Alabama Democrats fight for votes with a fractured state party

The election of Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate last year has given hope to Democrats in deep-red Alabama, a state where they haven’t had hope in a long time. But the party’s candidates have been largely on their own in trying to get their message out.

Enfeebled by years of Republican dominance and plagued recently by infighting and debt, the Alabama Democratic Party doesn't have the means to offer much help to what some members see as their best slate of candidates in years.

From the port city of Mobile to the northern hub of Alabama's aerospace industry, Democratic candidates say Republicans have failed to address longstanding problems in education and health care. And at a recent gathering at a Democratic club in a leafy Birmingham suburb, residents joked that they didn't even know there were other Democrats in their largely-red neighborhood until they met campaigning for Jones.

But as grassroots energy bubbles, the party, which just recently increased to two paid staffers, has little manpower to devote to advertising and phone banks and has been dormant for months at a time on social media.

Read more: https://www.al.com/news/2018/10/alabama-democrats-fight-for-votes-with-a-fractured-state-party.html