Robert Kennedy Jr (no relation to the famous Kennedy's)21+ in D primary Alabama

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

So everyone has been paying attention to the R primary in the Alabama senate race in 2017, because whoever wins that is really the new senator, plus everyone assumed that Doug Jones is the presumptive democratic nominee. That may not be the case. Someone with the same name as Kennedy with no relation lead Doug Jones in one of the only polls of the primary Kennedy leads Jones 49-28 with minor candidates getting the rest. What are the odds? A non related Kennedy making this race competetive, because of the name misunderstanding. Could this cost Jones the nomination?

http://m.wbrc.com/myfoxal/db_330638/contentdetail.htm?contentguid=yE0OLLxT

[TheSaint250]

Wow he actually seems like a really decent Democrat who, in some strange circumstance, pull this off.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Just watched some of Selma, including the 16th street church bombing scene, and it has totally reaffirmed my support for Doug Jones for the US Senate!

[SWE]

I hope he wins because it would be funny for there two be two Senators in the south who, by total coincidence, have the same names as John and Robert Kennedy. Hopefully in 2020 David Perdue loses to an unrelated Ted Kennedy.

[Alabama_Indy10]

I believe Strange is much more electable than Moore. People in Alabama either love or hate Moore. So I see him struggling to win a runoff or general. He won by a very underwhelming margin in his last election in 2012.

[BuckeyeNut]

Robert Kennedy would not be a better candidate than Doug Jones. (Unless a truly massive amount of yellow dogs come out of nowhere.) Jones should be able to fundraise decently given his connections from his time as a US Attorney.

[Cynthia]

Kennedy looks like a credible candidate TBH. Worse than Jones though.

He's pro 2A, ambiguous on school choice, ambiguous on abortion, and fiscally responsible. Former USN officer who attended Annapolis, interned for R Rep., Duke MBA, pretty strong on paper.

Only downside is that he's black and that's not going to sell well in AL. But this is a special election and blacks might turn out for him in historic numbers (which I strongly doubt given how disproportionate the resistance is white).

[Alabama_Indy10]

Kennedy looks like a credible candidate TBH. Worse than Jones though.

He's pro 2A, ambiguous on school choice, ambiguous on abortion, and fiscally responsible. Former USN officer who attended Annapolis, interned for R Rep., Duke MBA, pretty strong on paper.

Only downside is that he's black and that's not going to sell well in AL. But this is a special election and blacks might turn out for him in historic numbers (which I strongly doubt given how disproportionate the resistance is white).

The party he belongs to will be a bigger downside than his skin color.

[Anna Komnene]

Kennedy would be an intriguing candidate for me because he's both African American and a conservadem which might make him a better fit Alabama dems/indies than usual. People always talk about how racially polarized the politics in Alabama can be. If you look at both times Obama was on the ballot, he got a very similar number of votes each time. ~813k in 2008 and ~795k in 2012.

I don't expect Kennedy to approach presidential level turnout in this race, but if the AL Dem party gets behind him (and that's not at all certain given their dismissive comments about him in the articles), there could be an opportunity for democrats to pull a stronger turnout than usual. If you combine that with possibly lower turnout for Republicans in the special, this could be closer than a typical AL Sen race, but I still expect whoever the GOP nominates to win fairly comfortably. Of course, if AL dems fail to support him, it could also be a total collapse because the absolutely critical feature of any Kennedy campaign will be making sure AL dems know he is running.

[Cynthia]

Kennedy looks like a credible candidate TBH. Worse than Jones though.

He's pro 2A, ambiguous on school choice, ambiguous on abortion, and fiscally responsible. Former USN officer who attended Annapolis, interned for R Rep., Duke MBA, pretty strong on paper.

Only downside is that he's black and that's not going to sell well in AL. But this is a special election and blacks might turn out for him in historic numbers (which I strongly doubt given how disproportionate the resistance is white).

The party he belongs to will be a bigger downside than his skin color.

True, but a white candidate playing the moderate card might sell better to Rs who have racial tendencies but historically Democratic.. For a black candidate that might be difficult--I tried to look up Bentley vs Davis polls but didn't find any.

[Obama-Biden Democrat]

Kennedy looks like a credible candidate TBH. Worse than Jones though.

He's pro 2A, ambiguous on school choice, ambiguous on abortion, and fiscally responsible. Former USN officer who attended Annapolis, interned for R Rep., Duke MBA, pretty strong on paper.

Only downside is that he's black and that's not going to sell well in AL. But this is a special election and blacks might turn out for him in historic numbers (which I strongly doubt given how disproportionate the resistance is white).

Back in 2006 in GA, a black Republican candidate named Michael Thurmond won the Commissioner of Labor race 54-46 because nobody was actually aware he was black. He was a Republican and had a white sounding last name, maybe people will assume he is white and he can win.

[Alabama_Indy10]

Kennedy looks like a credible candidate TBH. Worse than Jones though.

