WASHINGTON ― From the moment Doug Jones delivered his maiden speech, it was clear his time in the Senate was going to be different from that of a conventional red state Democrat.

Instead of sticking to safe topics like improving care for veterans or decrying political polarization, the Alabama Democrat opted to address an issue that is anathema to most voters in his state and others across the South: gun control.

In his March 2018 speech, Jones called for modest steps such as universal background checks for firearm purchases and raising the age for legally buying semi-automatic weapons to 21, adding that the government had a “duty” to address gun violence in the wake of the deadly school shooting in Parkland, Florida.

It was an eyebrow-raising move, one that conservatives viewed as deeply contrary to the Republican leanings of Alabama voters.

Jones has continued to chart his own path in the Senate since then. Though a moderate Democrat who sometimes votes to advance President Donald Trump’s agenda, he hasn’t been afraid to oppose Trump on issues dear to conservative voters, like funding for a border wall or the Supreme Court nomination of Brett Kavanaugh. According to the Five Thirty-Eight website, which tracks votes in Congress, Jones has voted against Trump’s position 60% of the time ― a low figure for most Senate Democrats, but high for the only one representing a Deep South state.

A former federal prosecutor who won guilty verdicts against the Ku Klux Klan members responsible for the deadly 1963 bombing of a Birmingham, Alabama, church, Jones has also called out Trump for his divisive and what many call racist rhetoric. The president, Jones has said, ought to quit being the “offender-in-chief,” warning that Trump through his rhetoric was unintentionally giving a “green light″ to hate crimes across the country.

Jones’ tendency to speak out against Trump stands in stark contrast to the stance struck by another Democratic senator hailing from a red state ― Joe Manchin of West Virginia. But Jones is unapologetic about how he has positioned himself ahead of his 2020 re-election battle. He said he is exactly who he’d promised to be before arriving in Washington after scoring an upset win in a December 2017 special election.

“When [Trump] does things that help Alabama, I’m right there. When he does things that don’t, I’m not there and I will be critical about it, and so I feel really good about where it is and that’s what people want,” Jones told HuffPost last week. “I’m not going to have anybody lead me, whether it’s the president or someone from our own party.”

Still, his bid for a full six-year term next year is bound to be a lot tougher for Jones than his race in the special election, which he won by less than two percentage points. And the stakes are high for his party ― if he can hold onto his seat, Democratic chances of winning a Senate majority will get a major boost.

Progressive groups who helped fuel Jones’ 2017 victory credit him for standing up for progressive values as often as he does.

“On issues from choice to Trump’s racist border wall, he’s had more guts and shown a greater commitment to justice than Joe Manchin,” said Neil Sroka, a spokesman for Democracy for America.