Former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones will be the Democratic candidate in the race for Jeff Sessions’ former seat in the U.S. Senate.
Jones was declared the winner of Tuesday’s primary election, with most districts reporting in by around 9 p.m.
Jones reportedly received about 64 percent of the vote to Mobile businessman Robert Kennedy’s 18 percent, and Michael Hansen’s 7 percent.
At his victory party, Jones spoke of his Fairfield, Alabama background, putting killers in jail, and solidarity with the people of Charlottesville, Virginia.
He said, “We will raise the minimum wage to a living wage … and we want to make sure that women have equal wages.” He added, “I’m going to be beholden only to the people of the state of Alabama.”
The Alabama Democratic Conference, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, and former Vice President Joe Biden endorsed Jones. He’ll face either former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore or Alabama Sen. Luther Strange. Moore and Strange took first and second, respectively, in the Republican primary, but did not get enough votes to avoid a runoff against each other in September.
A Democrat has not won a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama in more than 20 years.