How did democrat Doug Jones beat out Roy Moore and secure an upset victory in the Alabama Senate race? Black voter turnout played a large role.

According to exit polls, black voters made up 28 percent of the vote, with 98 percent of black women and 93 percent of black men voting for Jones, who will now fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions' vacant Senate seat.

In an interview for "Salon Talks," AL.com columnist John Archibald told Salon's Alyona Minkovski that Alabamians are feeling relief the morning after Jones defeated Moore. "I guess I would say from thinking people who really were kind of embarrassed by what was going on in the state and a lot of people who really didn't believe it could happen but really worked hard for it to happen," Archibald said.

Salon's Amanda Marcotte and Jeremy Binckes, who have covered the race reflected on Jones' win. According to Marcotte, the takeaway lessons from this race are that "boring old organizing, boring old turn out your base, works."

Voter suppression was a major concern in Alabama. A voter ID law has been in effect since 2014 and state officials closed 31 DMV offices, mostly in majority black neighborhoods. "I think this is an opening for democrats around the country to say, we are going to be pushing now for more open, more fair, more free elections," Binckes said.