Alabama Runoff Elections Set Field in Newly Competitive House District
Shomari Figures, a Democrat who worked in the Justice Department, and Caroleene Dobson, a Republican newcomer, advanced in the state’s Second Congressional District. Shomari Figures, left, a Democrat who is a former Justice Department official, will face Caroleene Dobson, a lawyer, this November.Credit…Wes Frazer for The New York Times, Dobson for Congress Campaign, via Associated […]
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Shomari Figures, a Democrat who worked in the Justice Department, and Caroleene Dobson, a Republican newcomer, advanced in the state’s Second Congressional District.
Emily Cochrane covers the American South and has reported on the redistricting effort in Alabama.
Shomari Figures, a Democrat who worked in the Justice Department, will face Caroleene Dobson, a lawyer and Republican political newcomer, this November for the seat in Alabama’s Second Congressional District, according to The Associated Press.
The two candidates won primary runoff elections on Tuesday in the district, which was redrawn after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that the state had illegally diluted the power of Black voters.
Now that the district has more Black voters, who historically have largely supported Democrats, political analysts see the race for it as one of the most competitive in the South. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report ranks it as a likely Democratic seat. (The district’s current representative, Barry Moore, is expected to remain in Congress after winning the Republican primary in the neighboring First Congressional District.)
The Second District now stretches across the state, encompassing much of Mobile; Montgomery, the Alabama capital; and several counties in the Black Belt, where rich soil once fueled plantations worked by enslaved people.
In the Republican primary, Ms. Dobson faced Dick Brewbaker, a former state senator. Mr. Brewbaker repeatedly pointed to his experience in the State Legislature, while Ms. Dobson argued that it was time for a newer political voice in Washington.
In the Democratic runoff, Mr. Figures’s opponent was State Representative Anthony Daniels, the House Democratic leader.
Mr. Figures’s family has a long political legacy in Alabama: He is the son of Michael Figures and Vivian Davis Figures, who have both served in the State Senate, with Ms. Davis Figures winning her husband’s seat after his death in 1996. Shomari Figures moved back to Alabama after working in the Justice Department and the Obama administration.
Mr. Daniels does not live in the district — a point of contention in the race, though residency is not a requirement — but grew up there. He argued that his leadership position in the State House had shown that he could deliver for Alabama residents.
The November elections could result in Alabama sending two Black representatives to Washington for the first time in its history if Mr. Figures were to win and if Representative Terri Sewell, the Democrat in the Sixth Congressional District, wins re-election, as analysts widely expect.
