U.S. Rep. Shomari Figures (D-Mobile) won a second term this week with 124,422 votes to 107,049 for State Rep. Rhett Marques (R-Enterprise), 53.8% to 46.2% in a 2nd Congressional District that clearly demonstrated its partisan lean for the first time.

In fact, Tuesday was the first general election test of the political conditions state lawmakers drew up in 2023 during court-mandated, race-based redistricting. Compared to the 2024 map that delivered Figures his first victory to Congress, the map drawn by state lawmakers dispersed the 2nd District’s black voting age population (BVAP) from 48.7% to 39.9%.

That nine-point swing was supposed to be enough. But as we saw nationwide on Tuesday night, it wasn’t.

2nd Congressional District result

In the 14 counties that lie entirely inside the district, every Republican on the statewide ballot lost.

Attorney General-elect Katherine Robertson was the top Republican vote-getter in the district and still fell short by 13,805.

Secretary of State-elect Caroleene Dobson, the party’s 2024 nominee for the seat, lost the same counties by 15,162.

Lieutenant Governor-elect John Wahl, Treasurer Young Boozer, Auditor Andrew Sorrell, Agriculture Commissioner-elect Corey Hill and both Public Service Commission nominees lost them by between 12,000 and 22,000 votes.

The 14 whole counties, race by race

Marques outran Tuberville in those counties and finished within 3,814 of Robertson. Figures finished within 485 votes of Jones. The congressional race tracked the top of the ticket in both directions.

Montgomery County decided it. Jones carried the county 60,013 to 19,840, and Figures carried it by a similar margin. Outside Montgomery, Marques led Figures by 17,956 votes across the other 13 counties, and Tuberville led Jones. Republicans drew between 19,835 and 22,159 votes in Montgomery County in every statewide race on the ballot.

Montgomery County turnout

The remainder of the district, parts of Elmore and Covington counties, cast 14,968 votes in the congressional race and Marques won about two-thirds of them. Robertson would have needed every one of those ballots to match Figures’ total, and would still have fallen 8,442 short.

The 14 counties voted for the Republican at the top of the ticket in every general election since 2014. On Tuesday they gave Tuberville the lowest Republican share in the counties since Ron Sparks carried them against Robert Bentley in 2010.

Republican share at the top of the ticket, 14 whole counties

Straight-ticket voting moved with it. Montgomery County alone produced 46,262 straight Democrat tickets, 77% of Jones’ total there.

Straight-ticket ballots, 14 whole counties

The state’s current 2nd Congressional District was drawn by the Alabama Legislature in 2023, rejected by a federal panel that issued its own in its place, and never put to voters until this year.

Figures overcame a crowded primary battle to win the court-drawn seat in 2024 with 54.6%.

After Louisiana v. Callais, lawmakers reauthorized the 2023 lines in a special session, the Supreme Court vacated the injunctions in May and cleared the map on June 2 after the panel blocked it a second time.

Marques won the August special primary with 50.3%.

This week, Figures’ 53.8% was roughly just 1% lower than his 54.6% two years ago under a different map.

Grayson Everett is the editor in chief of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @Grayson270.