grapples with debt, and lacks the resources and dollars to vigorously fuel the campaigns of its 2018 candidates. Even after the stunning win by Doug Jones in the U.S. Senate election, contributions lag considerably behind those flowing to Alabama Republicans.

Jones, on Monday, said he believes the party is in a better state today than it was before the Dec. 12 special U.S. Senate election.

But Alabama historian Wayne Flynt minces no words in his description of the state party. He said that it's akin to a "corpse."

According to Flynt and others, an "alternative structure" is forming, rooted in populism and powered by newcomers, women and savvy political players who are prepared to make inroads in the ruby-red state.

"The collapse of the party structure from the top down may not be a bad thing," said Flynt, a professor emeritus in the history department at Auburn University.

'Nancy and Joe'

But the Alabama Democratic Party, as a political entity, hasn't vanished thus far. In fact, it's longtime structure appears to be very much intact.

The top leaders are Worley and Joe Reed, president of the Alabama Democratic Conference - a stalwart, yet oft-criticized boss of the minority wing of the Democratic Party. Critics have blamed the duo for a lack of election victories this past decade despite scandals bringing down a range of GOP notables.

Divisions within the party have become public spectacles at times. Last February, some of the county chairs - who derisively refer to the state party as "Nancy and Joe" - blamed the two for electoral failures. Worley and Reed, in turn, heaped blame on the county leaders.

Meanwhile, former Alabama House Minority Leader Craig Ford of Gadsden had called on Reed and Worley to step down. Ford announced earlier this month that he will seek a state Senate seat as an independent.

No changes in state party hierarchy will be explored until at least August, when the state Executive Committee, whose members will be determined in the June 5 primary, are seated.

"Our state party, we need a change in leadership," said Mike Smith, the chairman of the Limestone Democratic Party. Smith said he was threatened with arrest during the state Executive Committee meeting in Montgomery a year ago. "When we elect new leadership in August, I expect things will get better."

Whether a change occurs remains to be seen. Worley said that "it's a little early" to decide whether she wants to continue as chair. "I am being very honest, I don't know. I'll have to look at how far the party has gone and how far it needs to go and how I can contribute to that as a leader or as a follower."

Worley has defenders in the party who praise her dedication and resolve. They say that Worley is often at the Montgomery office late into the night, and stays available to discuss party politics with candidates and county chairs who reach out to her.

"She has a four-year term," pointed out Ann Green, chairwoman of the Etowah County Democrats who has had her differences with the state party leaders. "I can call Nancy Worley to talk to her about any problems or issues I have. We are nice to one another. But when we are in those meetings, they are all business."

Reed is Worley's biggest defender, crediting her for ensuring that the party stayed solvent.

"She's kept the doors open," said Reed. "Those who want to fuss about Nancy, they have their own reasons. They have their own reasons but she has been an effective and faithful Democratic Party chair. What the next committee does about that, it will be up to the committee."

'Tough decisions'

One party woe is that it can give relatively little to its candidates running for county commission seats or other local offices.

Not only are contributions to the Alabama Democratic Party meager in comparison with the Alabama GOP, they also lag the collections of various Democratic parties elsewhere in the Deep South.

Last year, Alabama Democrats reported $306,862 in receipts, matched against disbursements of $235,338, according to Federal Election Commission data. In 2013, Worley's first year as chair, the party had $276,005 in receipts and $260,275 in disbursements after starting the year $2,702 in the red.

By contrast,

-The Alabama Republican Party report for 2017 showed $1.03 million in receipts and $942,780 in disbursements.

--South Carolina Democrats reported $726,362 in receipts last year and $734,866 in disbursements.

- Tennessee Democrats reported $832,354 in receipts to $845,537 in disbursements.

Worley, however, said that better days are ahead. She said the party is whittling away at outstanding debt that is just below $500,000, making monthly payments to two banks.

"We've seen an improvement in the financial condition and we have a number of people who contribute, and they may contribute small amounts," she said.

Inside the office, Worley said she's made some small but meaningful cuts. Early in her term, Worley said her office scrapped the cleaning budget, for example, and began reusing used paper for taking notes.

Worley said the state party has two full-time employees. She and Reed and are both volunteers, she said.

"We have to make tough decisions and that doesn't always make people happy," she said. "Every week there is someone in here wanting money for something or wanting to do some work for us, and while it may be good, it's not something that we need to expend thousands and thousands of dollars on."

Last year, as national attention riveted on Doug Jones and his political battle with Republican Roy Moore, the Democratic nominee's campaign raised nearly $22 million. A sizable portion of that money came from out-of-state donors.

Worley lamented that the state party couldn't pitch in which "hundreds of thousands of dollars," she said that it worked at the street level, such as buying and ferrying yard signs to counties.

'Grassroots'

At present, in the Statehouse halls, there seems to be little thought that that the state party can be any kind of campaign force in 2018. Instead, the narrative among Alabama Democratic lawmakers is for a more grassroots push.

"You tell me when has there ever been a strong Democratic Party?" said House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville. "The Democratic Party has never had any strong infrastructure. You always had four to five people calling the shots ... Party bosses,"

Daniels and other Democrats, sensing a wave of victories elsewhere in the U.S. this November, are focused on get-out-the-vote efforts. They are betting on a national Democratic surge to have a spillover effect here.

"The message of the Doug Jones victory is that Alabama is a moderate state," said state Rep. Rodger Smitherman, D-Birmingham. "It's not an extreme right state. It's not an extreme left state. That's what we are."

