|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Democrat nominee Shomari Figures and Republican nominee Caroleene Dobson squared off Wednesday morning in the first of two debates between the two congressional hopefuls.
Figures and Dobson are vying for election to Alabama’s Second Congressional District, which has been redrawn after legal battles to ensure Black voters can elect a candidate of their choice.
Dobson repeatedly referred to Figures as a “D.C. insider” and emphasized his ties to the Obama and Biden administrations. Figures worked in the White House and as a top aide for U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.
“He wants to continue the policies of the last four years, but you and I should ask ourselves: Are we better off than we were four years ago?” Dobson said.
Figures often called Dobson a “problem-spotter” with no real plans to offer solutions to constituents. Figures used the border, a priority of the Dobson campaign, to make his point.
“My opponent mentions the border, but what she fails to mention about the border is that in her early legal career, she spent time in Texas actually selling millions of acres of our border state land in Texas to shadow companies owned by Mexican investors,” Figures said.
Dobson said the Mexican company was buying office space in Texas to flee the drug cartel, and said Figures was part of an administration that “flung open our borders and has resulted in less safe communities.”
Figures said his top priority is healthcare, specifically pushing the state to expand Medicaid to extend healthcare to low-income families and help keep rural hospitals open. Figures said his first act would be to promote legislation to renew financial incentives for expansion.
“In the state of Alabama, you are just barely expected to live past your 60s, your 60s. That is unacceptable, and for too many people. That is because of lack of health care earlier in life,” Figures said.
Dobson argued that Medicaid expansion is a state decision and that Gov. Kay Ivey should “examine that,” but that there’s no power for a congress member to make that decision. Instead, Dobson pivoted to reducing inflation as the solution to cutting healthcare costs.
Dobson has made attacking inflation a main platform of her campaign, and often linked Democrat policies to the rise in grocery and gas prices. Her priorities include boosting the economy by reducing inflation and creating jobs “to get the government off our back,” addressing the border crisis and tackling crime by adequately funding law enforcement.
Figures’ priorities are expanding healthcare access, bringing federal investments in infrastructure to create jobs, and investing in education and community programs to reduce gun violence.
The candidates took opposing stances on abortion, with Figures affirming he would support the codification of Roe v. Wade into federal law. Dobson followed the lead of Donald Trump, saying the matter should be left to the states and that she supports exceptions for rape, incest and life of the mother. Alabama law does not currently make exceptions for rape and incest.
The candidates will face each other again next week in an online debate hosted by AL.com
