TUSKEGEE, Alabama (AP) — On opposite sides of the courthouse square in Tuskegee, Alabama — a place affluent in African-American history, including the city’s namesake university and World War II airmen — two opposing congressional candidates recently greeted families gathered for a county festival.
Democrat Shomari Figures, who worked in the Obama White House and as a former top adviser to Attorney General Merrick Garland, is trying to win the seat, which was reapportioned after a lengthy redistricting battle. Republican Caroleene Dobson, a real estate lawyer and political newcomer, is trying to keep the seat in Republican hands.
Alabama’s 2nd congressional district was redrawn after the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that Alabama had likely illegally weakened the influence of black voters when drawing congressional boundaries. A three-judge panel redrawn the district, which now includes places like Tuskegee, to give black voters the opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.
The vacated seat has sparked a heated contest for the district — which currently leans Democratic but Republicans say is winnable — that could determine the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. Black residents now make up nearly 49% of the district’s eligible voting population, up from about 30% when the district was reliably Republican. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report rates the district as “likely Democratic.”
Nevertheless, both Dobson and Figures are convinced that the race is hotly contested.
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has included Figures on its “Red to Blue” program, a list of priority candidates believed to be able to flip districts from Republican control. The National Republican Congressional Committee has also included Dobson on its list of priority candidates, called “Young Guns.”
Both candidates are lawyers under 40 with juvenile children. Both left Alabama to pursue opportunities but recently returned home.
However, their views differ on political issues.
Figures, 39, is a native of Mobile and the son of two state legislators. His behind schedule father was a legislator and lawyer who prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan for the 1981 murder of a black teenager. After graduating from the University of Alabama and law school there, 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 counsel to Garland.
During his campaign appearances, Figures discussed the impact of Alabama’s refusal to expand Medicaid, the need to prevent hospital closures in the state, support for public education, and the need to provide additional funding to a district with tremendous infrastructure needs.
“Since I entered this campaign, we have lost three hospitals in this district. Several others are hemorrhaging, 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 lived and practiced as a real estate attorney in Texas before returning to Alabama.
Dobson has highlighted her concerns about border security, inflation and crime – issues she said concern families across the political spectrum. In a heated Republican runoff, she ran ads describing herself as someone “who stands firmly with Donald Trump.”
“The vast majority of Alabama residents in this district are very concerned about where our country is headed,” Dobson said after a campaign appearance in Montgomery. “They have to look at the last three and a half years and ask themselves who has taken responsibility for our open borders, our economy, inflation and food prices.”
Dobson traveled to the U.S.-Mexico border last week to raise awareness about border security. “There are impacts on crime and drugs, but the open border policy also fosters a humanitarian crisis,” Dobson said.
Notables called the trip a “photo op.” He said immigration is an essential issue that requires bipartisan cooperation, but it is not the cause of the pressing problems in the district.
“Illegal immigration is not the reason that 12 of 13 counties in this district lost population last year. Illegal immigration is not the reason that our children here in the state of Alabama have the sixth-lowest reading proficiency score of any state,” Figures says.
The novel 2nd Congressional District stretches across lower Alabama from the Mississippi border to the Georgia border. It includes parts of Mobile and the capital city of Montgomery, as well as many rural counties – including parts of the state’s Black Belt, a region named for its obscure, fertile soil that once gave rise to cotton plantations worked by slaves. It also includes many white suburban and rural areas that were Republican strongholds.
The move to Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket should aid the numbers, said Democratic pollster Zac McCrary. “Black voters are more enthusiastic now. Young voters are more enthusiastic now,” McCrary said.
On the Republican side, enthusiasm for Trump’s return to the White House is likely to escalate turnout among GOP voters.
Ira Stallworth, a 59-year-old retired educator who met both candidates in Tuskegee, said the campaign has already brought something novel: attention. She said the area was often overlooked by candidates in the past when it was part of a Republican stronghold.
“We have a chance to have a district where we hear a little more,” Stallworth said.
