Former President Barack Obama has taped a robocall urging Alabama voters to vote for Democrat Doug Jones on Tuesday, in a last ditch attempt to stop Judge Roy Moore’s election to the U.S. Senate.
CNN reported Monday, “Obama’s message to voters — intended to specifically reach black voters whose turnout is critical for Democratic candidate Jones.”
“Doug Jones is a fighter for equality, for progress,” Obama says in the taped call, according to CNN. “Doug will be our champion for justice. So get out and vote, Alabama.”
Two Democratic officials told the network that the former president recorded the phone message in recent days, urging voters not to “sit it out.”
The call came about the time Trump went down to Pensacola, Florida, to urge voters to “get out and vote for Roy Moore.”
According to an average of the latest polls, Moore has a lead of 2.5 percentage points, something Democrats are hoping to counter by urging black voters to come out to the polls.
As CNN reported last week,” Several top-tier African-American Democratic lawmakers will descend on Alabama this weekend to rally supporters for Doug Jones ahead of the Senate special election Tuesday.”
Obama’s call and the last-minute visits could backfire, and portray Jones as a Democratic Party pawn. Hollywood celebrities have also tried to sway the election from afar.
Rosie O’Donnell and Alyssa Milano, two of Hollywood’s most fervent Trump critics, have tweeted their support for Jones, and O’Donnell has maxed out her donations in hopes of swaying the election towards Jones.