Shomari Figures is running in Alabama’s new congressional district after the Supreme Court ruled that the state’s previous map violated the Voting Rights Act. This new district favors Democrats — President Joe Biden would’ve won it by 12 points in 2020 — but is not totally safe. Republican Governor Kay Ivey won the district by 2.4 points just two years later. Figures is running against Republican attorney and millionaire Caroleene Dobson.
Figures won a Democratic primary runoff for this House seat with 61% of the vote. He is on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Red-to-Blue list.
Figures’ legacy stems from a family of public servants. His father was a state senator and lawyer and his mother served on the Mobile, Alabama City Council at the time of his father’s sudden death. She was elected to fill his seat in the State Senate, where she still serves.
He attended the University of Alabama and then University of Alabama Law School. After graduating, he went to work in public service, ultimately serving in all three branches of the federal government.
Figures worked on President Barack Obama’s campaign, and then went to work in the White House, serving as President Obama’s Domestic Director of Presidential Personnel. He went on to serve as the White House Liaison at the Department of Justice, and then as a Counsel in Congress, where he served as an advisor on issues including civil rights, immigration, homeland security, child welfare and policing. After working on the Biden-Harris transition team, he returned to the Department of Justice where he most recently served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Counselor to Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Figures knows that we need to reign in national security spending to focus on the challenges we actually face in the 21st century and increase oversight over wasteful programs that have questionable strategic value.