He's pro 2A, ambiguous on school choice, ambiguous on abortion, and fiscally responsible. Former USN officer who attended Annapolis, interned for R Rep., Duke MBA, pretty strong on paper.

Only downside is that he's black and that's not going to sell well in AL. But this is a special election and blacks might turn out for him in historic numbers (which I strongly doubt given how disproportionate the resistance is white).

Back in 2006 in GA, a black Republican candidate named Michael Thurmond won the Commissioner of Labor race 54-46 because nobody was actually aware he was black. He was a Republican and had a white sounding last name, maybe people will assume he is white and he can win.

He probably won because he was a Republican.

[Pragmatic Conservative]

Another poll out in the last few days has Kennedy at 50% and Jones in third.

http://www.alreporter.com/2017/08/04/hansen-says-he-is-an-unapologetic-progressive/

[The Other Castro]

Another poll out in the last few days has Kennedy at 50% and Jones in third.

http://www.alreporter.com/2017/08/04/hansen-says-he-is-an-unapologetic-progressive/

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[Cynthia]

I got into contact with Hansen on Twitter. I'm very concerned about him beating Jones.

[_]

How is this even possible?  Doug Jones should have been a lock and now a fake Kennedy is taking the primary.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

How is this even possible?  Doug Jones should have been a lock and now a fake Kennedy is taking the primary.

Exactly, what is going on is insane. Hopefully with a last boost of funding and heavy weight endorsements, Jones can pull through, and expose Kennedy as just a coincidental name and nothing more.

[TheSaint250]

I would most likely support Kennedy in the general if Moore gets it.

Also, I doubt Kennedy is winning only based off his name.  It probably helps somewhat but not enough to take down Jones.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

I would most likely support Kennedy in the general if Moore gets it.

Also, I doubt Kennedy is winning only based off his name.  It probably helps somewhat but not enough to take down Jones.

Jones is starting to catch up in the polls due to big name endorsements, and money putting him out there and showing that while Kennedy is a good guy, he is not really related to the famous ones. What if it is Jones vs Moore? Who would you support, or would you support neither?

[TheSaint250]

I would most likely support Kennedy in the general if Moore gets it.

Also, I doubt Kennedy is winning only based off his name.  It probably helps somewhat but not enough to take down Jones.

Jones is starting to catch up in the polls due to big name endorsements, and money putting him out there and showing that while Kennedy is a good guy, he is not really related to the famous ones. What if it is Jones vs Moore? Who would you support, or would you support neither?

I'd probably support neither. Usually I'm not as opposed to conservative nominees, but Moore has shown that he doesn't agree SCOTUS decisions, and therefore, the Constitution.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

So Doug picked up Joe Biden's endorsement, that is good, hopefully these reinforcements will be enough to win him the primary, albeit probably in a runoff vs fake Kennedy.

[smoltchanov]

Idiocy. Instead of running real candidates, who, at least, have a chance to win under very favorable circumstances, Democrats usually run patented idiots with famous names, who have zero chances. A Black Democrat will NOT win NOW statewide Deep South election - be it for Senate, Governor or Agriculture Commissioner (some did in early 2000th, but not after 2008-2010) - period. A "Black some dude" - even more so. It's good that this is a special, otherwise we would see a "reverse coattails" effect on legislative elections too, as it was in Mississippi in 2015, where Democrats lost a number of races they could win, in part - because of extremely weak governor candidate...

[Alabama_Indy10]

I would most likely support Kennedy in the general if Moore gets it.

Also, I doubt Kennedy is winning only based off his name.  It probably helps somewhat but not enough to take down Jones.

He is only winning because of his name. Nobody knows him but contrary to belief, nobody really knows who Doug Jones is either. I had never heard of him until he announced he's running and I follow politics pretty closely.

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

I would most likely support Kennedy in the general if Moore gets it.

Also, I doubt Kennedy is winning only based off his name.  It probably helps somewhat but not enough to take down Jones.

He is only winning because of his name. Nobody knows him but contrary to belief, nobody really knows who Doug Jones is either. I had never heard of him until he announced he's running and I follow politics pretty closely.

True, but he isn't actually a total joke of a candidate unlike Kennedy (who will still get my endorsement if he wins the primaries) Literally almost anything is better than a Republican from Alabama (not all of them, you seem like a decent human being).

[Co-Chair Bagel23]

Idiocy. Instead of running real candidates, who, at least, have a chance to win under very favorable circumstances, Democrats usually run patented idiots with famous names, who have zero chances. A Black Democrat will NOT win NOW statewide Deep South election - be it for Senate, Governor or Agriculture Commissioner (some did in early 2000th, but not after 2008-2010) - period. A "Black some dude" - even more so. It's good that this is a special, otherwise we would see a "reverse coattails" effect on legislative elections too, as it was in Mississippi in 2015, where Democrats lost a number of races they could win, in part - because of extremely weak governor candidate...