The Walt Maddox campaign for Governor continues to draw endorsements from influential Democrats with the latest being Mobile State Sen. Vivian Figures.
“I am honored and proud to endorse Mayor Walt Maddox to be our next governor,” said Sen. Figures. “I know he is ready to serve all of the people of AL, because he’s not filled with empty rhetoric, but has a plan that will move AL to the next level.”
Figures is a native of Mobile and the widow of the late Senator Michael A. Figures.
Figures is an alumna of Williamson High School and the University of New Haven in Connecticut. She attended Jones School of Law in Montgomery. Figures is a businesswoman and serves as President/CEO of the Figures Legacy Education Foundation.
Figures helped to organize and implement the Mobile County Foster Grandparents Program; the Homeless Coalition of Mobile; the Big Brothers, Big Sisters Program of Metropolitan Mobile; the Helping Schools Tag License Plate Campaign; and the Figures Legacy Education Foundation. She either serves or has served on many civic and charitable boards such as Habitat for Humanity, Prichard Boys and Girls Clubs, the Salvation Army, the Mobile Area Education Foundation and the Mobile Area Chamber of Commerce.
She has been recognized for dedicated community and legislative service by numerous organizations, agencies and professional groups. Senator Figures was chosen as a recipient of the Elected Women of Excellence by the National Foundation for Women Legislators.
Figures was a delegate to the Democratic National Convention in 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2012. In 1993, Ms. Figures was elected to a four-year term on the Mobile City Council, attaining the status of the “only council member in Mobile’s history to hold a perfect attendance record.”
Due to the untimely death of her husband, Michael Figures, she was later elected in the 1997 special general election to the Alabama State Senate to serve the remainder of his term. The victory made her the first African-American woman to be elected to the Senate from Mobile County and the second one in the state of Alabama.
She was re-elected in 1998, 2002, 2006, 2010 and 2014.
In 2008, she became the first African-American woman to become the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate, ultimately losing to incumbent Jeff Sessions in the general election. Senator Figures was confirmed by the Senate in the 2012 Regular Session to serve on the Jacksonville State University Board of Trustees, making her the first African-American woman to serve on the Board. Senator Figures was elected by her Democratic Senate colleagues to serve as Minority Leader for 2013 and 2014 making her the first woman to serve in a top leadership position in the history of the Alabama State Legislature.
Senator Figures is one of nine siblings and is the mother of three sons, a stepson, and a granddaughter.
Walter “Walt” Maddox is the Mayor of Tuscaloosa.
The major party primaries are on June 5, 2018.
