MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures will face a Republican endorsed by President Donald Trump in his fight for reelection to an Alabama congressional seat the GOP redrew as part of a larger effort to help the party keep control of the U.S. House.
He will be running against state Rep. Rhett Marques, who won the GOP nomination for the 2nd Congressional District in Tuesday's special primary election. Figures was unopposed.
The district
is one of several Democratic-leaning districts across the South that were reshaped to Republican advantage in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this year that upended redistricting law by weakening the Voting Rights Act.
Figures, who was elected in 2024, maintains that the new district is winnable for him. Marques, the owner of a tire and automotive service, has served in the Alabama Legislature since 2018 and also got the endorsement of U.S. Sen. Katie Britt.
Both parties have made the district a priority for the fall.
The new district is in the state’s southeastern corner and includes the city of Montgomery. Its Black voting age population dropped from 48% to 40%, making it more challenging for Democrats.
Figures won the seat in 2024 after years of litigation under the Voting Rights Act. A federal court redrew the reliably red district after ruling that the GOP-controlled Legislature intentionally diluted the voting power of Black residents, who make up 27% of Alabama's population.
The court said there should be a second Alabama district where Black people are a majority or near-majority. Figures' election gave the state, for the first time in its history, two Black representatives. They're the only Democrats in Alabama's seven-member congressional delegation.
In April, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down a majority-Black district in Louisiana as an unconstitutional gerrymander that relied too heavily on race. Alabama Republicans, like those in other Southern states, seized on the decision.
Seeking to implement a map previously drawn by the Legislature, lawmakers approved legislation to nullify the results of ongoing primaries and instead authorize Tuesday's special primary elections. The Supreme Court in June granted Alabama permission to switch maps.
During a recent forum in Dothan, in the far southeastern corner of the state, the GOP candidates answered questions about the Iran war, data centers and the district's needs. But much of the attention was on the general election.
“Shomari is going to have the money. He is going to have the opportunity to keep this district. If we get out to vote, we can win it, and we can take this seat back for the Republicans,” Marques said.
Christian Horn, a business owner and the lone Black person in the race, said Republicans need a candidate who can compete across the district, not just in traditional GOP communities. David Matthews, a former Trump appointee in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Joshua McKee, a former U.S. Army Green Beret, and former Marine James Richardson are also running.
Tom Heisner, a 79-year-old retired air traffic controller who attended the forum, said the GOP is more aligned with his views on border control and other issues.
“I’m fairly confident it will go Republican around here,” he said of the Dothan region. “I’m not so sure up in Montgomery.”
When Figures won the district, it stretched from his hometown of Mobile across the state’s Black Belt region and to the Georgia border.
Now the district is nestled in the state’s southeastern corner. It includes Montgomery and Tuskegee, both Democratic strongholds steeped in civil rights history. It sweeps through rural areas known for peanut and soybean farming. There is a heavy military presence, with an Air Force base in Montgomery and an Army base in Dale County.
Speaking recently at a community gathering at the Beulah Baptist Church, located not far from the path of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march, Figures said Republicans won't succeed in making the district “unwinnable” for him.
“That’s in large part because I’ve had the privilege to represent over half of this new district already. We’ve shown up in the communities. We’ve shown them how we can deliver results,” Figures said.
Some Black Alabamians see echoes of the past in the redistricting process.
Maggie Walker, an 80-year-old retired educator from Montgomery, said she interpreted the Supreme Court’s redistricting decision as an effort to install “as many Republicans as possible” in the House. But she is optimistic Figures can win.
“I think he represents us and the things that are important to our state,” Walker said.
“We’re going backward with everything,” said Isaiah Sankey, vice chairman of the Montgomery County Commission. “But it’s OK — we are used to the struggle. It’s move forward, you get pushed back.”
