Let’s not forget how unique the Moore-Jones contest was.
There was a lot of excitement generated for Democrats by the Alabama special election for US Senate given the win by Democrat Doug Jones. After all, Alabama is deeply Republican, as I noted last weekend. This excitement has led to some wild (in my opinion) assertions about the ability to extrapolate from the Jones’ victory to the 2018 mid-terms. Most of this overblown and driven by the emotion of the moment.*
I do think there are some lessons here, but none that were unique to this race. I think they are:
But, let’s consider the following predicates of this race:
So, while there are lessons to learn from every election, let’s not get carried away with extrapolating from this outcome. And, to be honest, the odds are such that Jones will be replaced with a Republican in 2020.
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*Perhaps the most ridiculous example is via Slate: Maybe Doug Jones Should Run for President .
