Doug Jones’ earth-shaking win in Alabama on Tuesday has Democrats dreaming of 2018 aftershocks across the country and in states where they haven’t been competitive in years.

They’re eyeing Senate races in Utah, Nebraska and Texas; gubernatorial races in South Carolina, Georgia, Kansas and Tennessee; and House districts where Republicans hold more than a 5-point advantage heading into the midterms. The party is close to landing a recruit (a distant relative of Elvis) in Mississippi, the last Senate race in which they need one, with hopes that a divisive GOP primary could create another unexpected opening in the South. And there is sudden talk about dozens of pick-ups in state legislatures that could flip seven chambers and up to nine state attorneys general.


Some Democrats are more skeptical about the lessons of the Alabama stunner, noting that the party outspent Republicans 6 to 1 and beat an accused child molester by just more than a point. Roy Moore, even with allegations of sexual misconduct, still got 650,000 votes, more than he would have needed to win the seat in any other year. And political tribalism, they argue, is as real as ever.

But a surging Democratic turnout this year — even in races they lost — particularly among female, African-American and under-30 voters, combined with President Donald Trump’s dismal approval rating and Republican infighting, have Democratic leaders seeing tough midterm races as manageable, and once-impossible races as long shots that just might happen, too.

“People are voting everywhere. People woke up the day after Trump got elected and said, ‘I will no longer be a casual participant in democracy ever again,’” Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez said in an interview. “Is it an uphill battle to win the House and the Senate? Of course it is. Is it doable? I think so as well.”

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Republican candidates in key races are struggling with how closely to align themselves with Trump, but Democrats aren’t expecting many primaries like the one that produced Moore, let alone other candidates to face the explosive revelations that took him down.

Nonetheless, “even if they do avoid a total Trumpist apologist, they can’t overcome the massive turnout and enthusiasm we’re seeing across the country,” said Democratic Governors Association Chair Gov. Jay Inslee, adding: “This is a 50-state strategy that’s happening organically.”

Perez said he’d pegged Jones’ chances at 40-45 percent for weeks, but hasn’t studied the rest of the races for next year well enough to put a number on the odds of Democrats taking the majorities beyond “solid.”

A Monmouth poll out Wednesday had 51 percent of registered voters favoring the generic Democrat in their districts, compared with 36 percent for the Republican.

For Democratic incumbents and challengers alike, the word has gone out from the national party and the Senate and House campaign committees: Professionalize operations early in coordination with national operatives to prepare not just for an already destabilized environment which no one can model, but to take advantage of more surprise flameouts and meltdowns if and when they come.

“I thought it was important that we have a strong, credible candidate,” said Jenny Wilson, who’s trying to take down Sen. Orrin Hatch in Utah, of all places, “and I’m really seeing a path to the victory.”

Plus, Democrats see a midterm year with so many races in play that they’re hoping they may be able spread Republican money thin enough to minimize the financial advantage. And though the Koch brothers and others are expected to put hundreds of millions of outside money in, none of that super PAC money can be spent directly on the campaign operations that seem to be pulling candidates over the finish line.

Or, as Perez put it, in drilling down on the Alabama results, “I never dreamed that Doug Jones could outperform Barack Obama.”

“You’ve got a lot of energized Democrats, but also a lot of independent and moderate Republican voters who are rejecting the latest form of Trumpism,” said Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.).

Trump’s saying that Moore would be another vote for his agenda is exactly the kind of comment Democrats are hoping he keeps making about other Republican candidates.

“The things that Donald Trump has proposed so far when it comes to the economic agenda, they are very far away from the populist message that Donald Trump sold in a lot of these states,” Van Hollen added. “I know a lot of people are thinking that the Trump agenda is something that no longer helps them.”

Candidates say Trump’s voters appear exhausted, and at the very least not transferring their support for him to other candidates, while other voters have been lit up.

Jane Raybould, a local grocery owner in Nebraska who came in 18 points behind when she was on the ticket for lieutenant governor in 2014, said she’s already seeing it in her campaign against Sen. Deb Fischer.

“What I’m sensing and seeing from not only the people that I’m meeting, but the people I’ve spoken to on the phone, is a different level of engagement,” Raybould said. “The crowds are bigger. They’re excited. They sense a real possibility in our state.”

Into the night Tuesday after the election was called for Jones and through the day on Wednesday, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and his political staff made another round of calls to recruits they’ve been chasing.

New territory is opening up, said DCCC communications director Meredith Kelly, but they’re also trying to be realistic about the unique issues that were at play for Jones in facing Moore.

“We need to be careful not to overlearn the lessons of Alabama,” Kelly said.

Nonetheless, the DCCC is already taking a fresh look at districts that have large African-American populations though they may not have had competitive races recently, as well as districts with Republican incumbents they believe they can push arguments about ethics and conduct against, and counter them with candidates like Jones, who can tout local roots and records of service.

“Alabama definitely supports that strategy and shows that strategy can work, though we don’t know what the environment will be,” Kelly said.

Brandon Presley, the Mississippi public service commissioner who’s fielded calls for weeks from Van Hollen and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, said the combination of the Virginia and Alabama wins were “a shot in the arm” for Southern Democrats.

“For many of us who have lived under somewhat of a dark cloud of dismal politics,” he said of Jones’ win, “it was a bright ray of sunshine.”

Presley said he'll decide by the end of the year. But so far, he hasn't heard from Washington since Jones claimed victory.

“I’m sure,” he said, “those calls are coming.”