Charles Barkley Doug Jones Election Night

Barkley at the Jones watch party on election night

(Joe Songer | jsonger@al.com)

Democratic senatorial candidate Doug Jones, center, speaks during a campaign rally along side Sen. Cory Booker, right, and Rep. Terri Sewell, left, Sunday, Dec. 10, 2017, in Birmingham, Ala. (AP Photo/Brynn Anderson)

Charles Barkley "got goosebumps" when it hit him Tuesday night that Democrat Doug Jones--for whom he had been a vocal and visible supporter during the crucial finals days of the campaign--was going to upset Republican Roy Moore in the special election to become Alabama's newest U.S. Senator.

Media outlets had yet to call the race that had made Alabama the center of the universe for several weeks. In fact, Barkley recalled later, Moore was still 20,000 votes ahead when insiders began telling him the controversial former judge was all but doomed.

"I was talking to [political strategist and analyst] David Alxerod and [former South Carolina state representative] Bakari Sellers [at the Jones watch party at the Sheraton, texting guys who were on TV to find out what was going on," he says. "One guy said, 'I think ya'll might win. Moore's not going to get any more votes tonight because all the Republican counties have reported, and they've still got Jefferson County and he's winning that four to one. Y'all are gonna win this thing.'

"I just got so excited. I got goosebumps. I was really proud of Alabama saying it was time for us to move forward."

It's been properly (and widely) noted that Jones' victory was primarily due to the historic turnout of African-American voters. Blacks represented 30 percent of the electorate, beating the 28 percent of voters in the 2008 presidential election, which, of course, was fueled by the prospect of electing the first African-American president, Barack Obama.

As I've previously said, we were Ala-black-ma, for one night at least.

That Alabama's black voters voted overwhelmingly Democratic was no surprise, but these numbers spoke volumes: 97 percent of black women voted for Jones, as did 92 percent of black men. (By contrast, 74 percent of white men who voted picked Moore, while--stunningly, given the plethora of allegations of sexual misconduct and assault against Moore--65 percent of white women voted for him.)

"This is a wake up call for us black people that we do matter," Barkley says. "We do matter, and we have power. We've got leverage and power going forward."

And they should be aimed squarely, he says at the Democratic National Committee [DNC].

"The DNC has been taking black people for granted forever," he says. "They automatically assume they'll get the black vote. It shows how invisible black people are. Nobody talks about our well-being until they need our votes. They start saying, 'We really need to get black vote out. It's the only way we're going to win this election.

"Now, we've got to start holding their feet to the fire. We've got to hold them accountable. They take our vote for granted and have not reciprocated that love at all. And we just take it. We have not used that leverage or power. This vote in Alabama is a wake-up call.

"We've got to tell them: 'We ain't just black for a special election, we're black all the time. We're black 365 days of the year.'"

That means several things, including hiring African-American political strategists prior to the start of campaigns to ensure strategies reach out to black voters properly, respectfully and effectively--something the Jones campaign (let's face it) did not do for much of the campaign.

Not until the final weeks were African-American voters approached with issues important to them rather than a constant reminder of Jones' role in prosecutive the Ku Klux Klan, and courted by prominent black members of the Democratic party, including U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, former Massachusettes governor Devval Patrick and Alabama U.S. Congresswoman Terri Sewell.

"There have long been African-American political strategist, pollsters, fundraisers, field operators that have been successful at winning political races," says Alabama state Rep. Merika Coleman (District 57). "This is not a new phenomenon. To garner the black vote, these professionals need to be included from the beginning of a campaign and not brought after a candidate has made mistakes in messaging to the black community. These blunders can be avoided by simply bringing their expertise and wisdom to the table in the onset of a political campaign."

House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels (District 53) believes the DNC must remain in the state and help rebuild and transform the state party in a way that takes advantage of the momentum gained from Tuesday's results.

"The DNC must invest in a party infrastructure that can sustain itself for the long-run," Daniels says. "We've shown what we can do. Now, focus on training people to do what needs to be done long-term in the state regarding policy. The coalition Jones built was great, but there was a disconnect on issues that connect with African Americans, other communities of color, women and even rural Alabamians. That has to be part of the narrative from the beginning."

Hoover City Councilor Derrick Murphy is an independent, but he agrees constituents must be addressed well before campaign season.

"I must display servant leadership every day and not just in an election year," he says. "This election should send a direct message to both the Democratic and Republican parties. The laziness of hitching your success of winning an election on party loyalty will be overshadowed by your long-term record of serving people. "

This was the first time Barkley, also an independent, has been this deeply involved with a political campaign. And it was him who reached out to Jones' team (not the other way around) about three weeks before election day.

Barkley on Election Night

"It was personal, man," he says. "I don't live in Alabama. I'm from here. I love the state. We were a laughing stock and didn't even know we were part of the joke.

"I'm in the media [as an NBA analyst for TNT]. All those people weren't here because they gave a shit who the senator from Alabama was; they wanted to see if we were stupid enough to vote for Roy Moore.

"When Jones won, I looked at their faces. If more had won, the 'story' keeps going. Once Jones won, they were like, 'Well, the trip is over. They don't care. They just move on to the next crazy story.

He got involved because "I wanted to look all my friends and family in the eye and say, 'This is a big deal. We've got to do something.' So, I did."

Now, he says he's working with Jones, Birmingham mayor Randall Woodfin and "anybody who wants to help" keep heat on the DNC regarding African Americans.

"This thing was a referendum on Alabama and we passed with flying colors," he says. "I'm getting calls and texts from all over the country. Everybody was watching."

He intends to keep watching.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez, in a conference call with reporters held on the after-glow of victory on Wednesday, called the black vote the "linchpin" of Jones' win--then gave due props to black women, whom he described as "the backbone of the Democratic Party."

Now, let's see if the DNC has the backbone to do what must be done--in Alabama and throughout the nation.