December 22, 2019

New Poll Shows Doug Jones Down to Jeff Sessions as Senator Weighs Impeachment Vote

But the Senate’s most vulnerable member isn’t down by a lot.

Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) listens during the Senate Armed Services Committee on December 3, 2019.Bill Clark/Congressional Quarterly/Zuma

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.),  the most-vulnerable Democratic Senator up for reelection in 2020, trails his main Republican rivals in a new poll conducted ahead of the forthcoming impeachment trial of Donald Trump. But not by as much as might be expected.

Jones won his seat under extraordinary circumstances in 2017 after Donald Trump tapped Jeff Sessions to be attorney general and Alabama Republicans nominated a uniquely weak candidate in Roy Moore, a religious extremist credibly accused of sexually assaulting teenagers. There are multiple Republicans vying to take on Jones in 2020—including Sessions and Moore. 

As you might expect in Alabama, Jones trails the strongest Republicans. The best-performing Republican is Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn University football coach, who leads Jones by seven points. Sessions, who held the seat for 20 years, leads the Democrat by just five points, 46 percent to 41 percent, suggesting his fallout with Trump during his time leading the Justice Department did not go unnoticed back home. A third Republican, Rep. Bradley Byrne, leads Jones by just four points. 

Jones would likely prefer a rematch against Moore, whom the poll shows him easily besting 47 percent to 33 percent. Jones is also ahead of Republican state Rep. Arnold Mooney by 6 points. The poll, by JMC Analytics and Polling, was conducted over both landline and text with a 4.3 percent margin of error.

Trump’s impeachment trial promises to make Jones’ reelection effort that much more daunting. A vote to convict could put him crossways with conservative voters in Alabama, while a vote against could anger liberal activists and donors. On Sunday, the senator told ABC’s Martha Raddatz that he has not decided how he will vote on Trump’s removal from office but that his vote would be based on the facts, not political concerns.

Jones said he wants to see “if the dots get connected” between Trump’s request that Ukraine investigate his political opponent and the withholding of military aid for Ukraine. “If that is the case, then I think it’s a serious matter and it’s an impeachable matter,” Jones said. “But if those dots aren’t connected and there are other explanations that I think are consistent with innocence, I will go that way, too.”

Meanwhile, details have emerged that seem to make this quid-pro-quo even more certain. On Saturday morning, a newly-released email showed the Trump White House requesting that the aid be put on hold just two hours after Trump’s July call with the president of Ukraine. 

But in Alabama, voters want to see Trump acquitted by the Senate. The same poll that showed Jones behind several Republican challengers also showed Alabama voters supporting Trump: Fifty-four percent said Trump deserved to be reelected and opposed impeachment. 

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate