Shomari Figures wins bid to represent Alabama district embroiled in Supreme Court case

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By Curtis Bunn, NBC

Shomari Figures in Chicago on Aug. 22. (Justin Sullivan / Getty Images)

Shomari Figures, the Black Democrat running in an Alabama congressional district redrawn last year by a court order, has won the seat over Republican Caroleene Dobson, NBC News projects.

With 84% of votes reported Tuesday, Figures had 54.8% of the vote to 45.1% for Dobson.

[..]

Figures, who worked in the Obama administration, grew up in Mobile, which is partially included in the district. His late father, Michael Figures, was an Alabama state senator and his mother serves in that role now. The son’s win is critical in the Democrats’ efforts to regain control of the House.

“We feel like a lot of people want us to be a voice that’s going to go to Washington to actually, prioritize trying to fix some of the issues in their communities and trying to get funding to help address some of the issues in their communities,” Figures told NBC News ahead of the election.  

Figures, 39, said he is happy to embrace the role of being an advocate for Black people in his state.

Discover more about Figures.

Read about the gerrymandering that plagued Alabama.

More breaking news here.

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