Figures fights to keep his seat as he considers his political future

WASHINGTON — A little more than two weeks after the Supreme Court struck a blow to the Voting Rights Act, Congressman Shomari Figures remains confident that Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District will stay the same this year despite Republicans’ efforts to alter it.

The current 2nd District was drawn by a special master as an “opportunity district” for minority voters in 2024. But if the state reverts to the previously struck down 2023 congressional map, that district and the neighboring 1st District would likely elect a Republican to Congress.

Even so, the Alabama Democrat is not taking anything off the table. Figures, who lives in Mobile, would be located in the 1st Congressional District under the Republican-drawn map.

“When we look at the potential district, it’s certainly a district that is certainly not in the unwinnable category,” Figures told Alabama Daily News of AL-1 as it is configured in the 2023 map.

Under the Legislature-drawn map, the 1st District would encompass Mobile and Baldwin Counties. In 2024, President Donald Trump won the proposed district by 36 points. And AL-1 would have a 25% Black voting age population, according to Dave’s Redistricting.

That stands in contrast to the current 2nd District, which Vice President Kamala Harris won by 8 points and has a 48.7% Black voting age population.

“It’s a district that creates a legitimate opportunity for an African American candidate to be elected,” Figures told ADN.

Though he’s considering what he would do if the boundary lines in south Alabama look different this year, Figures reiterated that his current focus is on serving the 2nd District.

“If we ultimately have to make a decision on whether or not to run in a different district or a district that’s configured differently than it currently is now, we’ll make that decision at that time, but right now, we remain confident that the current map is the map that’s going to be used,” Figures told ADN.

On Monday, the Supreme Court paved the way for Alabama to use the 2023 congressional map this year when it lifted an injunction that barred the state from implementing it after a three-judge panel found it was racially discriminatory. But a lower court still has to review the case.

Plaintiffs have filed a request for a temporary restraining order in the redistricting case to stop the state from fully implementing the 2023 map in the middle of an election. The three-judge panel that is set to rule on that is the same one that previously struck down the Legislature-drawn map. That’s a fact Figures highlighted.

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“The judges have not changed,” the congressman said. “So we expect that decision to stand.”

But Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callias, which curbed the use of race in drawing lines, directly conflicts with the injunctions barring Alabama from using its 2023 map.

“Alabama drew a map based on lawful policy goals, not race, and the Supreme Court’s recent ruling vindicates that approach,” Marshall said in a statement last Friday.

In video remarks sent to reporters, Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., a gubernatorial hopeful, argued that Alabama is a “ruby red state” where President Donald Trump won, and that the congressional map should reflect that fact.

If the 2023 map is implemented, four congressional districts would change. Besides major changes to the 1st and 2nd districts, the boundary lines for the 6th and 7th districts would change slightly, too.

Rep. Gary Palmer, R-Birmingham, said he intends to remain in the race for AL-6 and argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling in the Louisiana case was “good for the country.”

“Unconstitutionally making race the criteria for drawing a district line is just institutionalizing separation,” Palmer told ADN.

While Figures said the Voting Rights Act is about creating an opportunity for minority voters to elect someone of their choice, not about a guaranteed outcome.

“One in three people in the state of Alabama, for all intents and purposes, is African American, and to say that that group deserves no legitimate opportunity to have their voice heard in the form of representation at the federal level or any level of government, that is insane to me,” he told ADN.

Pending court review, Alabama plans to vacate the election results for the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th congressional districts after the May 19 primary to allow for the special August primaries if the 2023 map is implemented.

Alabama’s 7th Congressional District, represented by Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, would then likely revert to the only Democratic-held seat in the state.