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When Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket for this November, some of the biggest beneficiaries were down-ballot races that were struggling to generate enthusiasm and were plagued by voter apathy.
In an instant, Harris, and now running mate Tim Walz, have reinvigorated the Democratic voting base and given new hope to Dem politicians down the ticket. Perhaps the most obvious – and maybe the most important – race where the change has been noticeable is in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, where Democrat Shomari Figures is facing Republican Caroleene Dobson.
The newly-drawn district should theoretically lean Democratic, but with minority voters showing increasingly less enthusiasm the longer Biden remained in the race, Dem consultants and leadership were starting to worry. Their fears were calmed when Harris jumped in.
“It’s moved back to a solid Dem advantage, as we assumed it would be in a presidential year,” said a Democratic consultant who was granted anonymity in order to speak candidly about the race. “That doesn’t mean it’s a sure thing, by any stretch. But if you had to score it, I’d say most pollsters have the race leaning solidly D at this point.”
Don’t count Figures among the convinced.
The first-time candidate and Department of Justice attorney, Figures said Friday during an appearance on the Alabama Politics This Week podcast that he sees a tough fight ahead, noting Dobson’s personal spending and deep pockets.
“Joe Biden would have carried what is now this district in 2020 – both he and Doug Jones would have carried it handily,” Figures said. “But just two years later, Kay Ivey would have carried this district by a few percentage points. so history tells us that this is a district that’s not a slam dunk.
“We’re running against a candidate, who as I understand it, has now spent more personal money than any other candidate for any other position in the history of the state of Alabama. She’s already eclipsed 1 .5 million and will likely double if not triple that by the end of this cycle. We’re running against a candidate who is now backed by the Republican National Establishment in this race and we know that they’re going to throw resources about it behind her.”
The problem, though, for Dobson is that Figures’ platform and knowledge of the district (he explained in depth the intricate water issues facing Prichard residents) is very attractive to the majority of voters in the 2nd. The best chance Dobson had was to hope that she could ride a Trump-led wave among the district’s conservatives while Democratic voters, and even centrists, stayed home.
That is very unlikely to happen now, with Harris-Walz generating Obama-like enthusiasm just 80-something days before the general election. And it’s likely too late for Dobson to pivot and soften on issues, such as health care access, that might draw in moderate voters.
Still, Figures said his campaign is going to continue to work, fundraise, motivate voters and take nothing for granted.
“We are we’re going to do everything that we can to kind of keep beating this drum because the data that the court relied on in establishing the district. mean, historically, it shows that Democrats certainly would have carried, I believe 15 out of the last 17 elections in this district,” Figures said. “However, we would have lost two just in the last cycle. The governor’s race and I believe the lieutenant governor’s race on that same ticket. So we got to campaign for it. We still have to do everything that we can to make sure that we’re getting people out motivated and inspired to go vote.”
During the wide-ranging interview, Figures also spoke about his late father, Civil Rights icon Michael Figures, and the things he’s learned about his father during the campaign. Figures also talked about his relationship with the Alabama Democratic Party, which appeared to be strained a few weeks ago.
You can listen to the full interview at the Alabama Politics This Week website, by subscribing on YouTube, or by following through any of the various podcast apps, such as Spotify or Apple Podcasts.
