Shomari Figures on making Alabama history

Presented by Brennan Center for Justice: How race and identity are shaping politics, policy and power.

Mar 12, 2024 View in browser   By Brakkton Booker Presented by Brennan Center for Justice With help from Ella Creamer, Rishika Dugyala, Jesse Naranjo and Teresa Wiltz Shomari Figures got the most votes in the Democratic primary for Alabama's redrawn 2nd Congressional District, which is going to a runoff. | POLITICO illustration/Photo courtesy of Shomari Figures campaign What up, Recast fam! Both Donald Trump and Joe Biden are on the verge of clinching the delegates needed to secure their nominations. It will likely happen after the results in today’s presidential primaries in Georgia, Mississippi and Washington state and the Republican caucus in Hawaii. Plus, special counsel Robert Hur heads to the Hill. First, though, a focus on Alabama’s new congressional district.   Shomari Figures is chasing history. He was the top vote-getter in a crowded, 11-candidate Democratic primary last week for Alabama’s redrawn 2nd Congressional District. While he earned roughly 44 percent of the vote — double that of his next closest opponent, state House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels — it wasn’t enough to avoid a runoff. Now Figures and Daniels, who are both Black, will face off in a mid-April primary runoff to determine who will be the Democratic nominee in the fall. The winner will go head-to-head against the winner of the Republican runoff between Dick Brewbaker and Caroleene Dobson.  The Figures name has a deep and rich legacy in Alabama. His late father, Michael Figures, was a civil rights attorney and later a state senator. His mother is state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures. Until recently, the younger Figures, a lawyer by trade, was making a name for himself in Washington, working as a legislative counsel for Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), then as a White House liaison in the Obama administration and most recently as the deputy chief of staff and counselor to Attorney General Merrick Garland. He gave all that up to run in a new opportunity district — which was created with Black voters in mind to give them a favorable chance to elect a representative of their choosing. The district was redrawn last fall after federal judges ruled the congressional district created by Alabama’s Republican-led Legislature violated the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting power of Black voters who make up more than a quarter of the state’s population.   Was The Recast forwarded to you by a friend? Don't forget to subscribe to the newsletter here. You'll get a weekly breakdown of how race and identity are the DNA of American politics and policy.   The newly drawn 2nd Congressional District is just under 50 percent Black. It includes a wide swath of land stretching hundreds of miles from the Mississippi border, including Mobile, east to the border of Georgia, which also incorporates the city of Montgomery. We chop it up about what it will take for him to secure victory in the April 16 runoff, what he needs to do to win outright in November, whether or not voters in this MAGA state will show up for him — and whether voters’ disinterest in Biden will cause problems for him if he makes it to the general election. ◆◆◆ This interview has been edited for length and clarity. THE RECAST: If you were to win this seat in the fall, this would be three campaigns in the span of a calendar year. You are a first-time candidate. Can you talk to me about that stamina and the mindset changes you are going through as you shift from campaigning in the primary where there was a crowded Democratic field to a one-on-one matchup with state Rep. Anthony Daniels? FIGURES: The runoff format, it's not something that's unique to voters down here. It's not something that's unique to my own family. My mother has been through several runoffs herself. In terms of the overall shifting of the dynamics from a field of 11 candidates to now a field of just two candidates, listen, from our perspective, we keep our foot on the gas. As we were in the primary, we are going to continue campaigning to be the top vote-getter. We won eight out of 13 counties in the district and finished in second place in another four counties. So we had a very good showing and I think that that was reflective of the effort that we put in across this district. THE RECAST: I take your point about runoffs being commonplace in Alabama, but you are running in a newly redrawn district. Part of the job, I presume, is educating voters that the district is up for grabs and Democrats have a real chance at taking it in the fall. Are you concerned that in order for that to happen, you’re asking voters to vote three times? Are there concerns of voter fatigue? FIGURES: No, I'm not. I mean, look, this is Alabama right? This is the birthplace of the voting rights movement, the birthplace of the Civil Rights Movement. So people here are very excited about voting in general. They really revere the right to vote here and have an understanding in this state, like almost no other state, of what it took to get that right, especially for Black people. And look, we’re only talking about one extra election here, right? You always have at least two — with the primary and the general — plus, it's a presidential year. So we know that the excitement is generally up across the board in presidential years. And the other part of this is the Republicans have a runoff on their side as well, so that will keep the race itself front and center in the media, more so [than] if it was just one one party that had a runoff. THE RECAST: Well sure, it’s a presidential year, but looking ahead to the general, Alabama is not a state that Joe Biden is going to have in the win column come November. So given where he is in