Doug Jones, the Democratic nominee for Senate in Alabama, is a long-time attorney best known for his successful prosecution of Ku Klux Klan members for a 1963 church bombing. He's also a first-time candidate. That's part of the reason Democrats think he might be able to pull out an upset victory over scandal-plagued Republican candidate Roy Moore in a state that hasn't elected a Democrat to statewide office since 1992.

The latest: Jones is going on the offensive against Moore with new ads focusing on his accusers.

What they're saying: Artur Davis, a former Democratic congressman from the Montgomery area, told The Washington Post Jones would need to appeal to his no-nonsense track record and avoid the culture wars of other recent high-profile races to get statewide Alabama voters on board: "To pull the 20 percent of Republicans he needs, he is going to have to make this a race about common-sense ideas, working with both sides, and avoid the temptation to portray this race as a clash of dark and light. That will backfire here quicker than Roy can say Jesus."

Jones' background

Born and raised in Alabama, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa and his law degree at Samford University.

Jones worked for the Senate Judiciary Committee and Department of Justice before being appointed U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Alabama by Bill Clinton in 1997.

As U.S. attorney, beginning in 1998, Jones successfully prosecuted two KKK members in connection with the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham that killed four African-American girls. Both perpetrators received life sentences.

He also coordinated the federal response to Atlanta Olympics bomber Eric Rudolph after he bombed an abortion clinic in Birmingham in 1998.

His positions