By Glynn Wilson –

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Alabama Senator Doug Jones, the Birmingham Democrat, officially kicked off his campaign for reelection on Sunday at the B&A Warehouse in downtown Birmingham, emphasizing a centrists theme of common sense solutions and bringing the people of the state together as “One Alabama.”

He came on stage with a telling theme song playing from John Fogerty, “Centerfield,” a song about Jackie Robinson, the first African American to play on a National League baseball team.

“Despite our flaws and sometimes checkered past, I love this state and her people. It’s why I stayed here to raise my family. It’s why I chose to serve,” the half-term Senator said. He was elected over conservative Republican Roy Moore in a special election in 2017 with a tad under 50 percent of the vote by a margin of 1.6 percent.

“Despite our differences,” he said, “we all want to be treated equally and given the same opportunities.”

He said it “has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your senator,” and it has been a surprising fulfillment of a dream he had for a long time that at times he thought would not come true, since the state trended to the political right and came totally under control of conservative Republicans for a couple of decades.

He revealed more about his dream and his past in a book he published in the spring.

Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights

“We made history in 2017, and I’m confident that we’ll win again next November,” Jones said in Birmingham. “I also know that we have to. We are facing increasingly divided times, watching race and class differences be exploited by some in power – people who cynically believe that they can’t win by bringing Alabama together.”

According to local press coverage of the event, some of Jones’ biggest applause moments came when he spoke of “common sense” gun reform, supporting better access to voting, and supporting a woman’s right to choose.

Jones also talked about events that have landed Alabama in the national spotlight recently, including Governor Kay Ivey’s admission earlier this month that she’d appeared in a blackface skit in the 1960s.

“It is a sad state of affairs that 64 years after the Montgomery Bus Boycott…the state of Alabama still has to promise to show the nation how far we’ve come,” he said. “It is a painful admission that in the eyes of the nation, folks just don’t believe we’ve come very far.

“They’re wrong. I know they are,” he said. “But we’ve got to show it.”

The event also featured speakers including Rep. Terri Sewell and Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, along with actor Michael Oneill.

The Alabama senate race could generate national interest over the next year since his ability to hold onto the seat as a Democrat in such a conservative state could be a factor in whether the Democrats can take control of the U.S. Senate away from the Republicans in 2020.

Calling the result of his election “a turning point for Alabama,” he said, “I believe in that critical moment, we collectively chose to move forward, to unify. I know that election was close and I’m not foolish enough not to know this election’s going to be close. It is.

“But there was a movement (started that night) that continues,” he said. “Hope replaced despair. Hope for Alabama, hope for America. It wasn’t because of me, it was because of you.”

In the election next year on November 3, 2020, Jones will face the winner of the Republican primary. Some pundits think this could very well come down to a rematch of Jones v. Roy Moore, who was kicked off the Supreme Court twice and faced multiple allegations of sexual improprieties with under age girls in the final month of the 2017 campaign. Moore has staunchly continued to deny those allegations, and there are still cases pending in court about them.

Other challengers with less name recognition and bases of support include Mobile Congressman Bradley Byrne, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, State Rep. Arnold Mooney of Birmingham, and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville.

The Republican National Committee is already involved in the campaign against Jones, even though he has proven he can cross the political aisle and make friends and sponsor legislation successfully with Republican Senators.

“Doug Jones may be kicking off his campaign today, but it’ll be Alabamians doing most of the kicking in 2020,” the RNC said in a statement on Sunday.

Outside the building where he kicked off his campaign, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s National Republican Senate Committee had paid for an electronic billboard on the side of a truck claiming Jones sides with socialists in Washington, D.C., which is far from the truth. He supports mainstream centrist Joe Biden for president, not Vermont Independent Bernie Sanders.

“You may have even seen (divisive politics) in a big ol’ black truck riding up and down the street today,” Jones said, gaining the biggest laughs of the afternoon, according to the local media. “A socialist? Come on. If that’s the best they got this far out, let them bring it on.”

In a campaign video produced to go with the launch of the One Alabama campaign, Jones talks about his history, roots in the state and his record of fighting for Alabama’s diverse communities. He talks about growing up in Fairfield, attending school and serving as a United States Attorney who convicted two klansmen for the 1963 church bombing.

WATCH HERE:

In a press release to go with the video, he talks about some problems in the state caused by a lack of leadership and uncaring policies on behalf of Republicans, including “losing hospitals and denying healthcare to people who need it.” He talks about the state having the highest maternal death rate in the nation, “particularly among black women.” He talks about the problems of farmers, “being used as props in an expensive trade war.”

The video includes Alabamians from all ages and backgrounds showcases the issues that matter to them. From safe places to live and work, good jobs with living wages and secure retirements, markets for farmers and businesses to a strong military and an education that equips Alabama’s children with the tools they need to succeed.

The question is, will Democrats turn out in great numbers to work for Jones like they did in 2017, from knocking up signs all over the state to going door-to-door to educate voters about the election — and giving money to support the campaign’s ability to blanket the television airwaves with advertising in the final months.

How will the national press and media respond to the race? By giving the most attention to Alabama’s status as a red state or investigating Jones’s opponents who will run false and vicious ads against him?

Will out of state donors be motivated again to give money to hold this seat in the absence of a major, new, national sex scandal to motivate them?

Will we see. Stay tuned.