the polls nationally and many Democrats expressing a lack of enthusiasm for his reelection campaign, juxtaposed against the fervor on the Republican side there wanting to get Donald Trump back in the White House, how do you overcome those factors, should you make it to the general election? FIGURES: I think the excitement for Trump in the state is the same excitement that you've seen for Trump when he was on the ballot twice before. And although the state may not necessarily be in the win column for Biden, this district should be and I’m confident that it will. I'm not worried that the Trump factor will be a factor of dissuasion for voters in this district at all. This district was drawn with the purpose of giving minorities an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. And looking at the data that the court used in creating this district, that is exactly what should happen and what would have happened even in years where Trump was on the ballot before this district. THE RECAST: But you can’t ignore the signs that some wings of the Democratic Party are unhappy with Biden, particularly in his handling of the Israel-Hamas conflict. I understand your position of projecting confidence, but there are clear signs of headwinds Biden is facing, that can’t be good for Democrats in the fall, right? Figures canvasses voters in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District. | Courtesy of Shomari Figures campaign FIGURES: I think Alabama is going to stand up for Alabama. I think the people in the 2nd Congressional District are going to stand up for the possibility of having representation in Congress. I think one thing that was clear in this last election is how strong allegiances are within this district. Here in my home county of Mobile, we had several candidates, including state Rep. Daniels, who do not live in the district. In Mobile County, the three candidates that do call it home collectively received 92 percent of the vote in this county. I raise this to say that people are excited when you localize the race. By the time we come to November because people will galvanize behind a single nominee and people will push out the message not just that we need to elect Joe Biden over Donald Trump, but that we need to make sure that we're taking advantage of the opportunity that we have here to put the type of representation for us in Washington, D.C. I think that will be something that will excite voters, will motivate voters, will inspire voters to get out to the polls and make their voices heard.   A message from Brennan Center for Justice: The turnout gap between white voters and voters of color is growing, according to a new Brennan Center study. The Supreme Court's 2013 decision to weaken the Voting Right Act unleashed a wave of racially discriminatory voting laws and policies that deterred hundreds of thousands of voters of color in 2022 alone. Without action, the gap will likely widen. Congress should protect the freedom to vote by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.   IT'S GETTING HOT IN HUR Special counsel Robert Hur testifies Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee about his report on President Joe Biden's handling of classified documents. | Francis Chung/POLITICO Robert Hur, the special counsel who offered a damaging assessment of the president’s mental fitness in his report where he ultimately declined to bring charges against Joe Biden for the mishandling of classified documents, was the focal point of a tense House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. “My report reflects my best effort to explain why I declined to recommend charging President Biden,” Hur said during his remarks before the committee this morning, before addressing why he felt compelled to provide details about his perceptions of the president’s memory. “My assessment in the report about the relevance of the president’s memory was necessary and accurate and fair.” Hur’s been in the political crosshairs since the release of his report last month, simultaneously vilified by both Democrats and Republicans, albeit for starkly different reasons. Democrats, for instance, have excoriated Hur for his “way too many gratuitous remarks” as Eric Holder, the former attorney general during the Obama administration, put it. It was a not-so-veiled reference to Hur’s characterization that a jury would perceive Biden as a “well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory.” That’s a description that infuriated Democrats because it elevated Biden's most persistent weakness — his age — as he seeks reelection later this year. That description will likely have lasting negative reverberations throughout the remainder of the campaign. However, Holder and other Democrats agreed with Hur’s overall assessment that Biden’s mishandling of classified documents did not necessitate bringing federal charges against the sitting president, even though the report found Biden “willfully retained and disclosed classified materials after his vice presidency.” Republicans, while latching onto Hur’s description of the president’s questionable memory, deemed Hur’s assessment incomplete. They’re demanding more details about Biden’s role in taking possession of the classified documents while also railing against the report as evidence that there’s a two-tiered system of justice — one for Biden, and another for Trump. “So Joe Biden knew the rules, you know he knew the rules, and Joe Biden told us he knew the rules,” said House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan said in an intense back-and-forth with the witness. “So why did he break them?” Hur responded: “The conclusion as to exactly why the president did what he did is not one we specifically address in the report.” “I think you did tell us,” Jordan quipped back, before pointing to evidence on Page 231 of Hur’s report which indicated Biden