Booker, Patrick stump for Jones ahead of Alabama election

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick (D) stumped for Democrat Doug Jones on Saturday ahead of Alabama’s special Senate election.

“I know you all made, already, a million phone calls, but I’m here to try to get some folk woke,” Booker said before a crowd at Alabama State University in Montgomery, according to Politico.

“Some people don’t understand: the opposite of justice is not injustice,” he said. “It is inaction and indifference.”

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Patrick appeared alongside Jones in Selma, Ala., earlier Saturday.

Booker and Patrick’s appearances in Alabama came three days before Jones faces off against Republican Roy Moore in the election to fill the Senate seat vacated earlier this year by Attorney General Jeff Sessions and currently held by Sen. Luther Strange (R-Ala.).

Polls show a tight race between Jones and Moore, a conservative former Alabama Supreme Court justice who once led Jones by wide margins in the state.

But the gap narrowed last month after allegations of sexual misconduct against Moore surfaced, making his race against Jones significantly more competitive. 

Jones has largely kept his distance from nationally prominent Democrats. But with election day approaching and concerns about dwindling enthusiasm among black voters in the state, Booker and Patrick sought to urge voters to turn out on Tuesday.

“Bad people get elected when good people don’t vote,” Booker said, according to Politico.

Patrick spoke only briefly in Selma on Saturday, but called for voters to elect leaders with “more integrity, more grace, more patience, more understanding and better listening,” Politico reported.

“Alabama has a chance to regain its voice for integrity and grace, its patience and listening, its willingness to hear all sides and a chance to do what’s right for the good of the whole,” he said.

Ahead of his appearance at Alabama State University, Booker tweeted a broadside at Moore, questioning whether Senate pages would be safe from potential advances from Moore if the insurgent Republican won the race on Tuesday.

“Well I am in the United States Senate & I don’t want to be next to you wondering if Senate Pages will be safe from your advances,” Booker wrote. “Your bigotry, ignorance, and hate has no place in the Senate. I’m going to my ancestral home state of Alabama today to lend a hand in defeating you.”

Numerous women have come forward with allegations that Moore pursued sexual or romantic relations with them when they were teenagers and he was in his 30s, though he has denied the allegations.

Booker told Vice News reporter Alexandra Jaffe that he would do everything he can to block Moore from the Senate, citing the allegations against him. He also said that President Trump should follow the lead of Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.), who announced his resignation from the Senate this week in the face of sexual misconduct allegations.

Updated at 9:04 p.m.