Obama Tells Alabama Voters to Reject Roy Moore in Robocall
‘You can’t sit it out,’ Obama says in backing Democratic candidate Doug Jones
Former President Barack Obama threw his weight behind Alabama Senate candidate Doug Jones in a robocall recorded in recent days, CNN reported Monday.
Obama recorded his message at the same time President Donald Trump stepped up his campaigning for GOP candidate Roy Moore.
“This one’s serious,” Obama says in the call, in which he never mentions Moore by name. “You can’t sit it out.”
“Doug Jones is a fighter for equality, for progress,” Obama says. “Doug will be our champion for justice. So get out and vote, Alabama.”
A Democratic source said the prerecorded call would likely be used Monday night, reaching a few hundred thousand traditionally Democratic voters. Strategists had previously been weighing whether or not to deploy it.
Watch: In Alabama Race, Jones Has Funding, Moore Has Trump, Bannon Support
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Obama’s involvement is likely an attempt to energize black voters, a key bloc Jones needs to turn out if he wants a shot at winning.
One churchgoer who attended Jones’ meeting at the historic Brown A.M.E. Chapel in Selma on Saturday noted that Democrats have struggled to find candidates who inspire voters since Obama.
“He motivated you. He made you want to get up and go vote,” said the African-American woman, who declined to give her name. “We’ve got to have candidates who really motivate us to go out and vote. It’s hard. Let me tell you, it’s hard.”
“When Sen. Obama came here, you couldn’t get in here,” she said.
The woman said Jones does inspire Democrats in Alabama and called his record as a prosecutor “amazing.” He worked to convict two members of the Ku Klux Klan responsible for the 1963 bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, which killed four young girls.
Trump has also recorded a robocall geared toward Alabama voters, urging them to vote for Moore to help the Republicans “pass our Make America Great Again agenda.”
“We need that seat,” the president says in the recording. “We need Roy voting for us. … If Alabama elects liberal Democrat Doug Jones, all of our progress will be stopped full.”
The election is Tuesday.
Bridget Bowman contributed to this report