Two Democrats are emerging from a crowded field in a newly competitive House district in Alabama.
Shomari Figures, a former Justice Department official, and state Rep. Anthony Daniels will seek a runoff election in the Democratic primary for Alabama’s Second Congressional District, according to The Associated Press.
Voters had their first say in the newly formed Second District, which was redrawn after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled last year that Alabama had illegally undermined the power of black voters.
Former state senator Dick Brewbaker and Caroleene Dobson, a real estate attorney, received enough votes to reach the runoff for the Republican primary. The second elections are on April 16.
The new district cuts hundreds of miles across the state, passing through the state capital of Montgomery, much of the seaport city of Mobile and parts of the Black Belt, rural counties where enslaved cotton plantations were nourished by rich soil.
Because Black voters have historically supported Democratic candidates in the state, the Second Congressional District is now seen as an opportunity for Democrats to flip the seat. The nonpartisan Cook Political Report, after redrawing the map, changed the district’s ranking to a likely Democratic seat.
The newly formed 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 7th Congressional District, is expected to win reelection.
Mr. Figures and Mr. Daniels prevailed in a crowded Democratic field that 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 attorney 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 are invested in having someone who can go to Washington and actually try to get things done,” Mr. Figures said in an interview last week, adding “ Bringing the experience that we have 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.
“As minority leader in the House of Representatives, I’ve had the opportunity to reach all these different areas of the state of Alabama without directly representing them,” Mr. Daniels said in a recent interview. The newly formed Second District, he added, “gives us a unique opportunity to do something special.”
Republicans have vowed to defend the seat, especially at a time when the party’s control of the House of Representatives hinges on just a few seats.
“I never thought I would return to politics,” Mr. Brewbaker recently told the crowd at a candidates forum at a library in Mobile. But he added: “We have to find a way to come back together and rebuild this country.”
Rep. Barry Moore, the Republican who currently represents the Second District on Capitol Hill, did not seek re-election. Instead, he challenged Rep. Jerry Carl, the Republican incumbent, in the primary for the First Congressional District.
Mr. Moore emerged victorious in those primaries on Tuesday evening, according to The Associated Press.
Mr. Moore, a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, has emphasized his opposition to many of the key spending and defense policy bills that Mr. Carl, a member of the powerful House Appropriations Committee, was willing to support .