Doug Jones

Doug Jones grew up in Fairfield, Alabama, the son of a steelworker and a homemaker.¹ He and his wife, Louise, have three children and are grandparents.² He has also written Bending Toward Justice, a book about the Birmingham church bombing case that became central to his legal career.²

Jones attended the University of Alabama and Samford University's Cumberland School of Law.¹ He worked for Senator Howell Heflin on the Senate Judiciary Committee, then as an assistant U.S. attorney and a lawyer in private practice in Birmingham.² President Bill Clinton appointed him U.S. attorney for northern Alabama, a job he held from 1997 to 2001.²

Jones led prosecutions of two former Ku Klux Klan members for the 1963 bombing of Birmingham's Sixteenth Street Baptist Church, which killed four Black girls.¹³ Thomas Blanton was convicted in 2001 and Bobby Frank Cherry in 2002.⁴ Jones later won Alabama's 2017 Senate special election, before losing to Tommy Tuberville in 2020.⁵

As a candidate for governor, Jones proposes expanding Medicaid, eliminating the remaining state grocery tax and creating a state earned income tax credit.⁶ He also wants a yearlong pause on new data centers and a statewide vote on a lottery.⁶ His Republican opponent is Tuberville, and the winner will succeed Kay Ivey, who cannot run again because of term limits.⁷⁸