The U.S. Senate election in Alabama was conducted on November 3, 2020. Its primary goal was to select a member of the United States Senate who would become the representative of Alabama. In addition, this political initiative was simultaneously conducted with the 2020 U.S. presidential election and other local elections (“United States Senate Election in Alabama”). People could choose to vote for a democrat Doug Jones or a republican Tommy Tuberville.
Jones was among several Democratic U.S. senators who had a chance to run for re-election in 2020. However, he was admitted to be one of the most expungable candidates among ex-senators seeking re-election. Such an attitude towards him was conditioned by the staggering Republican partisan balance in Alabama. The analysts predicted a Republican upswing since the state has Republican views; hence, they barely desired Jones to represent their homeland. Jones won the 2017 U.S. Senate elections because his adversary Republican candidate Roy Moore encountered sexual assault allegations. However, in 2020, Dough Jones lost a seat for the first time in Alabama’s re-election history.
His views were quite liberal about approximately the majority of issues raised. Jones claimed that each woman should have access to contraception and have a right to choose either pro-choice or pro-life. What is more, the candidate promised to support the bipartisan efforts in improving healthcare and insurance programs’ accessibility. Finally, his most considerable appeal was improving the state’s infrastructure, which further will contribute to economic growth.
Jones’ opponent Tommy Tuberville expressed conservative views regarding some issues. For instance, he proposed that veteran unemployment should be eliminated. Tuberville also stated that there would be more employment opportunities and less spending if the government reduced taxes. The candidate fully supported Trump’s policies considering the problem of immigrants and maintaining national security. As a Christian conservative, Tuberville opposed his pro-choice position because it could have adverse outcomes for the nation in the future.
Since Alabama is a red state, Tuberville has quickly managed to score off Jones and regained the Republican Party seat in the Senate. Jones received 39.7% of the votes, while Tuberville won 60.1% of the votes (“United States Senate Election in Alabama”). The results were also justified by the fact that the majority of the Afro-American population living in the state did not support Jones’ views. Nonetheless, the results were fair, and a total of 2.3 million people voted in.
The topic of election directly refers to the American government since different elections form the political system of the country. During the elections in the United States, not only the president’s candidacy is determined, but also the composition of the congress and the internal and foreign policy of the country will depend on their interaction. Ultimately, it provides people with their fundamental right to vote.
At the moment of the election, Doug Jones was the incumbent member of the U.S. Senate. Nevertheless, this advantage did not help him gain a seat. Defeated by Tuberville, he lost his incumbency, becoming one of the first candidates to fail re-election. The Republicans were represented by Stanley Adair, Bradley Byrne, Arnold Mooney, Roy Moore, and Ruth Page Nelson. All the Democrats, apart from Doug Jones, were declined at the first stages of the election. Besides the two major parties’ probationers, three minor political parties’ representatives, including Mike Parrish, Jarmal Sanders, and Marcus Williams (“United States Senate Election in Alabama”). Therefore, the presence of other candidates did not affect the victory of Tuberville. Apart from that, Tuberville’s reputation and background helped him gain the respect and dedication of voters.
To my mind, the election was competitive since each candidate was initially fair and suggested their programs aimed at increasing the prosperity of the nation. The most important principle and value was honesty, which made public confidence in the elections grow. Even though it was predicted that Tuberville would win, Jones put much effort into gaining the votes. Nevertheless, I believe that a red state wanted the Republican candidate to represent its values in the Senate.
The actual vote total was 2,316,445, where 1,392,076 voted for Tommy Tuberville, and the rest wanted Jones to be elected. The difference between the results constituted almost 20% which is quite decent in a race (“United States Senate Election in Alabama”). The results are not surprising, yet there was hope that Jones would preserve his incumbency. The polls predicted that Tuberville would take a seat in the U.S. Senate because his views were appealing to the state’s citizens. His promises to contribute to building the border wall, cutting taxes, and repealing the Affordable Care Act seemed decent to the conservatives.
Summing up, the elections were fair, and there were no falsified votes. Tuberville was widely considered the favorite in the race, while Jones’ views were too liberal for the state. Tommy Tuberville won because Republicans wanted him to adhere to their conservative views. During the election, he was very focused on his ties to Trump and his position as head coach of the Alabama football team.
Work Cited
“United States Senate Election in Alabama.” Ballotpedia, Web.