We helped Doug Jones win Alabama. Here's how Democrats can win America. Our enthusiasm edge won't be enough. We need money, discipline and candidates everywhere who know who they are and what they're doing.

Paul Maslin and Joe Trippi | Opinion contributors

Show Caption Hide Caption Doug Jones and Tina Smith are sworn into the U.S. Senate Democratic Lawmakers Doug Jones of Alabama and Tina Smith of Minnesota Are Sworn Into The U.S. Senate

When the Sheraton hotel ballroom in Birmingham erupted on the night of Dec. 12 with the news that Democrat Doug Jones had upset Republican Roy Moore and won the Alabama special election for the U.S. Senate, tears of joy were falling not just there but all over America and indeed the world.

Coming just 13 months after the stunning presidential election of Donald Trump and weeks after a Democratic wave in Virginia, this was definitive confirmation that at this moment, in the most conservative of states, America had woken up and decided to pursue a different path.

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Events and elections this year will tell that ultimate story, and whether it will hold in races without Moore and his singular problems. But for Democrats who rejoiced Wednesday as the brand new senator from Alabama was sworn in, we offer the following observations about what our candidate’s victory might mean:

►Run everywhere and anywhere. In order to have the chance to exploit first Moore’s nomination and then his scandal, Democrats needed a credible candidate. Jones, while never having run for office before, was a successful prosecutor and respected attorney with a broad network of contacts in Alabama. We need similar people to step forward to run for office throughout the South, such as Senate candidate Phil Bredesen, the former Tennessee governor — but also in the Midwest and other supposedly Trump or Republican strongholds. The wave will reach its full power only if there are plenty of surfers who know what they are doing atop it.

►Don’t trim your sails. Jones is a moderate Democrat willing to work across the aisle and find common ground to get things done for Alabama and our country. However, he did not alter his support for reproductive rights, immigration or gay marriage — or downplay his role in prosecuting and convicting two of the Ku Klux Klan members who murdered four African-American girls at a Birmingham church in 1963 — to curry favor with certain constituencies. Not every Democrat will agree with every other Democrat on policy issues. We have had, and still possess, a big tent. Voters would rather you say what you mean and mean what you say than believe you are willing to sacrifice your principles in exchange for a few votes.

►Common ground works as a message, even in, and perhaps especially because of, these polarized times. Jones’ willingness to cross the aisle was an integral part of his message from the beginning of the campaign and became a constant in our advertising. Our polling showed that Jones won two in five voters who had favored Luther Strange (the establishment choice) in the September GOP runoff, and Jones also won independents by nearly 10 points on Election Day. The truth is that the actions of President Trump and his GOP majority in Congress have made them vulnerable to the charge that they are unwilling to compromise — thus failing to achieve any progress on health care and other key issues. In contrast with Jones’ strengths, by election eve, 49% of Alabamians felt that Moore would “make things worse in Washington.”

►We have an energized coalition that can produce electoral magic. African Americans, particularly black women, made a heroic demonstration of their political clout in Alabama: 96% favored Jones. And they punched way above their weight on turnout — exceeding their share of the overall electorate by several points while the white electorate that fueled the 2016 Trump win shrank substantially.

College-educated white suburbanites and Millennials of all races and ethnicities helped produce the Jones victory margin as well. In each case, our campaign and various complementary groups used traditional forms of communication — television, radio and mail — as well as social media and direct voter contact in substantial volume. Campaigns must use every medium to communicate urgency to these voters.

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►More important, groups within these communities need and deserve more support and resources to build strong and effective get-out-the-vote efforts. The groups that built those efforts in Alabama had to do so from scratch with little or no existing organization in place. What they did was nothing short of amazing.

One caution: This special election stood alone on the political calendar, with everyone focused on one campaign. That will not be the case next fall, so campaigns won’t be able to count on the concentrated efforts of others. They must budget enough money to make the Democratic enthusiasm gap pay off in 2018.

Finally, we would urge the next wave of Democratic candidates to set their sights as high as possible while also keeping a disciplined eye on the electoral prize. The best contenders combine a sweeping vision or campaign strategy with the resolute ability to stay on message, come hell or high water. Think Bill Clinton 1992, Barack Obama 2008 or, for that matter, Donald Trump 2016.

And think Doug Jones 2017. He stayed incredibly grounded, even as his campaign soared to unthinkable heights. He might have pointed the way for his nation to become "Sweet Home America."

Paul Maslin, a Democratic pollster, and Joe Trippi, a Democratic media consultant, were chief strategists for Sen. Doug Jones in Alabama. Follow Trippi on Twitter: @JoeTrippi