Overview
- The Associated Press called the race for Rep. Shomari Figures with about 91% of ballots counted, showing Figures at 53.8% and Republican Rhett Marques at 46.2%.
- The outcome came despite a June Supreme Court decision that allowed Alabama to use a Republican‑drawn map that reduced the district’s Black voting‑age population from roughly 48% to about 40% and made the district more favorable to Republican voters.
- Figures first won the seat in 2024 under a federal court‑ordered remedial map after judges found the Alabama Legislature had diluted Black voting power in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
- The contest drew heavy national attention, with the Cook Political Report rating the race likely Republican, significant Democratic investment to defend Figures, and a Trump‑aligned super PAC spending more than $2 million for Marques after President Trump endorsed him.
- Figures’s victory means Alabama will have two Black members of Congress for the first time, preserves the only two Democrats in the state’s seven‑member delegation, and leaves this seat on the national map as a focal point for control of the U.S. House.