Shomari Figures wins Alabama 2nd District in key U.S. House race

By John Sharp | jsharp@al.com

Shomari Figures, the son of a prominent Democratic political family in South Alabama and an aide in the Justice Department during the Biden and Obama administrations, on Tuesday became only the fourth Black member ever elected to Congress from Alabama, winning a competitive and expensive race for the 2nd District seat.

With 96% of the votes counted, Figures had 54.5% of the vote to Dobson’s 45.5%. Shortly before 10:30 p.m. Tuesday Dobson conceded the election.

The victory gives the national Democratic Party a rare flip of a congressional seat, even if most pundits for months had anticipated a Democratic lawmaker seizing control of a congressional district that was redrawn in federal court.

“This journey that we are on now, this is the beginning of the work,” Figures, 39, said to supporters gathered inside a ballroom at the historic Battle House Hotel in downtown Mobile. “Today is great. We are grateful that we have the opportunity to sit here today and be elected and be put into a position to go do the work. But now we got to do the work.”

He added, “I still need you guys. I need your prayers and support. We are going to need you guys. I still need that help to represent these communities in the most effective ways that we can.”

Figures was joined with wife, Kalisha, and three young children -- Micah, Novah, and Zorah -- along with his mother, longtime Alabama State Sen. Vivian Figures. He acknowledged his late father, Michael, a prominent civil rights attorney and state lawmaker who died in 1996 at age 48.

“This pathway was filled with answered prayers, blessing and grace and mercy,” Figures said.

Figures thanked his wife and his mother --bringing the two women on stage with him while he delivered his victory speech.

At times, the speech turned emotional with Figures recalling his father’s final moments in 1996, and how he is proud to carry on his political legacy. Michael Figures was the first Black person to serve as president pro tem of the Alabama State Senate. Shomari Figures is the first Black person elected to Congress from Mobile.

Figures then credited his mother’s strength in raising a young family after his father’s death.

“We wouldn’t be here without you,” Figures said to his mother. “There is no way we would be here without you and no way I’ll continue this speech without you here on this stage. We made no secret of the fact that a large reason we were able to get into this race and think we would be competitive is (because of) the legacy laid down before I was even born.”

He added, “My father died in ‘96, and my mother did more than just keep that legacy going. She raised three of us, as we came of age, and we were 14 and 11 and 7 at the time my father died. She kept it going in more ways than one.”

The Figures win, coupled with Birmingham Democrat U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell’s victory in the 7th district, means Alabama -- for the first time in its tortured history with race relations -- will have two Black members of Congress serving at the same time. Figures is the first Black person to be elected to Congress from Alabama outside the 7th district. About 27% of Alabama residents are Black, according to census data reported last year.

“That’s important,” Figures said about the historical nature of his win. “It means a lot to me. More importantly, it means we took advantage of the opportunity that this opportunity district created. That’s not so much centered around race as its centered around the perspective of what you can bring to the district.”

He added, “This district wasn’t drawn as a district we still had to work, campaign, strategize and message to people of both races of all different backgrounds and persuasions.”

Dobson gathered with Republican supporters at the Fort Whiting Reception Hall in Mobile.

“We knew that the courts had given the other team a home-field advantage,” she said. “We ran a strong race, and we talked about issues that matter most to Alabama families.

The congressional contest was the only General Election battle of note on the Alabama ballots Tuesday, and was the first time a U.S. House race was competitive in November since the 2010 contest in the 2nd district when Republican Martha Roby unseated incumbent Democratic U.S. Bobby Bright.

The district, which was reliably red, was redrawn by three federal judges last October after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a shocking 5-4 decision in Allen v. Milligan, agreed with a lower court’s determination that Alabama should have at least another congressional district in which Black voters were a majority or were close to it.

The Supreme Court’s verdict also suggested that Alabama Republicans violated the Voting Rights of Act 1965 when they approved the original congressional map. In short, the Supreme Court agreed that Alabama’s Legislature had diluted the influence of Black voters when drawing congressional lines, tossing the final decision for the congressional lines to the three-judge panel. The congressional map was redrawn to give Black voters an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choosing within the 2nd district.

