Alabama Democratic Senate candidate tries to keep it local

Some high-profile Democrats are flying into Alabama this weekend to encourage people to send Doug Jones to the Senate.

His campaign wants it known that he didn’t ask for the help as he tries to upset Republican Roy Moore in a special election next Tuesday.

Jones and the national Democrats have tried to keep Washington’s fingerprints off the race, given the party’s unpopularity in Alabama.

Jones has to win over an electorate that President Donald Trump carried by 28 percentage points, and hasn’t elected a Democrat to be senator in a quarter-century. He’s trying to convince reliably conservative white voters to abandon their usual loyalties while simultaneously firing up turnout among black voters and white liberals who typically combine for about 40 per cent of the vote.