had “strong motivations” to ignore proper protocols of handling classified materials because he was writing a book about his vice presidency and was due to collect an $8 million advance. Prior to hearing, GOP lawmakers had hoped to use Hur’s findings to bolster their sweeping impeachment inquiry into the president. Many on the right lambasted Hur for declining to bring charges, arguing that a separate Justice Department inquiry led by special counsel Jack Smith into Trump led to charges for his own handling of classified materials after he left the White House in early 2021. The next court hearing in that case is scheduled for Thursday in Fort Pierce, Florida. Since the release of Hur’s report, Jordan and House Oversight Chair James Comer subpoenaed the Justice Department late last month requesting not just transcripts, videos and other materials related to the special counsel’s investigation, but any documents that referenced a call dating back to 2015 when Biden met with the then-prime minister of Ukraine. Republicans are hoping those materials will shed light on alleged business dealings involving Hunter Biden, the president’s son, who worked for a Ukrainian energy company at the time. Hur, who is now in private practice, was tapped by Attorney General Merrick Garland last year to lead the inquiry into Biden’s possession of classified documents. Appointed by Trump, Hur previously led one of the largest U.S. attorney’s offices in the country, serving as U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland from 2018 to 2021. He was unanimously confirmed to the post by the Senate.   A message from Brennan Center for Justice:   ICYMI @ POLITICO Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Marcia Fudge told staffers she will step down next week. | Jose Luis Magana/AP Fudge Dips — Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge is leaving her post. As POLITICO’s Jennifer Haberkorn and Katy O’Donnell report, it’s a surprising departure since her resignation will come less than eight months before the election. A Tale of Two Katies — Two politicians named Katie both have had rough weeks. POLITICO’s Melanie Mason and Christopher Cadelago team up to break down what went wrong in the upstart California Senate campaign of Rep. Katie Porter, who came in a distant third in last week’s primary. And just days after Sen. Katie Britt (R-Ala.) delivered her eyebrow-raising State of the Union rebuttal, a woman whom the senator referenced in an anecdote fires back, accusing Britt of mischaracterizing her life story to disparage Joe Biden’s immigration policies, reports POLITICO’s Kierra Frazier. U.S. Evacuates Personnel in Haiti — Haiti’s Prime Minister Ariel Henry resigns his post as gangs have been attacking government outposts and police stations. POLITICO’s Lara Seligman reported over the weekend: The military airlifted U.S. personnel in the early hours of Sunday morning “into and out of the embassy at the request of the U.S. State Department.” McCarthy’s Pick Advances — After former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy abruptly resigned from Congress, he threw his support behind Republican California Assemblymember Vince Fong as his successor. POLITICO’s Jeremy B. White reports that after the closer-than-expected primary race last Tuesday, Fong will advance to the general election in November. But the second-place finisher in California's jungle special election has not been called.   THE RECAST RECOMMENDS In the comic satire “The American Society of Magical Negroes,” Aren has always felt like it’s his job to make white people feel more comfortable — and then it literally becomes his job, as he’s inducted into a society with that very aim. It’s in theaters Friday. Gabriel García Márquez’s lost novel, “Until August,” follows Ana Magdalena Bach as she travels to the island where her mother is buried, exploring love, regret and aging in the process. The 55th NAACP Image Awards are coming up this Sunday, 8 p.m. on CBS, celebrating outstanding performances by people of color. The inimitable Ayo Edebiri leads on nominations in the TV and streaming categories for “Abbott Elementary” and “The Bear.” On his 30th birthday, Bad Bunny gave us a gift: an 11-minute long music video documenting how “Acho PR,” a star-studded track from his latest record, came together. High pollen alert: KAMAUU drops a beautifully shot, nostalgic-feel video for “Garden,” featuring lots of bees. TikTok of the Week: Classic   A message from Brennan Center for Justice: A new Brennan Center study shows that the Supreme Court's 2013 decision to weaken the Voting Rights Act has widened the turnout gap between white voters and voters of color. The Voting Rights Act previously required that states with histories of racial voter suppression obtain federal approval before making any changes to their voting rules. Once the Supreme Court dismantled these protections in Shelby County v. Holder, the turnout gap in these areas grew nearly twice as fast as in comparable parts of the country — deterring hundreds of thousands of voters of color in the last general election. The John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would protect voters of color and strengthen our democracy. Without it, we will likely continue to see the racial turnout gap widen. Americans support the freedom to vote and expect action: Congress should swiftly pass the John Lewis Act.     Follow us on Twitter Brakkton Booker @brakktonbooker Rishika Dugyala @rishikadugyala Teresa Wiltz @teresawiltz Jesse Naranjo @jesselnaranjo   Follow us

To change your alert settings, please log in at https://login.politico.com/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.politico.com/settings This email was sent to rouf@idiot.cloudns.cc by: POLITICO, LLC 1000 Wilson Blvd. Arlington, VA, 22209, USA Unsubscribe | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service