The Alabama Democratic Party removed former college professor Victor Williams from their primary ballot for his professed support of former President Donald J. Trump (R).
Williams had been running for the Democratic Party nomination for U.S. Senate.
The Party held a hearing on Williams’ fate after fellow Senate candidate Brandaun Dean filed a complaint questioning Williams’ validity as a Democrat.
“I sure did,” Dean told 1819 News. “Frankly my complaint was filed before the AL profile on Williams came out. I had no indication the Party was aware or intended to act prior to the revelations that were in the AL interview and my Feb 28th letter.”
1819 News asked Dean if the Party made the right decision.
“Oh yes. It’s the only decision that could be made,” Dean said.
1819 News asked if the Party, by silencing alternative views, was risking abandoning the Party’s “big tent” approach for such a narrow base that their nominees will be unable to win in November?
“I can’t speak that broadly,” Dean said. “I think the Chairman, along with the top of the ticket candidates, are aligned but experiencing the results of discordance in vision and intention at all levels. I think the Jones 2020 defeat has allowed a pessimistic spirit to reside in this Party and it’s time to rise above that. A Democrat can win. A Black candidate can win statewide. A 'Union Thug' can clear the primary and rake Britt and Brooks over the coals come November.”
Dean said that if he is the nominee, “Alabama will have its youngest, most anti-poverty, and pro-Black-agenda candidate in American history if they will get into this movement with curiosity and a willingness to use their imagination.”
Birmingham attorney Doug Jones (D) narrowly defeated former Chief Justice Roy Moore (R) for U.S. Senate in the 2017 special election. Jones was the first Democrat to win any statewide political race in Alabama since 2008 when former Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley (D) narrowly defeated Twinkle Andress Kavanaugh (R) for Alabama Public Service Commission President. Jones lost to Coach Tommy Tuberville (R) in a landslide despite outspending the former Auburn football coach.
“Jones failed in 2020 because his message and strategy was timid and chose to preference the working class and upwardly mobile model minority,” Dean told 1819 News. “There was nothing explicitly Black, poor, and rugged about it.”
Dean said that he has been studying Jones’ campaign to learn what he can from both Jones’ unlikely success and then his failed re-election campaign.
“I read and watched a lot of material from Jones 2017 and 2018 efforts,” Dean said. “I looked for where they failed and, outside of the neglect of the national [Democratic] Party to invest in a massive voter enfranchisement, they left the outcomes of folks like my big homies and disparate Blacks to chance.
“My hope is for an honest opportunity to be seen in my humanity and integrity,” Dean said.
As for Williams, Dean said, “I know he’s taken Republican money, just not sure who he has given to"
Dean has criticized the justice system in Alabama and the state’s high incarceration rate.
“Black people constituted 28% of state residents, but 43% of people in jail and 54% of people in prison,” Dean said. “Since 1970, the total jail population has increased 307%. In 2015, pretrial detainees constituted 70% of the total jail population in Alabama.”
Williams did not attend the virtual hearing on Friday evening to decide his fate. The Alabama Republican Party removed three candidates for state legislature from their ballot earlier for not being sufficiently loyal to the Republican Party.
Brandaun Dean is the former Mayor of Brighton. He faces Lanny Jackson and Will Boyd in the May 24 Democratic Party primary now that Williams has been removed from the ballot.
The eventual winner of the Democratic primary will face the winner of the Republican primary on Nov. 8.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
