HRC Celebrates Swearing-In of AL Senator Doug Jones

Today, HRC celebrated the swearing-in of former civil rights prosecutor Doug Jones to the U.S. Senate. HRC — which opened offices in Alabama in 2014 and first launched its #NoMoore campaign against Roy Moore in 2016 — engaged in a public education campaign about Roy Moore’s record during the Republican primary and endorsed Senator Jones in Alabama’s hotly-contested special election. In the weeks leading up to Election Day, HRC organized dozens of events, recruited hundreds of volunteers, and partnered with the NAACP of Alabama on statewide get-out-the-vote (GOTV) efforts.

VIDEO: Watch HRC’s 3-minute video on Roy Moore’s long track record of peddling hate and attacking LGBTQ Alabamians.

“Thanks to hundreds of thousands of fair-minded Alabamians who rejected the politics of hate and fear, we have one more vote for equality and justice in the U.S. Senate today,” said HRC President Chad Griffin. “We look forward to working closely with Senator Jones to advance LGBTQ equality. Let his victory in one of the reddest of states be a lesson to politicians everywhere: if you come after our rights and attack our families, we will organize, mobilize and come after you on Election Day.

HRC organized more than 20 GOTV events — including phone banks, canvasses, and community events in the closing weeks of the campaign. For two months, more than 160 HRC volunteers and 11 HRC staff worked to reach the nearly 200,000 “Equality Voters” across Alabama — a voting bloc comprised of not only the 60,000 LGBTQ voters in the state, but also the thousands of additional allies HRC has identified statewide. HRC also partnered with allied civil rights organizations, including the NAACP of Alabama and others, to increase voter turnout. During the Republican primary earlier this fall, HRC launched direct mail, online ads, and robocalls targeting receptive voters to make them aware of Moore’s extreme views.

From the day HRC opened the doors of its Alabama office in 2014, the organization has engaged in a ground campaign against Roy Moore in an effort to stop his attacks on LGBTQ people across the state. In 2016, HRC Alabama initiated the #NoMoore campaign to remove Moore from the Alabama Supreme Court for refusing to implement a ruling that brought marriage equality to Alabama. HRC, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and our in-state partners succeeded; following a review by the Alabama Judicial Inquiry Commission, Moore was suspended from the bench without pay for his actions — the second time that he was removed from that position for disobeying legal and ethical standards.

Moore’s opposition to marriage equality was not the only element of his crusade against LGBTQ people; over the course of his career, he attempted to deny a lesbian mother custody of her child, called for the criminalization of LGBTQ people, and repeatedly attacked the dignity of LGBTQ Alabamians. Moore supports banning transgender service members, has compared LGBTQ people to animals, and claimed LGBTQ people are unfit to be parents. Watch HRC’s video on Moore’s record here.

In an effort to turn resistance into action, last summer HRC launched the largest grassroots expansion and earliest deployment of resources in its 37-year history through HRC Rising. HRC has already hired a dozen new staff to lead the effort, aimed at expanding and mobilizing its grassroots army of 3 million members to bolster pro-equality candidates and initiatives in key states across 2018. To get involved or learn more about HRC Rising, visit hrc.im/rising.

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