By Roy S. Johnson
Shomari Figures wins re-election in gerrymandered district
A quiet intensity filled what they called the war room.
U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures was sequestered with his team and family in Montgomery during Tuesday’s early evening hours. They waited with a confidence tempered by uncertainty.
The battle for Figures’ seat in Congress had already been fought. Polls were closed; ballots were being tallied. Waiting was all that was left to do.
Not surprisingly, the 41-year-old Democratic incumbent and a dozen young staffers hunched over laptops, cellphones and iPads — mostly to themselves, though occasionally sharing their screen with a colleague.
They peeked as the bluenami of Democrats swept across America, repudiating Donald Trump and Republicans. They cheered as historic Democratic victories in Georgia, Texas and other states were called on the giant screen at the front of the room. Cheered and returned to their screens.
Before results began trickling in, they monitored precinct-by-precinct voter turnout, especially in Montgomery County. That was a key to victory, they had surmised, in a district gerrymandered by Alabama Republicans.
Gerrymandered for Figures to lose.
And Republicans were damn sure they would win. They were as confident in triumph as Conecuh is in sausage. Confident the seat was gonna be theirs again after losing it in 2024 when the U.S. Supreme Court deemed their Etch-A-Sketch voting map to be racist because it diminished Black voting power.
In May, the ink was barely dry after the same high court reversed itself, gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 with their ruling in Louisiana vs. Callais. In short, the court said: Go ahead, states, use racist maps.
Gov. Kay Ivey couldn’t overturn herself fast enough, calling a special session after saying she would not. She summoned lawmakers to Montgomery to re-redraw voting lines in one of only two Alabama congressional districts held by Democrats. Both seats were also held by African Americans, who represent 30% of the state’s population. Alabama’s five other seats are held by Republicans.
Republicans gerrymandered Figures’ native city of Mobile out of the district, ultimately removing 40% of previous voters, including a significant number of Black voters.
They were greedy, and dang sure their appetite would be satiated. Biblically, if I may, they came to steal, kill and all but destroy Democratic and African American representation in Congress.
“The polls are closed,” Figures announced to the war room at 7 p.m. — the cue to begin calling precincts.
Montgomery turnout was the campaign’s focus, along with outperforming how Democrats had fared across the more rural parts of the district in previous elections. About 30 percent of district voters live in Montgomery County, which is predominantly African American. Dominating the county, along with a high turnout, could mitigate losing in more rural counties.
Even in those areas, where voters went overwhelmingly for Trump in 2024, Figures hoped to close the gap and campaigned as vigorously as he did in Montgomery — capitalizing on voter anger and frustration, on high gas and grocery prices, and on the struggle of the state’s farmers and truckers.
“Even though that is who they voted for,” he would later say, “these all-time high diesel prices, tariffs and closing off export markets isn’t what they voted for.”
“At the end of the day we just focused on numbers,” he said in the room. “Worrying about what was coming in and tracking how we stacked up against those counts in 2024 and other elections.”
The TV screen had been set up to watch official results, but they were slow in coming. At 7:38, Figures said, “Let’s get one of the local newscasts on.”
Something, anything, it seemed to crack the quiet.
At 7:43 p.m., the room stirred when it was announced soon after polls closed on the East Coast that Georgia Democrat and U.S. Sen. John Ossoff had crushed Republican Mike Collins. It was a harbinger.
At 8 p.m., more cheers for the more stunning victory by Texas Democrat James Talarico over Republican Ken Paxton. “Yeah, Jimmy!” said one staffer, a native Texan who had gone to school with Talarico. “I don’t know this ‘James.’”
By the time Adam Hamilton became the first Kansas Democrat to be sent to the U.S. Senate since 1932, the magnitude of the evening was clear.
At one juncture, I was asked to leave. “Just give him some space.”
Early returns showed Figures trailing, by several thousand votes at a point. That shifted when Montgomery precincts reported.
At 9:16 p.m., I received a text: “Come back over ASAP.”
Figures’ Republican opponent, Rhett Marques, had called to concede.
“It was a gracious call,” Figures said before joining celebrants at the watch party about a block away. “He congratulated me on running a great race to get out the vote in Montgomery, and said he’ll be praying for us. Hats off to him for making the call. I’ve run in primaries where I haven’t heard from opponents.”
The new map, Figures said, never discouraged him because, as the incumbent, he had receipts.
“We knew that ultimately, we had to get to work,” he said. “We never felt like an extreme underdog, despite what a lot of quote-unquote experts had to say about it, because we knew what type of representation we’d been providing for people across the district.”
The bluenami was little more than a fall shower here. Yet with Figures’ victory – and better-than-expected showings by Doug Jones and a slate of Democrats in statewide races — Alabama is no longer a parched, dry one-party desert. It was eight years ago, remember, when Stacey Abrams lost the race to become Georgia’s first Black governor. Today, we’re saying “Gov. Keisha,” with boundless pride.
I never saw Figures smile in the war room, though I venture he did when the concession call came and when he grabbed his young daughter, who clung to him throughout the rest of the evening, including as he gave his 18-minute victory speech.
Even with Dems owning a House majority, Figures says he will work with Trump and Republicans to continue to address Alabamians’ needs.
“That is what the district requires,” he said. “That is what is necessary, and that is what responsible leadership looks like.”
Earlier, Figures told me: “The biggest feeling after the map was redrawn was that we knew we had to just go do it and tonight, we did it. This is a good night.”
A good night to stop the steal.