Alabama Republicans pick nominee for redrawn 2nd District
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- Six Republicans are competing in Tuesday's special primary to challenge Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures, who is unopposed in his bid for a second term in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District.
- The U.S. Supreme Court struck down a majority-Black Louisiana district in April as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander; Alabama lawmakers then nullified ongoing primaries and authorized Tuesday's special elections after the court granted permission to switch maps in June.
- The redrawn district dropped its Black voting-age population from 48% to 40%, and was reshaped from a Mobile-to-Georgia-Belt stretch into southeastern Alabama, including Montgomery and Tuskegee.
- Trump-endorsed state Rep. Rhett Marques is among six candidates that also includes Hampton Harris, Christian Horn (the race's lone Black candidate), David Matthews (a former Trump USDA appointee), Joshua McKee (a former Green Beret), and former Marine James Richardson.
- Figures won the seat in 2024 after a federal court ruled the GOP-controlled legislature "intentionally diluted" Black voting power, giving Alabama its first-ever two Black representatives in Congress.
- The redrawn district includes an Air Force base in Montgomery, an Army base in Dale County, and Beulah Baptist Church, located near the path of the 1965 Selma-to-Montgomery voting rights march.
Why it matters: This race tests whether Republicans can reclaim a seat that a federal court ruled was racially gerrymandered — a November GOP win would erase the 2024 result that briefly gave Alabama two Black representatives. Both parties have placed the district on their priority list as the House majority hangs on a slim GOP margin.
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