Charles Barkley was overjoyed on Tuesday night after seeing the results of the race for a United States Senate seat in Alabama. By a narrow margin, Democratic candidate Doug Jones took down Republican candidate Roy Moore, marking the first time since 1997 that Alabama will send a Democrat to the U.S. Senate.
Barkley was a vocal supporter of Jones and campaigned with him one day before Alabamans went to the polls. As Jones was giving his victory address, Barkley was on stage and celebrating.
After Jones concluded his speech, Barkley went onto CNN and spoke with Jake Tapper about the race. As you can guess, Barkley was overjoyed, and spoke about this race with the wit and biting insight fans of his have come to expect.
“I’m just so proud,” Barkley said. “I’m just so proud of my state. We’ve got some amazing people here. Yeah, we’ve got a bunch of rednecks and a bunch of ignorant people, but we’ve got some amazing people here and they rose up today.”
Barkley also repeatedly stressed how he viewed Tuesday as a “great night for Alabama,” called Moore “an embarrassment,” and called this election a “wake up call for Democrats.”
“The Democrats — and I told Mr. Jones this, and I love Doug — they’ve taken the black vote and the poor vote for granted for a long time,” Barkley said. “It’s time for them to get off their ass and start making life better for black folks and people who are poor. They’ve always had our votes, and they’ve abused our votes, and this is a wake up call.”
