Shomari Figures wants results in Alabama’s new black-majority district

Rep.-elect Shomari Figures (D-AL) will enter Congress in January thanks in part to a Supreme Court ruling and his experience working in three branches of government.

Figures’ election in November to represent a newly created majority-black district in southern Alabama came as Republicans gained complete control of Washington, D.C., led by President-elect Donald Trump, who campaigned on dismantling the “armed” federal government , which he distrusts.

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Figures, 39, who comes from a line of political activists in his family and extensive government experience, has a positive view of the federal government that he plans to use to benefit his new district, which includes parts of Montgomery and Mobile counties.

“I believe in the power of the federal government to do good and to do good for the people who need it most. And that’s what we’re going to do every day,” Figures said Washington Examiner.

His family has ties to civil rights activism in Alabama. His father, Michael Figures, was a prominent civil rights attorney and member of the Alabama Senate. His mother, Vivian Davis Figures, succeeded her husband in the Alabama Senate in a special election following his death in 1996. She is still in office today.

“I kind of grew up in this environment where my parents always asked us how to use what God gave you to benefit and improve the people and places you care about most,” says Figures said.

Figures previously worked in the Obama administration and later became the White House liaison to Loretta Lynch, a United States attorney general under Obama. After Obama left office, Figures became legal counsel to outgoing Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH).

He worked on President Joe Biden’s transition team before serving as deputy chief of staff to Attorney General Merrick Garland, leaving that position in 2023 to run his congressional campaign.

He said his time in all three branches of government gave him the key experience he needed to now serve in Congress.

After taking office in January, Figures said he wanted to join the House Appropriations Committee to “try to bring resources to many communities that have not benefited from leadership.”

Figures wants to bring health care facilities back to his district, which he hopes would boost business in the area.

“We have a significant rural health care crisis in our county. We have seen several hospitals close in just the last year of running for this seat, and several more are on the verge of closing,” Figures said.

“It makes it difficult for these communities to recruit into businesses, to recruit residents and to get retirees to relocate there,” he continued. “It is a very difficult conversation to suggest to a company that they should locate here. First of all, it is clear that we do not have a hospital.”

Numbers said he wanted to work on the other side because Republicans “represent districts that are fighting for some of the same issues that we want to address in our district.”

He said he joined the Congressional Black Caucus, which has been “incredibly supportive” of his campaign and “occupies as special a place in the district’s history” as his own, which grew out of the Voting Rights Act. He also said that so far he has joined the New Democrat Coalition.

In 2023, the Supreme Court invalidated Alabama’s congressional maps because they were deemed inconsistent with the Voting Rights Act. About 26.6% of the state is black, but until the decision, only one of its six districts was majority black. After some back and forth in court, Alabama now has two majority-black districts to better represent the state.

Until redistricting and Figures’ victory, Alabama’s congressional delegation had only one Democrat, Rep. Terri Sewell (D-AL), who he said had been “a mentor, an inspiration and a friend for a very long time.”

Of the entire Alabama delegation in the House and Senate, which is all Republican except for Sewell, Figures said they were all “warm” and “welcoming.”

“They’ve all made it clear … about the relationship and the strength of the delegation’s relationships to ensure that we’re always working to make Alabama a priority,” he noted.

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Despite everything that led to his win this year, Figures said he is ready to deliver results.

“We don’t come here to be Democrats. We do not come here simply to take part in a broader national political game. We’re here to get the job done,” Figures said. “We are here to bring the resources home. We are here to reopen these hospitals. We are here to advance economic development in our district.”