Alabama Democrats hope to rebuild party to better support candidates

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - The midterm election is now behind us, and it was a tough night for Alabama Democrats. The party was absent from many of the statewide races and some Democratic candidates say they had no support from the Alabama Democratic Party.

The party just elected a new chair Randy Kelley, but after last night’s results, the party has more work to do to become competitive in statewide races.

There were Democratic candidates up and down the ballot, but only four were in the running to represent Alabamians statewide:

• Yolanda Flowers for governor
• Pamela Laffitte for secretary of state
• Wendell Major for attorney general
• Will Body for U.S. Senate

And all were unsuccessful.

“I’m kind of disappointed about the number of candidates that was running,” said Kelley.

Flowers blames her loss in part due to the lack of party support or recognition.

“If Randy Kelly said, you know, Ms. Flowers is our is the Democratic nominee,” said Flowers. “I mean, no recognition whatsoever.”

She thinks that recognition would’ve made a difference and says financial support from the party would’ve been beneficial, but Kelly says the party doesn’t have any money to support candidates.

“The last administration left us in worse shape than I have ever seen the party,” he said. “So we got to rebuild the party we’ve got to hire staff. And I couldn’t do a miracle. I’ve only been in three months.”

He says there is hope for the party. As the transition from the last administration continues, he plans to recruit younger people to join Alabama Democrats.

“That’s one thing I’m very much concerned about is building coalitions and getting the message out that we have more in common than we have in differences,” said Kelley.

Kelley will be in his role for four years and he says the party will be reorganized in a “very short period of time.”

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