The 2nd district would’ve carried President Joe Biden over former President Donald Trump by 12 points during the 2020 presidential election, and its voting-age population is 47.6% Black-45% white.

Republican U.S. Rep. Barry Moore, R-Enterprise, had his hometown redrawn into the heavily conservative 1st district, and opted not to seek re-election to the 2nd district last year. Moore opted instead to run against incumbent U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile, winning the primary in March. Moore rolled to a victory over Democratic opponent Tom Holmes.

Despite long labeled as “likely Democratic” by Cook Political Report, the 2nd district drew eight Republican hopefuls during the primary.

Dobson, a political newcomer, won the GOP nomination by defeating longtime State Sen. Dick Brewbaker during the April 17 primary runoff and launched a campaign that adhered closely with conservative stances on the economy, immigration, and cultural issues. In a recent debate, she blasted Figures by saying he owns the policies of the Justice Department, where he served as deputy chief of staff and counselor to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, including the agency’s challenge of the Alabama law banning gender-affirming care for minors.

Figures outlasted 10 Democratic hopefuls during the primary before defeating Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels during the runoff.

Throughout the campaign, Figures highlighted issues like rural health care and a crisis of hospital and clinic closures in Alabama, as well and reproductive rights and in-vitro fertilization -- a hot political issue born out of the Alabama State Supreme Court in February that temporarily upended a procedure popular with most Americans.

Figures continue to talk about his concerns over hospital closures during his victory speech, called on the Alabama Legislature to consider expanding Medicaid, and fretted about the state’s low life expectancy relative to other states.

“We know what’s at stake,” Figures said. “I spent a lot of time on the campaign (talking about) health care access. We literally live the shortest lives than any other state in the United States of America with the exception of two states, and I know we can all guess one. Mississippi and West Virginia and they have us beat by only a few weeks. We can fix that by expanding Medicaid in Alabama.”

The campaign between Figures and Dobson got personal and heated at times. Figures claimed Dobson was a billionaire during an Oct. 10 debate hosted by AL.com and sponsored by AARP, an allegation that wasn’t entirely accurate. He accused Dobson of not being able to relate with voters in the mostly rural and low-income congressional district. Dobson disputed Figures, saying she was not “even remotely close” to being a billionaire.

Dobson, throughout the campaign, labeled Figures as a “Washington, D.C. insider” whose campaign was bolstered by political operatives based far outside Alabama.

Figures, at his gathering, credited Dobson for running a “tough race” that kept her away from her young family while campaigning.

“There are many mornings ... you miss that time with the family you can’t get back,” Figures said. “She has small children like us. That’s not lost on us. She fought hard.”

More than $4.7 million has been spent by the two candidates in the 2nd district race, according to the latest Federal Election Commission data. The two candidates raised close to $5.5 million, though the Dobson campaign was heavily bolstered by $1.7 million in personal loans to her campaign.

The stakes have been high in the 2nd district contest given the razor-thin majority Republicans hold in the U.S. House.

Figures, during the final two weeks of the campaign, pushed to get Democratic voters out to the polls. He said while the redrawn, 13-county district that includes much of Mobile and Montgomery had reliably leaned blue, it most recently supported Republican Gov. Kay Ivey during the 2022 midterm election. But turnout in 2022 was a poor 38.5%, with few competitive contests on the ballot. Presidential contests draw a much higher percentage of voters, both Democratic and Republican.

Figures, already supported by the Democratic National Committee, was bolstered over the past two weeks with endorsements and visits from prominent national Democratic politicians, including Texas Democratic U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a rising star within the party; former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder; and U.S. House Minority Leader Hakem Jeffries of New York. Former President Barack Obama also recorded a message on Friday endorsing Figures.

Read the rest of the story here: Shomari Figures wins Alabama 2nd District in key U.S. House race - al.com

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