By TODD STACY, Alabama Daily News
With less than a week to go before Tuesday’s election, Democratic Sen. Doug Jones and Republican challenger Tommy Tuberville are attacking each other in their final campaign ads.
Jones’ ad focuses on health care and specifically takes aim at Tuberville for supporting the repeal of the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.
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“The pandemic is rising and Tommy Tuberville still doesn’t get it,” a narrator with a thick southern accent reads. “Our seniors at risk, Tuberville wants to eliminate the Affordable Care Act and end the protections for pre-existing medical conditions like heart disease and diabetes. Children under 26 years of age would be kicked off their parents health care. He opposes expanding the coverage for those who lost their jobs, all in the middle of a pandemic growing out of control. Tommy Tuberville: wrong in this crisis, wrong for your health.”
Most Republican plans to repeal and replace Obamacare, including one that came within one vote of passing the Senate and becoming law in 2017, have included provisions protecting those with pre-existing conditions from being denied insurance coverage. The Montgomery Advertiser’s Brian Lyman reported recently that Tuberville has not spoken specifically to the pre-existing condition issue, but has said he wants a “return to the free market where companies compete for your business, while ensuring that pre-existing conditions are not a deterrent to obtaining quality insurance and care.”
Tuberville’s latest ad attacks Jones for speaking at a Birmingham rally in protest of police violence against Black people that occurred in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. The gathering eventually turned violent, which the Tuberville campaign tries to link to Jones.
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“The lawless, violent mob wants to defund our police and erase our proud American history,” says former Jefferson County Sheriff Mike Hale, wearing a shirt with a badge and a Supernumerary Sheriff label. “Liberal Doug Jones is standing with them, not us. Jones spoke at a liberal rally in Alabama that turned into a riot where a monument was destroyed and buildings were damaged. Doug Jones is undermining law enforcement, coddling dangerous criminals, and putting Alabama families at risk. If Jones wins, the mob wins. Let’s stop this madness now.”
At the rally Jones specifically called for demonstrators to remain peaceful. Jones has said he supports the rights of local municipalities to decide whether or not to remove Confederate monuments. On police policies, Jones was one of two Democrats to vote to advance Republican Sen. Tim Scott’s bill to reform law enforcement practices, but said the bill would need changes to earn his final vote.