He’s cash-poor, outgunned and flying under the radar. Doug Jones, the Democrat running in the Alabama special election for Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ old Senate seat, is no Jon Ossoff.

Unlike Ossoff, the Georgia special election candidate who recently gained national prominence — and collected more cash than any House candidate, ever — due to his initial positioning as the face of the anti-Trump resistance, Jones has declined to make his opposition to Donald Trump the centerpiece of his campaign.


It’s proved to be a consequential decision in a party where antipathy toward the president is an animating force. While Jones would seem to be a perfect candidate for the post-Charlottesville moment — he’s a 63-year-old former U.S. attorney who prosecuted the pair behind the 1963 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham — national Democrats have largely ignored him. And grassroots donors have given him the cold shoulder, leaving Jones with less than $100,000 in cash on hand by the end of July, according to federal filings.

“This election should not be about Donald Trump. He is popular in a lot of places, but he is also widely unpopular [among some] people that are going to vote,” Jones said in an interview, insisting his campaign is focused on civil rights, health care, and wages — not the president. “I don’t really have to talk about Donald Trump, [though] sometimes it’s just impossible not to, given some of the noise that went out of the White House these days."

In Ossoff’s case, the Georgia candidate was vaulted into national prominence when groups like the liberal Daily Kos blog noticed him as he ripped into Trump early in 2017, months before the closely watched June special election. The site endorsed Ossoff, and started directing money to him — the candidate ended up raising an unprecedented $23 million from Democrats all over the country.

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But groups like Daily Kos still have no plans to back Jones and give him a much-needed lift in a conservative state the president won by 28 percentage points last year. "We haven’t decided to get involved in this race. Alabama is obviously a tough state for any Democrat, but with Trump’s nose-diving approval ratings and Democrats’ string of successes in special elections this year, we’re keeping a close eye on this — especially if [Roy] Moore winds up as the GOP’s nominee,” said Daily Kos political editor Carolyn Fiddler.

The End Citizens United PAC, which sent over $1 million to Ossoff, has also not yet decided whether to weigh in on behalf of Jones.

“Alabama is a stretch. Some of the other races this year have been too, [but] this seat is probably more difficult,” said Adam Bozzi, a senior operative for the group. “Replicating what Jon Ossoff did is probably unrealistic, for anybody.”

As for rank-and-file small-money donors, many feel burned after contributing cash to a series of races this summer where Democrats repeatedly fell agonizingly short in congressional special elections, from Ossoff’s contest in the Atlanta suburbs to Rob Quist’s unsuccessful House bid in Montana.

Even the most optimistic Alabama Democrats acknowledge Jones’ bid is a long-shot, no matter if he ends up running against appointed Sen. Luther Strange or Strange’s GOP runoff opponent, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, in the general election. While a nationwide Gallup poll in July showed just 40 percent of voters approve of Trump’s time on the job, compared to 54 percent who disapprove, those numbers are upside down in Alabama: The same survey revealed that 55 percent of the state’s voters approve of Trump, and just 39 percent disapprove.

"The basic DNA of the state is more imposing than, say, [Ossoff’s Atlanta-area House race], and by some measures, certainly, Montana," said Montgomery-based Democratic pollster Zac McCrary, comparing Jones' playing field to the more favorable landscapes where Ossoff and Quist competed.

For now, Jones’ campaign insists they're content to have him skate under the national radar, remembering the searing scrutiny and barrage of national Republican money that landed on Ossoff earlier this year.

Jones is looking more closely at the model of Archie Parnell, the little-noticed South Carolina Democrat who came surprisingly close to winning a congressional seat in June by organizing heavily but flying under the GOP radar.

So, after winning his August 15 primary, Jones' campaign is working to introduce him to the state's broader electorate by focusing on his biography rather than aiming to muscle into the national political bloodstream with splashy pronouncements or fundraising asks, said Joe Trippi, his strategist.

“We’re not going to be running to Washington, D.C. to ask how we run our campaign,” Jones told POLITICO.

Jones has gotten backing from a handful of big-name Democrats popular in the South and among African American voters, like former Vice President Joe Biden and civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis. And after he won his primary, Senate Democrats’ campaign wing sent out a handful of online fundraising appeals for Jones, while Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Chris Van Hollen sent him $5,000 through his leadership PAC.

National Democrats in Washington have discussed the best ways to get involved with the Alabama race in a series of Capitol Hill meetings, but for now they’ve decided to wait until the Republican run-off ends, believing a race against the more controversial Moore might give them a chance to swoop in helpfully, a handful told POLITICO.

Many strategists remain wary of investment in the race after facing scrutiny and second-guessing from activists over their involvement in Ossoff’s and Quist’s contests, and operatives familiar with the party discussions over how to handle Jones insist the candidate might have a better chance of winning if they stay away.

That’s because Jones’ role as a pillar of his community speaks for itself — and stands in stark contrast to Ossoff, who was easily caricatured for residing outside of his district. Any cash or manpower from the DSCC or Democratic National Committee risk turning the race into another referendum on Trump.

Content to lie low and allow the ongoing GOP run-off dominate headlines, Jones has a noticeably light public campaign schedule to end the summer. He expressed disappointment with Trump’s response to Charlottesville’s violence the night he won his primary, but Jones has since kept his commentary on the commander-in-chief to a minimum.

Even if Trump were less popular in the state, McCrary said, the role of Trump antagonist likely wouldn't even fit Jones: "It would be a tough lane for him to be in, and probably not an authentic lane for him to be in."

