The victory of Doug Jones in the special election for the United States Senate is a wake-up call for the Republican Party: Americans have grown tired of the racist, sexist, anti-immigrant rhetoric being spewed by its leaders.
Alabama, the state that Jones will now represent, has traditionally been as pro-Republican as they come. It is a former slave state, which has a long history of racial tension. The state has not voted for a Democrat for US president since 1976. Jones is the first Democratic Senator from Alabama since 1997.
That Alabama has turned Blue is a political event that means Republicans are facing hurricane-level political winds going into the 2018 elections. Whether they could be swept from both House and Senate will be much debated over the coming months, but some Democrats have already begun discussing a 50-state strategy.
The Republicans need to accept that they cannot continue on this way. President Donald Trump has been in office for less than a year. His policies have been divisive to say the least. No US president in history has even seen the electorate turn against a president so quickly.
Even those members of the GOP who have tolerated their far-right colleagues, usually in the hope of having a majority that can be used to influence policy, can no longer do so. The party must find a way to make its politics more inclusive, and it must condemn members who continue to spew hate. The Democrats have shown they are capable of doing the same with their handling of US Senator Al Franken.
If the Republican Party fails to act, then it will convince people further that they are a party of hate and crony politics.
