Shomari Figures and Anthony Daniels Head to Democratic Primary Runoff in Alabama’s Second District

Shomari Figures, a former Justice Department official, and State Representative Anthony Daniels will head to a runoff election in the Democratic primary for Alabama’s Second Congressional District, according to The Associated Press.

Voters were weighing in for the first time in the newly shaped Second District, which had been redrawn after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that Alabama had illegally undercut the power of Black voters.

Former State Senator Dick Brewbaker and Caroleene Dobson, a real estate lawyer, secured enough votes to make it to the runoff for the Republican primary. The runoff elections will be April 16.

The new district cuts hundreds of miles across the state, running through the state capital of Montgomery, much of the seaport city of Mobile and parts of the Black Belt, rural counties where rich soil fueled cotton plantations worked by slaves.

Because Black voters historically support Democratic candidates in the state, the Second Congressional District is now viewed as an opportunity for Democrats to flip the seat. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report, after the map was redrawn, changed its ranking of the district to be a likely Democratic seat.

The newly shaped district could also lead to the state sending two Black representatives to Washington for the first time in its history. Mr. Figures and Mr. Daniels are both Black, and Representative Terri Sewell, a Black Democrat in the Seventh Congressional District, is expected to win re-election.

Mr. Figures and Mr. Daniels prevailed in a crowded Democratic field, which included a handful of state lawmakers and longtime politicians. Mr. Figures, who previously worked for the Justice Department and the Obama administration, is the son of Michael Figures, a civil rights lawyer and state senator who died in 1996, and his wife, Vivian Davis Figures, who successfully ran for his seat after his death.

“People really see an opportunity for new leadership, experienced leadership — they’re invested in having someone that can go to Washington and actually try to get things done,” Mr. Figures said in an interview last week, adding “the experience that we bring to the table, I think, is something that has really resonated with people.”

Mr. Daniels grew up in the district, and is now the top Democrat in the Alabama House of Representatives.

“I’ve had the opportunity as the House minority leader to touch all of those different areas of the state of Alabama without directly representing them,” Mr. Daniels said in a recent interview. The newly shaped Second District, he added, “gives us a unique opportunity to do something special.”

Republicans have vowed to defend the seat, especially at a moment when the party’s control of the House of Representatives hinges on just a few seats.

“I never thought I’d be back in politics,” Mr. Brewbaker recently told the crowd at a candidate forum in a library in Mobile. But, he added, “We have got to find a way to come back together and rebuild this country.”

Representative Barry Moore, the Republican who currently represents the Second District on Capitol Hill, did not run for re-election. He instead challenged Representative Jerry Carl, the Republican incumbent, in the primary race for the First Congressional District.

Mr. Moore emerged as the victor in that primary on Tuesday night, The Associated Press said.

Mr. Moore, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, has highlighted his opposition to many of the essential spending and defense policy bills that Mr. Carl, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, has been willing to back.