Said Daniels: "Organizing at the grassroots level is the most effective organizing. When you are able to run on local issues with a platform that really connects with people, I think that is effective campaigning."

To historian Flynt, the Democrats can learn from a lesson from the story of Rueben Kolb, who rode a wave of economic populism nearly to the Governor's Mansion in the late 1800s.

At that time, Alabama was, for all practical purposes, a one-party Democratic state. But that party had its own fierce factions. Kolb campaigned on behalf of workers and poor farmers - both black and white. But he lost gubernatorial races in 1892 and 1894, thanks to the party's manipulation of votes in the Black Belt region.

"The rational political historian in me says, 'Oh Lord, the Democrats are a disaster and there is no party at the state level,'" said Flynt. "But there is another part of me that goes back into my interest of the grassroots and ordinary people rising up as they did in the populist movement in the 1890s. Rueben became a charismatic and unifying."

Flynt senses Democratic populism resurfacing this year, and cited the candidacy of 29-year-old Mallory Hagan, who won the Miss America contest in 2013. Hagan, who lives in Opelika, is running against 15-year incumbent Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Saks, in Alabama's 3rd Congressional District.

"She is all passion and Mike has taken this district for granted," said Flynt, who is providing Hagan with policy briefings. "She'll be a galvanizing political candidate. She's such an alternative to Mike Rogers."

Richard Fording, a political science professor at the University of Alabama, said the grassroots emergence during the Jones campaign hinted at a future Alabama Democratic Party based on a "local-level party infrastructure in this state."

"I do think a lot of people were empowered after the Doug Jones victory and when that happens, there tends to be some residue left from grassroots mobilization like that and it does tend to become organizational semi-permanent in some way," Fording said.

He added, "I don't see things changing quickly within the state Democratic Party. The only vehicle I know where it could go is to try and re-establish their grassroots presence."

Jones, himself, said the strategy in 2018 needs to be similar to his 2017 campaign: Stick to the issues. "People are tired of the divisions. They are absolutely tired of all the hate and the people who are throwing stones. They want to see people working together."

The localized efforts may be bearing fruit in recruiting candidates. For instance, in Baldwin County -- a conservative Republican stronghold for decades - more Democrats are running for state and county offices than in recent memory.

A year ago, all but three of 32 slots on the Baldwin County Democratic committee were open, according to Heather Brown, vice chair of the Baldwin Democrats. This year, she anticipates half of the spots being filled.

In the five northernmost counties that comprise the 5th Congressional District, 17 Democrats have qualified to run for 25 seats. That's a telling improvement from 2014, when only four Democrats qualified.

Zac McCrary, a Democratic pollster in Montgomery, said the greatest amount of energy is likely to occur in areas where Jones defeated Moore by garnering 55 percent of the vote or more. "That is where the energy will be and with the next crop of Democratic candidates and where you'll see this movement moving forward," McCrary said.

'Blue wave'?

Michael Hoyt, who chairs the Baldwin County GOP, acknowledged that Democrats are "a bit energized" following the Jones win.

"My guess is the Doug Jones victory is not going to have a lot of coattails for Democrats in Baldwin County," Hoyt said, noting that Moore won about 59 percent of the county vote. "I don't expect there to be a blue wave in Baldwin County. There are no numbers to support it."

Terry Lathan, chairwoman of the Alabama Republican Party, is equally skeptical of a Democratic surge at the state level. After all, this is the state where President Donald Trump enjoys some of his highest approval ratings.

"Across the state, it seems to be the consensus, even among Democrats, that the Senate race was a 'one and done,'" she said. "The circumstances surrounding the race wasn't about a red state now suddenly blue."

She said that Democrats took to social media to "beg for candidates" in 2018. Republicans, however, "literally have hundreds of candidates across the state," she said. Lathan said that recent GOP candidate school training session was overwhelmed by "a full capacity crowd."

"With all of the crush of media and the $50 million spent for the Senate race, mostly from out-of-state, we still almost won," Lathan said. "I'm sure there is some excitement for them due to the Senate win, but the question is does that transfer over to the county, state and congressional races? Is there millions of dollars coming in? Is the data infrastructure there to duplicate December 12? We think it is not, so we will use our mega data information and deep bench of great candidates to work hard and win."

In fact, Republicans are already winning the campaign contribution battles in most political races, highlighted by the governor's contest. Gov. Kay Ivey has raised over $2.4 million; Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle has generated more than $1.5 million. The top two Democrats in that race - former Alabama Supreme Court chief justice Sue Bell Cobb and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox - have both raised under $400,000 each.

Cobb and Maddox, in statements about the Democratic Party, agreed on the need for a more expansive presence on the grassroots level.

"It is clear that the Democratic Party is more than just an office in Montgomery," said Maddox. "The thousands of people knocking on doors, making phone calls, utilizing social media and tirelessly volunteering are the Democratic Party."

Cobb said that younger voters are the key for Alabama Democrats. She also said that county organizations, which "vary greatly in size and substance," are seeing increases in numbers.

Worley, too, said she's excited by the youth vote, describing it as a sign of activism that Democrats haven't seen in a long time.

Even if the victories don't come in November, she said, it's important to build the Democratic turnout, showing that the party is in the fight.

"If a person loses in Baldwin County but Baldwin County has increased its percentage of Democratic voters, that really helps the candidates running statewide," Worley said.

She added, "Every single vote they add is important to another race."

This story was updated at 8:18 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 20, 2018, to include comments from U.S. Senator Doug Jones.