MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels, D-Huntsville, announced his endorsement Monday of Democratic Congressional candidate Shomari Figures, once his electoral opponent.
“While today I’m proud to endorse and throw my full support behind Shomari Figures for Congress, my expectation is that not just Democrats, but independents and Republicans all join forces behind Mr. Figures,” Daniels said, speaking Monday at the Alabama Democratic Party Headquarters.
“He’s the most qualified candidate to take our district to the next level, (and) he’s the only candidate that’s going to deliver services back to the community.”
Figures, who’s running to represent Alabama’s redrawn 2nd Congressional District against Republican Caroleene Dobson in November, defeated Daniels in April during a contested Democratic primary election.
Daniels and Figures received the two-highest vote shares during the Democratic primary election, sending them both to a runoff, with Figures ultimately coming out on top with 61% of the vote share.
While the two candidates had a heated runoff election that included sharp critiques of each other, Daniels, calling the upcoming election the “most consequential election in American history,” did not mince words in giving Figures his “full support” for his congressional bid.
Figures mirrored Daniels’ characterization of the upcoming election, leaning into his campaign’s messaging on expanding health care access by increasing incentives for states to expand their Medicaid programs, with Alabama being among ten states yet to have done so.
“This election for some may just be a talking point, for some just may be another Democrat versus Republican battle, but in Bullock County, it’s about a hospital in Union Springs that just closed,” Figures said.
“In Clarke County, it’s about two hospitals we’ve seen close just in the last 60 days, including one just last week. In Monroe County, it’s about the maternity services that are no longer there, in Crenshaw County, it’s about the dialysis center that just closed a few weeks ago.”
During his campaign, Figures has pledged to fight to increase the incentives for states to expand their Medicaid programs, which if done in Alabama, is projected to provide health care to an additional 300,000 Alabamians.
At the press conference, Figures said that the shrinking health care access in Alabama was an issue that united both he and his former Democratic opponent.
“I know something that has resonated with me and Leader Daniels as we got in this race is that Alabama is literally at the bottom of the list in terms of life outcomes and life expectancy in the United States,” Figures said.
“You’re expected to live amongst the shortest lives if you were born here in the state of Alabama, and a lot of that has to do with just basic access to health care.”
Alabama Daily News asked Figures if recent efforts by Alabama lawmakers and leaders to combat voter fraud – things like Senate Bill 1, which makes it a Class B felony to pay another person for assistance with an absentee ballot application, or Secretary of State Wes Allen’s effort to purge voter rolls of noncitizens – affected his campaign.
Figures bluntly called such efforts an “effort to suppress the vote, to make it as hard for people to vote as possible.”
Daniels offered a personal anecdote as to why he agreed with Figures’ assessment.
“In the local election in Madison County just in August, (my wife) was on the inactive list, and we vote in every election,” Daniels told ADN.
“And so that tells me, if that’s happening in my household – someone that they know served the state – then how many other households is this happening in? And how many people hadn’t had a local election to even determine whether or not they’re on the inactive list?”
As of June 30, Figures has raised nearly $870,000 in campaign contributions, and loans his own campaign $25,000. Dobson, his opponent, has raised nearly $800,000 and loaned her own campaign nearly $1.4 million.
The general election will be held Nov. 5. The voter registration deadline is Oct. 21, and the last day to apply for an absentee ballot by mail is Oct. 29. The deadline to apply in person is Oct. 31.