Alabama 2nd District Race: What to Know as Figures and Marques Make Final Push Before Tuesday

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — The Alabama 2nd District race between Democratic U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures and Republican state Rep. Rhett Marques heads into its final weekend as one of the most closely watched House contests in the country, with both campaigns crisscrossing a newly redrawn district that stretches from Montgomery through Dothan and the Wiregrass.

Voters will settle the contest Tuesday, Nov. 3. The result will decide who represents a large swath of south-central and southeast Alabama, and it could also help determine which party controls the U.S. House next year.

Republicans see the district, redrawn by the Alabama Legislature earlier this year, as their best chance to win back a seat that leaned GOP for years before a federal court ordered new lines. Figures, a first-term incumbent, is trying to hold the seat by pairing a turnout push among Black voters in cities such as Montgomery and Tuskegee with an economic pitch aimed at conservative and independent voters in rural areas.

The race at a glance

• Election Day: Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026; polls open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Democrat: U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, the incumbent, first elected in 2024
• Republican: State Rep. Rhett Marques of Enterprise, endorsed by President Donald Trump
• The district: Montgomery, Dothan and much of the Wiregrass, including Houston, Coffee, Dale, Geneva and Henry counties
• Latest public poll: Marques 48%, Figures 46%, in a survey by Republican-aligned Remington Research Group
• Ad spending: Nearly $10 million in television advertising over the past seven weeks, according to AdImpact, with Democratic groups outspending Republican groups

A district redrawn again

The 2nd District has been at the center of years of litigation over Alabama’s congressional map. Figures won the seat in 2024 under lines ordered by a federal court, which ruled that the Legislature had unlawfully diluted the voting power of Black residents. That ruling followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Allen v. Milligan, a Voting Rights Act case.

Alabama is about 27% Black and has seven U.S. House seats. Figures’ victory gave the state a second Black member of Congress for the first time in its history, bringing its delegation more in line with the state’s population.

That changed this year. A U.S. Supreme Court decision ended key Voting Rights Act protections that had been intended to help Black voters, clearing the way for Alabama to change its congressional map. Republican leaders moved quickly to put new lines in place.

The map in use on Election Day lowers the Black voting-age population in the 2nd District from about 48% to about 40%. Trump carried the area within the new boundaries by about 14 percentage points in 2024, according to analyses of the redrawn district. Mobile County, Figures’ hometown and former political base, is no longer part of the district.

Figures often points out that the district he won was never drawn as a majority-Black district; it was initially split roughly evenly between Black and white voters.

Marques: ‘Alabama values’ and a chance to flip the seat

For Republicans, the new lines are about reclaiming a district they consider naturally theirs.

“We have an opportunity to not only flip a seat from Democrat back to Republican here in Alabama, but to also hold the majority in the House with a win,” Marques said.

Marques has deep roots in the more heavily Republican parts of the district. He served on the Enterprise City Council and ran an automotive business in Enterprise for decades before winning a seat in the Alabama House. He won the Republican nomination in August in a six-candidate special primary.

On the campaign trail, he has emphasized his legislative record, including his support for school choice and law enforcement, and his votes for restrictions on transgender athletes’ participation in girls’ sports and on gender-affirming care for minors. He has said he is more closely aligned with “the Alabama values in this district.”

Marques has also campaigned on cutting taxes, helping small businesses and advancing Trump’s agenda in Congress. At Trump’s rally in Mobile in October, he warned supporters about what would happen if Democrats won the House.

“If the socialists get control of the House, their plan is to undo everything President Trump has done over the last two years,” Marques said. “We can’t let that happen.”

Marques has acknowledged that voters are worried about affordability, but he has placed the blame on the administration of former President Joe Biden.

Local law enforcement leaders have been among his visible supporters. Coffee County Sheriff Scott Byrd appeared with Marques at an event with law enforcement officials.

“I know his values and I trust him,” Byrd said.

U.S. House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., campaigned for Marques in Dothan and described the district as one of about three dozen swing seats that will decide control of the chamber.

“This seat absolutely will have a larger say on the direction of the country. Do we want conservative policies that are rooted in common sense, or do you want far-left socialists?” Scalise said.

Republicans have said they are optimistic about winning the seat, but some have voiced concern about the possibility of low GOP turnout as Figures runs an aggressive campaign. Marques said he expects to win “if the Republicans and the people who believe in freedom” go to the polls.

Figures: affordability and a two-track campaign

Figures, a Mobile native who worked in President Barack Obama’s White House and at the U.S. Department of Justice before running for Congress, has built his campaign around the cost of living.

“The cost of living in this country is getting out of control. And we don’t come from a district or a state where people have the means to just continue to pump out money for $4 a gallon for gas or $8 for ground beef,” Figures said.

At another recent stop, he tied higher prices to the war in Iran. “Gas is too high,” he said. “This war in Iran is driving up gas prices, fertilizer prices. But we can stop it. It takes all of us.”

