TUSKEGEE, Ala. (AP) — On opposite sides of the courthouse square in Tuskegee, Alabama, a place steeped in African-American history, including the city's namesake university and World War II airmen, two rival congressional candidates recently greeted families gathered for a county festival.
Democrat Shomari Figures, a former Obama White House official and former top aide to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, is trying to flip the seat, which was redrawn after a lengthy redistricting battle. Republican Carolyn Dobson, a real estate lawyer and political newcomer, is trying to keep the seat in GOP hands.
Alabama's 2nd Congressional District was redrawn after Supreme Court of the United States agreed that Alabama likely unfairly weakened the influence of black voters in drawing congressional boundaries. Three justices the panel changed the shape of the areawhich now includes places like Tuskegee to give black voters the opportunity to vote for the candidate of their choice.
The open seat has sparked a heated fight for a district that currently leans Democratic but that Republicans believe they can win, which could help solve control U.S. House of Representatives: Black residents now make up nearly 49% of the district's voting-age population, up from 30% when the district was reliably Republican. Cook's Non-Partisan Political Report rates the district as “likely Democratic.”
However, both Dobson and Figures believe the race will be competitive.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has named Figures to its “Red to Blue” program, a list of priority candidates they believe can flip districts from Republican control. The National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has also named Dobson to its “Young Guns” list of priority candidates.
Both candidates are lawyers in their 40s with young children. And both left Alabama in search of opportunity but recently returned home.
But their views on politics differ.
Figures, 39, is a Mobile native and the son of two state legislators. His late father was a legislative leader and lawyer who sued 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 in the Obama administration as the presidential staff’s internal director and then as a liaison to the Justice Department. He also served as deputy chief of staff and an adviser to Garland.
During campaign stops, Figures discussed the impact of Alabama's refusal to expand Medicaid, the need to stop hospital closures in the state, supporting public education and the need to bring more resources to a county with serious infrastructure needs.
“We've lost three hospitals in this county since I entered this race. We have several more that are bleeding, including one here in Montgomery,” Figures said in his speech.
Dobson, 37, grew up in rural Monroe County and graduated from Harvard University and Baylor Law School. A real estate attorney, she lived and practiced in Texas before returning to Alabama.
Dobson has highlighted concerns about border security, inflation and crime, issues she says are troubling families across the political spectrum. In the heated runoff Republican primary, she ran an ad describing herself as someone who “stands right up there with Donald Trump.”
“The vast majority of Alabamians in this county are very concerned about where our country is headed,” Dobson said after a campaign stop in Montgomery. “They need to look at the last three and a half years and who’s been in charge when it comes to our open border, when it comes to our economy, inflation, food prices.”
Last week, Dobson traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border to highlight border security. “There’s an impact on crime, there’s an impact on drugs, but also open border policies are just contributing to a humanitarian crisis,” Dobson said.
The officials called the trip a “photo op.” He said that while immigration is an important issue that requires bipartisan cooperation, it is not the cause of the district's pressing problems.
“Illegal immigration is not the reason that 12 of the 13 counties in this area lost population 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 parts of Mobile and the capital, Montgomery, as well as many rural counties — including parts of the state’s Black Belt, a region named for its dark, fertile soil that once gave rise to cotton plantations worked by slaves. It also includes many white suburban and rural areas that have been Republican strongholds.
Transition to Vice President Kamala Harris At the top of the Democratic ticket, Figures should win, said Democratic pollster Zach McCrary. “Black voters are more enthusiastic now. Young voters are more enthusiastic now,” McCrary said.
Among Republicans, enthusiasm for Trump's return to the White House is expected to boost GOP voter turnout.
Ira Stallworth, a 59-year-old retired educator who met both candidates in Tuskegee, said the race has already brought something new: attention. She said candidates often ignored the area in the past when it was part of a Republican stronghold.
“We have a chance to create a district that gives us a little more of a voice,” Stallworth said.