Shomari Figures Shifts Voter Registration to Montgomery as Wife Casts Ballot in Mobile

MOBILE, Ala. — U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures, the Democrat who has represented Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District since January 2025, now lists Montgomery as his voting residence, according to state voter registration records. The records show Shomari Figures registered to vote in Montgomery on Oct. 5, 2026, while his wife, Dr. Kalisha Figures, cast an absentee ballot three days later using her Mobile County address.

The change comes after this year’s redistricting developments moved the city of Mobile out of the 2nd District, the seat Figures won in 2024 and is now defending in the November general election. Figures’ campaign did not respond to questions about whether the congressman now lives primarily in Montgomery or whether his family remains in Mobile.

A new address in the state capital

According to the voter file, the address Figures listed with his Oct. 5 registration is a four-bedroom, two-bathroom house of about 2,100 square feet on Trace Oaks Lane, roughly 20 minutes southeast of downtown Montgomery and just outside the main metropolitan area. Montgomery County probate records do not list Figures as the owner of the property.

Real estate records show the Trace Oaks Lane home changed hands on Aug. 27, 2026, for $272,000. That sale was between two companies owned by Lloyd R. Daniel III, according to the records.

Figures had described Mobile as his home since November 2023. Federal campaign disclosures show he moved from Bethesda, Maryland, to west Mobile late that year, and he registered to vote and formed his congressional campaign on Nov. 10, 2023. The current voter file shows only a voter’s most recent registered address, not earlier ones, but a December 2023 campaign contribution record listed Figures in the 36608 ZIP code area, which covers much of west Mobile.

Mobile County records show Figures bought a home of about 4,000 square feet on Cranebrake Road, near Medal of Honor Park, in May 2024 for $545,000.

How redistricting reshaped the race

The district Figures won in 2024 was itself the product of a lengthy legal fight over Alabama’s congressional lines. After the 2020 census, the Legislature adopted a map with one majority-Black district out of seven. Black voters and civil rights groups sued, and in early 2022 a three-judge federal panel found the map likely violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act, which prohibits voting practices that dilute minority voting strength.

In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld that finding in Allen v. Milligan in a 5-4 decision. Alabama lawmakers then met in a special session that July and approved a new map, but it again contained only one majority-Black district. The federal court rejected the Legislature’s plan and, in October 2023, adopted a map drawn by a court-appointed special master.

That court-drawn 2nd District stretched from Mobile and Washington County east across much of the Black Belt to the Georgia line, with a narrow extension that took in much of the city of Mobile. It was the version of the district on the ballot when Figures first ran.

In May and June 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the federal court injunctions in the Allen v. Milligan litigation, allowing Alabama to return to a congressional map that state lawmakers approved in 2023. Under that plan, Mobile is again drawn into the 1st Congressional District along with the rest of the Mobile Bay region. That change left Figures’ Mobile residence outside the reconfigured 2nd District in which he is seeking reelection. Montgomery has historically been part of the 2nd District under past Alabama maps.

Because Kalisha Figures remains registered at her Mobile address, the absentee ballot she cast on Oct. 8 would have allowed her to vote in the 1st District race between Democrat Clyde Jones and Republican Jerry Carl, rather than in her husband’s race. Carl previously represented the 1st District from 2021 to 2025.

Voter registration details such as a voter’s registered address, registration date and participation history are maintained by the state and can be obtained as public records. Those records show whether and when a person voted, and in which election, but not whom the person voted for; the content of every ballot remains secret.

Nothing in the records indicates any irregularity in either registration. They show only that, as of early October, the congressman and his wife were registered to vote in different counties and, as a result, in different congressional districts.

What the law requires

The U.S. Constitution sets only three qualifications for members of the House of Representatives: a member must be at least 25 years old, must have been a U.S. citizen for at least seven years, and must be an inhabitant of the state he or she represents at the time of election. There is no constitutional requirement that a representative live inside the boundaries of the district he or she serves, and states cannot add such a requirement for federal office.

Voting residence is a separate matter governed by state law. In Alabama, a person registers to vote at the address where he or she lives, and a voter who moves to a different county must update his or her registration to vote there. Registering at a new address generally replaces a voter’s prior registration, which is why the voter file reflects only the most recent address on record.

As a practical matter, however, district residency is often an issue in congressional campaigns, and candidates frequently raise it against one another. Figures did so himself during the 2024 race.

Residency in the 2024 campaign

During the crowded 2024 Democratic primary for the newly drawn 2nd District, Figures criticized opponents who lived outside the district, including then-Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels of Huntsville, who later faced Figures in the runoff, and state Rep. Juandalynn Givan of Birmingham.

In February 2024, Figures said a candidate’s place of residence reflected that candidate’s commitment to the district and argued that candidates living elsewhere placed greater value on their existing constituents than on the people of District 2.

“That is as transactional as it gets, and we cannot afford transactional leadership that only does for those who do something for them,” Figures said at the time. “To refuse to move into the district to run for this seat is a slap in the face of voters.”

Figures faced residency questions of his own during the runoff. Daniels claimed that, as of April 2024, Figures’ family was still living in a $1.2 million home in Maryland. Figures disputed those claims.

“We live in the same place I was born and raised – in Mobile, Alabama – and we have the receipts to prove that, most notably: my kids go to school every day in this District, and my wife and I were able to vote in this race on March 5th – unlike Mr. Daniels,” Figures said in a statement then. “Mr. Daniels obviously feels very ashamed that on April 16th he can’t even vote for himself, because he refuses to live in the District.”

Voter records indicate, however, that Kalisha Figures registered to vote in Mobile County on March 7, 2024, two days after the March 5 primary in which her husband first appeared on the ballot. Her voting history shows her first recorded vote in Mobile County was cast on April 16, 2024, in the Democratic runoff between Figures and Daniels. Figures won that runoff and went on to win the November 2024 general election, taking office in January 2025.

Who is Shomari Figures?

Figures is a Mobile native and the son of longtime state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures of Mobile and the late state Sen. Michael Figures. Before returning to Alabama to run for Congress, he worked in Washington, D.C., including in the Obama administration and later as deputy chief of staff and counselor to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland.

His 2024 victory made him one of two Black members of Alabama’s congressional delegation, alongside U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell of the 7th District, and it came in the first election held under the court-ordered map. With that map no longer in effect, the 2026 race for the 2nd District is being run under district lines different from the ones Figures was first elected under.

What happens next

The general election is set for Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. Alabama does not offer no-excuse early in-person voting; registered voters who qualify under state law may vote absentee, either by mail or in person at their county’s absentee election office, subject to deadlines set by the state.

Voters who are unsure which congressional district they now live in after the map change can look up their registration, polling place and sample ballot through the Alabama Secretary of State’s voter portal at AlabamaVotes.gov, or contact their county board of registrars. In Mobile County, voters will see the 1st Congressional District race on their ballots.

South Alabama News will update this story if Figures or his campaign responds to questions about his residence.