Former US Attorney General Says House of Representatives Candidate Shomari Figures Will Fight for Equality in Alabama

MOBILE, Ala. (AP) – Former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, who backed the lawsuit that resulted in the redistricting of Alabama’s second congressional district, called next week’s elections a historic opportunity for the state’s voters.

Holder appeared with the district’s Democratic nominee Shomari Figures during a series of campaign stops on Monday in Mobile. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, of which Holder is chairman, supported the legal battle that led to the district being turned into a competitive seat where black voters have a chance to influence the outcome.

Standing in the pulpit of Big Zion AME Zion Church, which has a 182-year history in Mobile, Holder said the nation owes a debt to the voting rights movement that began in Alabama in places like Selma and Birmingham. The way to repay that debt is to vote, he said, urging the gathered crowd to support the Figures.

“He will also fight for that ultimate progress where justice, fairness and equality are merely the norm, and not something we consider abnormal,” Holder said of Figures. Holder, who is Black, invoked the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s words that the arc of the moral universe “bends toward justice,” but added that people must “lay our hands on that arc and bend it toward justice have to pull. ”

Figures, who worked in the Obama White House and as a former top aide to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, faced Republican Caroleene Dobson, a real estate attorney and political newcomer, in the Nov. 5 election. The Figures campaign is joined by several high-profile Democrats as he tries to boost turnout. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries will appear at a Figures event in Montgomery later this week.

“We can once again show America that Alabama can lead the way,” Figures said Monday. “Because the truth about this seat is that this seat is central to determining who gets control of the House of Representatives.”

After Holder’s appearance in Mobile, Dobson campaign spokesman Drew Dickson issued a statement saying the race will be decided by voters, not endorsements.

“The race for the Second Congressional District will not be decided because a bunch of liberal Washington insiders, has-beens and wannabes come to Alabama and support a candidate,” Dickson said. “It will be decided by the expressions of support made from neighbor to neighbor, friend to friend and church member to church member,” Dickson continued.

The US Supreme Court last year ruled that Alabama had likely violated the Voting Rights Act by signing conference lines with one majority seat in seven in a state where 27% of the population is black. A three-judge panel redrew the lines to give Black residents, who now make up nearly 49% of the voting population in District 2, a chance to influence the outcome of the election.

The non-partisan Cook political report ranks the district as “likely Democrat.” However, both campaigns have emphasized that the race is competitive.

Both Holder and Figures noted at an earlier event that the legal battle that led to the district’s creation is not over. The district was created because a court issued a preliminary injunction blocking use of the state’s previous map. The lawsuit will go to trial in February.

Holder, whose late sister-in-law Vivian Malone enrolled at the University of Alabama in 1963 over the objections of then-Gov. George Wallace said officials in Alabama had opposed the redrawing “in a manner similar to what happened in Alabama in the 1960s.” Holder said he believes the new district lines will be confirmed after the next round of litigation.

“Government officials here in Alabama have to accept that, and I hope they will,” Holder said.