Barack Obama steps in to urge Alabama voters to reject Roy Moore

The former POTUS to Black Alabamans: 'You can't sit it out'

Dec 11, 2017

With Tuesday’s election fast approaching in the race for the Alabama Senate seat, former president Barack Obama has added his voice to those calling for Alabama voters to reject Republican candidate Roy Moore.

“This one’s serious,” Obama says in a voice call message urging voters not to throw their support behind Moore. “You can’t sit it out.”

“Doug Jones is a fighter for equality, for progress,” Obama says. “Doug will be our champion for justice. So get out and vote, Alabama.”

–Roy Moore says American was ‘great’ during slavery: ‘families were strong’–

The message was reportedly recorded in recent days even as the current president, Donald Trump, has thrown his full support behind Moore, despite the fact that Moore has been accused of sexual assault and sexual misconduct by women who were underage at the time.

The allegations against Moore initially drew condemnation from both sides of the aisle, with Republicans and Democrats alike calling on Moore to drop out of the race.

But as the special election drew nearer, those calls were much quieter on the Republican side as the GOP has had to do some serious soul-searching on whether they are willing to back an accused child molester just to get a Republican seat in the Senate, where their legislative agenda is already precarious.

Democrats hope to get out the Black vote for this election, which may be in part why Obama himself is stepping into the increasingly heated fight. Black voters may be the tipping point to hand a victory to the Democrats, but only if they can turn out in the numbers needed to swing the deeply conservative state.