MOBILE, Ala. — Democrat Shomari Figures clenched victory Tuesday night in the competitive race to represent Alabama’s redrawn 2nd Congressional District, defeating Republican Caroleene Dobson and turning the re-drawn district blue for the first time since 2008, and for the second time since 1963.
“This victory means we get the opportunity to go to work, to go up there and try to make government do good for the people in what we now call District 2,” Figures told Alabama Daily News shortly after the race was called, surrounded by friends and supporters at the Battle House Hotel. “We’ll put partisan differences aside, we’ll build up strong relationships with our state and local leadership, and it means a lot to be entrusted by voters to go on and do that.”
With 99% of the vote counted as of early morning Wednesday, Figures received 157,092 votes against Dobson’s 130,847, receiving 54.6% of the vote share, according to the Alabama Secretary of State’s office.
Figures, an attorney who served former U.S. Attorney Merrick Garland and was an aide in the Obama Administration. It was unclear Wednesday morning if Figures will serve in a Democrat- or GOP-controlled U.S. House.
Stretching from Mobile to Russell County, the district was the only district in the state considered competitive this election cycle. Having seen near-dominant Republican control for more than 60 years, the district turned competitive last year after a federal court imposed a new congressional map on the state.
The court found the map state lawmakers approved in 2021 likely violated the Voting Rights Act by lumping a disproportionate number of Black voters into one of the state’s seven districts, District 7, and thereby diluting their voting power. Under the court-imposed map, District 2 went from having a Black population of just under 31% to 50.1%, giving Black voters in the district the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.
Less than four miles south of Figures’ election-night watch party, Dobson, along with hundreds of her supporters and volunteers, were hosting their own election-night watch party at the Fort Whiting Reception Hall.
“I’m very optimistic and very grateful, we’re very excited from what we’ve seen and heard as far as turnout, people taking their time to cast a vote, to send a message to Washington that we want life to be better for Alabama families, and that’s why I got in this race,” Dobson, a real estate attorney, told ADN ahead of the results coming in.
Just after 10 p.m., however, NBC News called the race for Figures, leading to the well over 100 attending his election-watch event to erupt into applause. Figures’ wife, Kalisha, embraced him upon hearing the news, as did his mother, Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, who told ADN she was ecstatic to see her son continue her family’s legacy of public service.
“I thank God that he has given Shomari the privilege and the honor to continue the legacy that his father and I started, and that legacy is built on having a heart for the people, fighting for justice, fighting for what’s right, even if you have to stand by yourself,” Vivian Figures told ADN, referencing her late husband Michael Figures, former Alabama lawmaker and lawyer who helped bankrupt the Ku Klux Klan. “I feel that Shomari will take all of that with him to Washington as he works to represent all people, those who voted for him, and those who didn’t, just like his father and I did.”
Figures was outspent by Dobson in the election cycle and together the two raised and spent about $5 million, according to finance reports filed last month. Totals will be higher when final reports are submitted later this month.