Shomari Figures, Democratic candidate for Alabama’s newly-drawn 2nd Congressional District, speaks to supporters during an election night party on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 at the Battle House Hotel in downtown Mobile, Ala. (Mike Kittrell for Alabama Reflector)
Democratic nominee Shomari Figures won election Tuesday in Alabama’s newly drawn 2nd Congressional District in a race that could help shape the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The Associated Press called the race at 10:55 p.m. with about 96% of precincts reporting. Figures, a former official in the Biden administration and a native of Mobile, had 156,622 votes (54.5%). Republican nominee Caroleene Dobson, a real estate attorney, had 130,568 votes (45.5%).
Speaking before the Associated Press called the race, Figures dedicated the beginning of his speech to both his wife, who he said has a “shared sense that we can make government do good” and his mother, Alabama Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile. He also invoked the memory of his father, the late Michael Figures, who became Alabama Senate President Pro Tem.
“We were 14, 11, and seven at the time my father died, and she kept it going in more ways than one, and she raised a very talkative and energetic and not-so-well behaved, opinionated little boy and the next congressman from the state of Alabama,” Figures said.
He said he was grateful to be elected but that there was work still to be done in the district to tackle issues he spoke about during the campaign, such as lack of access to health care services.
“I still need that help to represent these communities and what we call District 2 in the best effective way and the most effective way that we possibly can and so we know what’s at stake.”
The district got redrawn last year after a federal court ordered the state to create a second district where Black voters would have a chance to elect their preferred leaders. The 2nd district, running from Mobile County through the southern Black Belt and Montgomery to the Georgia border, leans Democratic, according to the Cook Political Report.
Dobson focused her campaign on economic concerns, criticizing the Biden administration’s handling of inflation and promising to push for energy independence.
Before the Associated Press had officially called the race, Dobson said they ran a strong race, despite the the other side having a “home field advantage,” and talked about issues that mattered to Alabama families, such as inflation, “open borders” and rising crime.
“As someone who was born and raised in the 2nd District, who’s proud to be from here, proud to be raising my kids here in this district, my roots run deep,” she said.
Dobson encouraged people who have considered running for office to do so.
“More importantly, we need more citizen servants who run not because they want to make Washington their career but because they are dedicated to serve others and working towards a better day for all Alabamians,” she said.
Sen. Vivian Figures, her voice cracking, said that when Figures was born, she was alone because his father was fighting a voter fraud case, which she said he won, and he didn’t see Figures’ birth.
“Who would have thought that this would have been the son that would actually follow in his father’s footsteps to carry on that fight for justice for all?” Vivian Davis Figures said.
Shomari Figures will take over the seat previously held by Rep. Barry Moore, a Republican, who ran in the 1st Congressional District after the 2nd Congressional District was redrawn.
Figures performed particularly well in Mobile County, his home base, and made significant inroads in Montgomery, while Dobson’s support remained strong in the district’s more rural areas.
With Figures’ election to Congress, Alabama will have two Black representatives serving in the U.S. House of Representatives at the same time for the first time in the state’s history.
“We know that with your support, we will make this district the most viable place that it can possibly be. We will make this district a shining light on a hill,” Figures said.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.