Sep 7, 2024 Story by: Editor
In Tuskegee, Alabama, a city rich in African American history, including its famous university and the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, two congressional candidates recently campaigned at a county festival on opposite sides of the courthouse square.
Shomari Figures, a Democrat and former aide in the Obama White House and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland’s office, is vying to flip the seat in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District. His Republican opponent, Caroleene Dobson, a real estate attorney and political newcomer, is determined to keep the seat under GOP control.
The district was redrawn after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Alabama likely violated Black voters’ rights when drawing previous congressional lines. A three-judge panel reconfigured the district, which now includes areas like Tuskegee, offering Black voters a greater chance to elect a candidate of their choice.
This newly reshaped district has become the center of a heated race, which could influence the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives. The district, once a Republican stronghold, now has a Black voting-age population of nearly 49%, up from 30%. The non-partisan Cook Political Report now ranks the district as “likely Democrat.”
Despite the changes, both Dobson and Figures view the race as competitive.
Figures has been selected for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s “Red to Blue” program, which supports candidates believed to have the potential to flip Republican districts. On the other side, Dobson is backed by the National Republican Congressional Committee’s “Young Guns” list of priority candidates.
Both candidates share similarities: they are both under 40, lawyers, and parents of young children. They also left Alabama for career opportunities before returning. However, their political views differ sharply.
Figures, 39, from Mobile, is the son of two state legislators. His late father, a prominent attorney, famously sued the Ku Klux Klan over the 1981 murder of a Black teenager. After earning his law degree, Figures served as the domestic director of presidential personnel in the Obama administration and later worked as a deputy chief of staff to Merrick Garland. During his campaign stops, Figures has emphasized Alabama’s refusal to expand Medicaid, the need to prevent hospital closures, support for public education, and investment in infrastructure for the district.
“We’ve lost three hospitals in this district since I got in this race. We have several others that are hemorrhaging, including one here in Montgomery,” Figures said in a speech.
Dobson, 37, grew up in rural Monroe County and earned her degrees from Harvard University and Baylor Law School. Before returning to Alabama, she practiced law in Texas. Dobson has focused her campaign on issues like border security, inflation, and crime, which she believes resonate with families across political lines. During the Republican primary, she ran ads emphasizing her support for Donald Trump.
“The vast majority of Alabamians in this district are very concerned about where our country is headed,” Dobson said after a campaign stop in Montgomery. “They have to look at the past three-and-a-half years and who has been in charge when it comes to our open border, when it comes to our economy, inflation, the price of groceries.”
Recently, Dobson visited the U.S.-Mexico border to stress the importance of border security. “There are impacts on crime, drugs, but it’s also the open border policies that are fostering a humanitarian crisis,” Dobson said.
Figures dismissed the trip as a “photo op,” adding that while immigration is important, it is not responsible for the district’s most urgent issues.
“Illegal immigration is not the reason that 12 out of 13 counties in this district lost population last year. Illegal immigration is not the reason our kids here in the state of Alabama read at the sixth-worst level of any state,” Figures argued.
The newly drawn 2nd Congressional District spans across lower Alabama, stretching from the Mississippi border to the Georgia border. It includes parts of Mobile, Montgomery, and several rural counties, including areas within the Black Belt, a region historically known for its cotton plantations worked by enslaved people, but also home to many predominantly white suburban and rural communities that have been GOP strongholds.
According to Democratic pollster Zac McCrary, the presence of Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket could boost Figures’ chances. “Black voters are now more enthusiastic. Young voters are now more enthusiastic,” McCrary said.
Meanwhile, Republicans expect high voter turnout from supporters eager to return Trump to the White House.
Ira Stallworth, a 59-year-old retired educator who met both candidates in Tuskegee, remarked that the race has already sparked new interest in the district. “We have a chance to have a district that gives us a little more voice,” Stallworth said. Source: AP News
