Jones Announces Platform For Governor, He’s Not Holding Back
Democrat Doug Jones has laid out a detailed agenda for his 2026 run for governor against Tommy Tuberville. He says his campaign in the November General Election gives the state "Three Real Opportunities". Speaking in Birmingham Jones identified those opportunities as: healthy Lives, meaningful participation in government, and economic prosperity.
The former U.S. Senator and Federal prosecutor announced his campaign platform is built around: Medicaid expansion, affordability, government reform, AI and data center regulation, education and protections for families.
His campaign issues will resonate well within the majority of the 7th Congressional District but will most likely have difficulty gaining traction in the more conservative areas of West Alabama.
Jones repeated a longtime held belief that state government is too closely aligned with special interests who play people against each other. He promised to work to bring people together.
"The real villain in Alabama is not your neighbor. It's not the family down the road who prays a little differently, or looks a little different, or came here from a little farther away," Jones said. "The real villain is the small circle of people who have grown very rich and very comfortable off a system that keeps you focused on fearing each other."
One of the hottest issues developing in the campaign is the rapid development of AI data centers across the state, with two currently proposed in West Alabama. Tommy Tuberville has called residential concern about environmental and noise issues “bull crap” and blamed disinformation from China for "this nonsense they see on social media."
"I am for a one-year moratorium to halt data center development in the state of Alabama until we have guardrails and policies in place that protect our people and our communities," Jones countered. "These concerns are not 'bull crap.' They are real."
Jones says his healthcare expansion goal is based on a need to expand Medicaid to cover working families. improve maternal and infant health outcomes and improve mental health outcomes. As part of his plan, Jones pledged to protect rural hospitals, improve maternal and infant health outcomes, and expand access to mental health care.
The Democrat's government reforms would include a citizen-led ballot initiative process through a constitutional amendment, he would expand local government authority, allow voters to decide whether to establish a state lottery, protect access to in vitro fertilization and contraception through another constitutional amendment, and strengthen ethics and transparency laws.
Addressing his economic plan, Jones would eliminate the remaining state grocery tax, remove state taxes on tips and overtime pay, make childcare more affordable, address housing affordability, raise Alabama's minimum wage and increase support for small businesses and organized labor.
He promised to layout his plan for education in a separate presentation at a later date.
Jones lost his senate reelection bid in 2020 to Tuberville by some 430,000 votes.
The General Election is scheduled for Tuesday, November 3rd.
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