In an interview with MSNBC’s “All In” anchor Chris Hayes that aired Wednesday, U.S. Senate hopeful Doug Jones (D) dismissed the suggestion running for statewide as a Democrat in “deep red” Alabama was a fool’s errand.

Jones, a former Clinton U.S. Attorney who is facing Republican nominee former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore in a special election on December 12 for the Senate seat formerly held by Jeff Sessions, argued kitchen table issues should be the primary focus of voters and rather than “parties.”

Partial transcript as follows:

HAYES: Mr. Jones, to people that look at a state that Donald Trump won by 28 points that’s at deep red as can be, what is your elevator pitch to them that this is not an entirely fool’s errand that you’re on – that a Democrat can actually win statewide? JONES: Well, I ask them to look at the issues. I mean, it’s what we’d call the kitchen table issues — the issues of health care, jobs, the economy. It’s the things that people talk about every day. We have seen that from one end of the state to the other, and I think the health care debate really got people focused on issues. They saw that their health care was about to be taken away. It was going to be emasculated by the bills that were pending in Congress. They rose up to talk about it. And I think that people are now looking at issues rather than parties and I think that’s real important to us and it’s going to help us win in December.

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