TUSKEGEE, Alabama — On opposite sides of the courthouse square in Tuskegee, Alabama — a place steeped in African-American history, including its namesake university and World War II pilots — two opposing congressional candidates recently greeted families gathered at a county festival.
Democrat Shomari Figures, who served in the Obama White House and as a former top adviser to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, is seeking to flip the seat, which was redrawn after a protracted redistricting battle. Republican Caroleene Dobson, a real estate attorney and political newcomer, is seeking to keep the seat in the GOP.
Alabama’s 2nd congressional district was redrawn after the Supreme Court of the United States agreed that Alabama had likely illegally diluted the influence of black voters in drawing congressional boundaries. A three-judge panel has reshaped the neighborhoodwhich now includes places like Tuskegee, to give black voters the chance to choose a candidate of their choice.
The open seat has set off a heated race for the district — which is now Democratic but Republicans insist is winnable — that help decide control of the U.S. House of Representatives. Black residents now make up nearly 49% of the district’s voting population, up from about 30% when the district was reliably Republican. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report ranks the district as “likely Democratic.”
Still, both Dobson and Figures are confident the race will be exciting.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has added Figures to its “Red to Blue” platform, a list of priority candidates it believes can flip districts out of Republican hands. The National Republican Congressional Committee has similarly added Dobson to its list of priority candidates, the “Young Guns.”
Both candidates are attorneys under 40 with young children, and both left Alabama for opportunities but have recently returned home.
But on political issues they differ in opinion.
Figures, 39, was born in Mobile and is the son of two state legislators. His late father was a legislative leader and lawyer who prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan for the 1981 murder of a black teenager. After graduating from the University of Alabama and its law school, Figures worked for the Obama administration as domestic director of presidential personnel and then as a liaison to the Justice Department. He also served as deputy chief of staff and an adviser to Garland.
At campaign rallies, Figures discussed the implications of Alabama’s refusal to expand Medicaid, the need to end hospital closures in the state, support for public education and the need to provide additional resources to a district with major infrastructure needs.
“We’ve lost three hospitals in this district since I got into this race. We’ve got a few more that are losing blood, including one here in Montgomery,” Figures said in a speech.
Dobson, 37, grew up in rural Monroe County and graduated from Harvard University and Baylor Law School. She was a real estate attorney who lived and worked in Texas before moving back to Alabama.
Dobson highlighted her concerns about border security, inflation and crime — issues she said are troubling for families across the political spectrum. In a heated GOP primary, she took out ads describing herself as someone “who stands strong on Donald Trump.”
“The vast majority of Alabamians in this district are very concerned about the direction our country is going,” Dobson said after a campaign rally in Montgomery. “They need to look at the last 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.”
Dobson traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border last week to highlight border security. “There are consequences for crime, drugs, but the open border policy is also creating a humanitarian crisis,” Dobson said.
Figures called the trip a “photo opportunity.” He said that while immigration is an important issue that requires bipartisan cooperation, it is not the root of the district’s pressing problems.
“Illegal immigration is not the reason that 12 of the 13 counties in this district lost residents last year. Illegal immigration is not the reason that our children here in the state of Alabama are reading at the sixth worst level of any state,” Figures said.
The new 2nd Congressional District stretches across lower Alabama, from the Mississippi border to the Georgia border. It includes part of Mobile and the state capital Montgomery, and many rural counties, including parts of the state’s Black Belt, a region named for the dark, fertile soil that once yielded cotton plantations worked by slaves. It also includes many white suburbs and rural areas that have been GOP strongholds.
The transition to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket should benefit Figures, Democratic pollster Zac McCrary said. “Black voters are more excited now. Young voters are more excited now,” McCrary said.
On the Republican side, enthusiasm for Trump returning to the White House is expected to boost turnout among GOP voters.
Ira Stallworth, a 59-year-old retired schoolteacher who met both candidates in Tuskegee, said the race has already generated something new: attention. She said the area has often been overlooked by candidates in the past when it was part of a GOP stronghold.
“We have an opportunity to have a district that gives us a little more say,” Stallworth said.