U.S. Senator Doug Jones with his wife Louise along with Rep. John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala.: Twitter

By Glynn Wilson –

Senator Doug Jones of Alabama is still in the running to be picked for President-Elect Joe Biden’s Cabinet, in the Department of Justice perhaps as U.S. Attorney General, according to knowledgable sources in Washington.

Jones’ three main advantages are his well established record on civil rights, his long standing personal relationship with Biden and the fact that he would most likely sail through the Senate conformation process without much controversy and be able to take on the important job quickly in the new year.

The Washington Post reported Thursday that Jones is still at the top of the list because Biden’s transition team advisers are asking advocacy groups about his record on civil rights.

In another story, the Post points out that Jones has known Biden for more than 40 years.

As a law student at Cumberland Law School in Birmingham, Jones introduced the then-Delaware senator when he came to Alabama for a speech. Jones worked with Biden when he was a young staffer for Senator Howell Heflin on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Then when Biden first ran for president in 1988, Jones co-chaired his Alabama campaign. Two decades later, he raised money for Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign and endorsed him early on in the contentious Democratic Party primary.

After losing in his bid for reelection to a full, six-year term last month to Republican Tommy Tuberville, Jones will be out a job come January, unless he gets an appointment in the Biden administration. Jones made his farewell speech on the Senate floor on Wednesday, and broke down crying at several points and talked about crossing the political aisle to work with Republicans on legislation, even the conservative Ted Cruz of Texas, who was apparently in the Senate chamber for his address.

Full text of the speech in the Congressional Record.

It seems that Biden’s approach to choosing a Cabinet is in keeping with how he has always worked, prioritizing “personal relationships and rapport above almost all else,” according to the Post. “In the most-coveted jobs, Biden has placed an even greater premium on proven loyalty.”

On that front Jones should have the inside track, although there is reportedly a lot of pressure for Biden to choose women and African Americans for his Cabinet, or at least someone to lead the U.S. Justice Department with a strong record on civil rights, which of course Jones has as a U.S. attorney.

The selection for attorney general is apparently down to four names and Jones is still on the list. Also under consideration are former deputy attorney general Sally Yates, federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland and former Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick.

Patrick, who led the Justice Department’s civil rights division for three years during the Clinton administration and briefly ran for president in 2020, is slipping down the list, however, according to people briefed on the discussions about Biden’s selection process.

Yates and Garland might have a tough time being confirmed in the Senate, especially if the Republicans are able to maintain a slim majority depending on what happens in the two special elections for Senate seats in Georgia. The Post says they would both “represent a repudiation of Washington Republicans” and that a Yates’s confirmation battle “could be a bruising fight.”

Yet Yates may be the most qualified. As deputy attorney general in the Obama administration, she worked to implement criminal justice restructuring and ordered the closure of private prisons. She briefly served as the acting attorney general under Trump, but was fired over her refusal to defend Trump’s first Muslim travel ban. Courts later struck down the ban, although the Supreme Court eventually upheld a revised version of it.

She would face controversy from Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the full body and may not survive an up and down vote.

Biden needs an attorney general to be confirmed quickly who can come in and repair the damage caused in the department by Trump’s choice of William “Bill” Barr, sources say, who has proven to be less than an independent choice and has used the justice system to help Trump undermine democracy on several fronts.

Garland was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Barack Obama in March of 2016, but Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Republican from Kentucky, refused to allow a vote on his nomination, which expired when Trump became president. He too could face a tough confirmation battle as a so-called “liberal judge.”

Jones, on the other hand, has a record that has impressed civil rights groups. As a U.S. attorney in Birmingham nearly 20 years ago, he took on the cold case of the infamous bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in which four young Black girls were killed. Jones and his team meticulously put the 40-year-old case back together and put on trial and convicted two Ku Klux Klan members for their role in the bombing.

He was elected to the Senate in a special election in 2017 with an overwhelming voter turnout from women and African Americans. Jones also came out early in favor of the Black Lives Matter protests, unlike some Senators, saying the important “moment” should not be missed.

Biden is under pressure from the civil rights community to select a diverse Cabinet, of course, especially in the most powerful jobs, such as attorney general.

During a Tuesday meeting with Biden that stretched nearly two hours, according to the Post, some civil rights leaders made clear they wanted Biden to pick a Black attorney general, or at least one focused on issues of civil rights and racial justice. So far Biden has selected four Black Cabinet-level nominees, including secretaries of defense and housing and urban development.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, said he told Biden during the meeting that he preferred a Black attorney general, but added, “the least we could have is someone who has a proven civil rights background.”

Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, said she stressed to Biden that his nominee should have “a demonstrated record of criminal justice reform, as well as civil rights,” and should be familiar with agency headquarters.

Vanita Gupta, president of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, similarly said she advocated for a nominee who “knows the department well” and has “a demonstrated record on civil rights and criminal justice reform.”

That would seem to suggest Yates, although she was among those to approve applications for the FBI to secretly surveil a former Trump campaign adviser during the FBI’s investigation of possible coordination between the campaign and the Kremlin to influence the 2016 election.

Senate Republicans have scrutinized Yates and others’ supervision of the Russia probe, recently calling her to testify publicly about it, and Trump has attacked her as having “zero credibility.” Of course most Democrats think Trump is the one with no credibility, but still, Yates would be a controversial choice when Biden needs people in his Cabinet who can help unify the country.

Jones was also a close friend and confidant of Georgia Congressman John Lewis, who died this year.

Jones declined our invitation to comment for this story.