Eric Holder, former U.S. Attorney General under the Obama administration and current Chairman of the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, spoke in support of Shomari Figures at Mobile’s Big Zion AME Church on Monday evening.
Holder’s visit comes just a few short days before residents of Alabama’s newly-redrawn 2nd Congressional District head to the voting booth to decide who will represent them in Congress. Figures, a former top aide to Attorney General Merrick Garland, is running against Republican Caroleene Dobson for the office.
“That’s not that hard,” said Holder. “They’re not going to be people out there with billy clubs and fire hoses and dogs, you know, trying to prevent you from voting or registering, go through all that stuff.”
He emphasized that he was against mandating photo IDs for elections and also disputed claims of voter fraud.
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“Now, let me make it clear. They all make it difficult, but they’re just making it difficult in a different way. You don’t have to deal with the physical stuff, but they’re still trying to make it difficult. But if you put Shomari in Congress, even that kind of stuff can change.”
“You know, all these unnecessary photo ID laws, all these claims of vote fraud, which they really just use to come up with ways in which they suppress the vote of people who look like us.”
A Dobson campaign spokesperson released a statement following Holder’s visit to Mobile.
“The Second Congressional District race will not be decided because a bunch of liberal Washington insiders, has-beens, and wannabes come to Alabama and endorse a candidate,” the spokesperson said. “It will be decided by the endorsements that are made neighbor-to-neighbor, friend-to-friend, and church member-to-church member.”
On Thursday, U.S. House Minority Leader and Democrat Hakeem Jefferies (D-NY) will also visit Montgomery to campaign for Figures heading into the final days of the race.
Austen Shipley is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on X @ShipleyAusten