Figures frequently notes that the median individual income in Alabama is about $34,000 and that many residents struggle to reach hospitals and health care. If reelected, he says he will support communities that do not want data centers built near them and work to improve rural health care and conditions for local farmers. He has framed the election as a choice between “someone with a record of serving the people” and someone who would be there to serve a president.

His campaign has run on two tracks at once: maximizing Democratic turnout in places such as Montgomery and Tuskegee while trying to win over conservative and independent voters in the Wiregrass.

On one October weekend, his schedule included greeting people at the annual Boll Weevil Fall Festival in Enterprise, Marques’ hometown, a predominantly white city of about 31,000. The festival takes its name from the cotton-destroying insect that pushed the area to shift toward more profitable peanut farming a century ago. Enterprise famously commemorates that history with its Boll Weevil Monument downtown, dedicated in 1919.

The next day, Figures visited a series of largely Black churches in nearby Dothan to urge people to vote. Speaking at Greater Beulah Baptist Church, a predominantly Black congregation in heavily Republican Houston County, he said the district had been reconfigured in a way that makes it harder for “somebody who looks like me” to win, but not impossible.

“Even though they are changing district lines, we still have the right to show up and make our voices heard,” he said.

At a rally in Montgomery, he struck a similar note.

“We know that the deck has been stacked. We know that the rules have been changed in the middle of the game, but we know what we’ve got to do,” Figures told the crowd. “All we’ve got to do is show up. All we’ve got to do is show out. All we’ve got to do is fight.”

Voting rights and memories of Selma

For some Black voters in the district, the redrawing of the lines has become a rallying point. Several Southern states moved quickly to redraw congressional districts after the Supreme Court’s decision, and Democrats are hoping frustration over that process, combined with economic concerns, will lift turnout Tuesday.

Some voters said they see echoes of the state’s Jim Crow past.

“I’m 75, and history is repeating itself,” said Francis Fanning, a retired substitute teacher in Montgomery.

Sheyann Webb-Christburg was 8 years old in 1965 when she and other voting rights marchers were attacked by law enforcement in Selma. Now a Montgomery resident, she said she remembers the excitement she felt when Figures was elected two years ago.

“Much blood, sweat and tears was shed in an effort for African Americans to gain their right to vote,” Webb-Christburg said. “It’s very sad that we are in this place. But we still got to continue just as we did back in the ‘60s. Lift our voices, because we always keep hope alive.”

U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who campaigned with Figures in the district, cast the election as a message on voting rights.

“The people of Alabama have a chance again to say this is a moral moment — not on my watch,” Booker said. “I will not stay seated while you try to take away our power.”

Where the candidates clash

Taxes and cultural issues have dominated the advertising and the back-and-forth between the two campaigns.

• Taxes: The candidates have argued over who has voted to raise or cut taxes. Figures voted against Trump’s 2025 tax and spending law, known as the “big beautiful bill,” which reduced taxes and also cut parts of the social safety net. Marques voted in 2019, along with most of the Legislature, to raise the state gas tax, a vote Figures has highlighted in his own ads.
• Transgender athletes: Marques has run ads attacking Figures’ record and claiming he “supports men in girl’s locker rooms.” Earlier this year, Figures voted with Republicans for a measure that would bar transgender people from playing in women’s sports, after voting against earlier legislation that would have done similar things.
• Trump’s agenda: Marques has said he would better represent local voters and help move the president’s agenda through Congress. Figures has said voters should choose a representative focused on the district rather than on the White House.
• Local concerns: Republican voters in the district have voiced concern about crime, particularly in Montgomery, an issue statewide GOP nominees including U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, the party’s nominee for governor, and Katherine Robertson have pledged to address. Democratic voters have asked for relief on gas, diesel and other everyday costs.

Money and polls point to a close finish

National groups on both sides have taken notice. Television ad spending in the district climbed from almost nothing to nearly $10 million over the past seven weeks, according to AdImpact, a firm that tracks political advertising, with Democratic groups spending more than Republican groups. South AL News has previously reported that total ad spending in the race has topped $11 million since the special primary.

Polling suggests the race could come down to a few points. The most recent public survey, from Remington Research Group, found Marques at 48% and Figures at 46%. Read more about that poll. National forecasters have also shifted the race in recent weeks, with one moving it to “Toss-up” while others continue to rate it as leaning Republican.

The outcome will likely hinge on turnout in Montgomery, the district’s largest city and the center of its Black population, weighed against Republican strength in the Wiregrass, where Houston County and Dothan form the GOP’s base.

How to vote Tuesday

Polls across Alabama are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 3. Voters must cast ballots at their assigned precinct and show a valid photo ID, such as an Alabama driver’s license, a nondriver ID, a free Alabama photo voter ID card, a U.S. passport or a military ID. Voters who are in line when the polls close will be allowed to vote.

Voters can confirm their polling place and view a sample ballot through the Alabama Secretary of State’s office. Along with the 2nd District race, the ballot includes the governor’s race between Tuberville and Democrat Doug Jones, an open U.S. Senate seat, other statewide offices, legislative and local races and four proposed statewide constitutional amendments.

Unofficial results will begin to come in after the polls close Tuesday night.