Alabama residents fear redistricting could cost federal funding and Shomari Figures' seat

Residents in Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District are worried that a change in the map could do more than swap one member of Congress for another. They fear federal funding, projects and attention could disappear with Shomari Figures if he loses the seat he won in a district now caught in another round of redistricting litigation.

The stakes sharpened after the U.S. Supreme Court on June 2 allowed Alabama to use its 2023 congressional map in an August special primary and in this year’s elections. That map had already been struck down in 2023 because it contained only one majority-Black House district, a ruling that forced Alabama back into court over whether Black voters would again have a fair chance to elect a candidate of their choice.

Figures, who represents Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, said the court’s conservative majority was letting the state use a map that three Republican-appointed judges had repeatedly found to be the product of intentional racial discrimination. He called the ruling dangerous. The decision came after Alabama officials asked the Supreme Court on May 27 to lift lower-court orders blocking the GOP-backed plan.

Governor Kay Ivey celebrated the court victory and called a special election for the Alabama-drawn congressional map, setting up a new round of campaigning in a district where the political consequences are tightly linked to the legal fight. For residents and local stakeholders, the issue is not abstract. They see a congressional seat as leverage for money and federal attention in Montgomery and across the district, and they worry that leverage could weaken if the district changes hands.

The Alabama case has also become part of a broader national surge in mid-decade redistricting. The National Conference of State Legislatures says states have undertaken redraws at rates not seen since the 1800s, a sign that map fights once treated as once-a-decade chores are now becoming recurring political battles.

In Alabama, that battle carries added weight because it tests the durability of Black political gains in a state where the Supreme Court has already ordered changes to protect representation. The next election will decide not only who holds the seat, but whether the district keeps the same political clout when the map settles again.