Caroleene Dobson wins the Republican nomination for Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Caroleene Dobson has won the Republican nomination in a runoff for Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District.

The attorney defeated former state legislator Dick Brewbaker and will face the Democratic nominee Shomari Figures, a former top aide to U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, in November. Figures defeated state House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels for the nomination.

Democrats are aiming to flip the seat after the district was redrawn by a federal court to boost the voting power of Black residents. Republicans are hoping to keep the seat under GOP control.

Federal judges approved new district lines in October after ruling that Alabama’s previous map — which had only one majority-Black district out of seven — was racially gerrymandered to limit the influence of the state’s Black voters. The three-judge panel said Alabama, which is about 27% Black, should have a second district where Black voters make up a substantial portion of the voting age population and have a reasonable opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice.

The new district spans the width of the state and includes Montgomery, parts of Mobile and rural counties in the state’s Black Belt.

Figures, an attorney, also served as an aide to former President Barrack Obama, serving as domestic director of the Presidential Personnel Office. He is the son of two prominent Alabama legislators, longtime state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures and the late Senate President Pro Tem Michael Figures. He moved home to Mobile from Washington D.C. to run for the congressional seat.

Dobson, who was raised in Monroe County, lived and practiced law in Texas before returning to Alabama and joining the Maynard Nexsen law firm in 2019. She is a member of the Alabama Forestry Commission.

In this undated photo provided by Dobson for Congress, Caroleene Dobson poses for a photo in Alabama. Voters in a new Alabama congressional district at the center of an ongoing legal and political dispute will return to the polls Tuesday, April 16, 2024, to select the nominees in a U.S. House contest. Dobson and Former state Sen. Dick Brewbaker will compete for the Republican nomination in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District after neither candidate received the vote majority needed in the March 5 primary to avoid Tuesday's runoff. (Courtesy of Dobson for Congress via AP)

In this image provided by the Figures for Congress campaign, Shomari Figures poses for a photo. Voters in a new Alabama congressional district at the center of an ongoing legal and political dispute will return to the polls Tuesday, April 16, 2024, to select the nominees in a U.S. House contest. Figures and Anthony Daniels, the state House Minority Leader, will compete for the Democratic nomination in Alabama's 2nd Congressional District after neither candidate received the vote majority needed in the March 5 primary to avoid Tuesday's runoff. (Terri Baskin/Figures for Congress via AP, File)

FILE - Alabama Rep. Anthony Daniels speaks with the media at the Alabama State House in Montgomery, Ala., Jan. 11, 2022. Voters in a new Alabama congressional district at the center of an ongoing legal and political dispute will return to the polls Tuesday, April 16, 2024, to select the nominees in a U.S. House contest. Daniels and Shomari Figures, a former Justice Department official, will compete for the Democratic nomination after neither candidate received the vote majority needed in the March 5 primary to avoid Tuesday's runoff. (Mickey Welsh/The Montgomery Advertiser via AP, File)

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