Doug Jones: “We Don’t Live in a Pretend World”

From the Jones campaign

October 5

Birmingham, AL – President Trump came to Mobile on Friday and told Alabama voters to “pretend I'm on the ballot.” On Sunday’s episode of MS NOW's The Weekend, Democratic gubernatorial nominee Doug Jones said Alabamians aren't living in Trump's pretend world, and they won't be voting in it.

“We don't live in a pretend world where you've got a fake candidate on the ballot,” Jones said. “We live in an era of high gas prices and high diesel prices, and everybody knows who is causing that, and everybody knows in Alabama that Tommy Tuberville is enabling that. We live in a world of high electricity prices and high grocery prices. We live in a world where we've got a candidate in Tommy Tuberville and a president in Donald Trump wanting to dump all the data centers in Alabama.”

Trump's standing with Alabama voters has slipped. His approval rating in the state has fallen from 59 percent when he took office in January 2025 to 48 percent, according to Civiqs tracking.

Jones also took aim at Trump's reason for coming to Mobile, where the president spent part of his speech talking about having the new Mobile Bay Bridge named after him.

“This was all about Donald Trump. He was literally there to campaign to have another monument named after himself, the Donald Trump Mobile Bay Bridge, that he had nothing to do with, that Tuberville had nothing to do with,” Jones said.

Jones said the issues he hears at his town halls are the same no matter where in the state he goes.

“People do not live in fantasy worlds. They don't live in make-believe worlds. Their reality is their kitchen table issues,” Jones said. “That's what people are going to vote on.”

The full Jones interview on MS NOW may be seen on YouTube and below: