Monday, May 11 — Shomari Figures has not said a word about it in fifty-four days

Six days from today the only kidney dialysis center in Macon County closes its doors. Fifty people in District 2 lose the place they go to stay alive three times a week. Shomari Figures has not said a word about it in fifty-four days. Last Thursday in Montgomery he stood on a stage in the heart of District 2 for an hour and forty minutes and used the platform to predict a Supreme Court outcome. The closure he himself negotiated did not come up.

He had time to handicap the Supreme Court. He did not have time for Tuskegee.

At Thursday night's Montgomery town hall, Rep. Figures told the room he did not expect the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the injunction blocking Alabama from changing its district lines before 2030. The Alabama Reflector, the Associated Press, and Chattanooga's Times Free Press all carried the quote. He had time, in front of a microphone in his district, to issue a public prediction on a federal case the Justices have not yet decided.

"I ran into a gentleman last night, and he said, 'Hey man, I hear your job is on the line.' And I told him, 'No, Shomari Figures is going to be OK. Your voice is on the line.'"

That was the line of the night. The town hall happened because his seat might be redrawn. He was in district, on a stage, with a delegation of elected Democrats and a hundred people in the room. He talked at length about preserving the configuration of his own job. That is what brought him home to District 2 last week.

Six days. Fifty patients. Fifty-four days of silence.

Six days from today — Sunday, May 17 — the Fresenius Kidney Care dialysis center on East Martin Luther King Highway in Tuskegee closes. The closure date is the deadline Rep. Figures himself negotiated. He announced it in a press release issued from his Washington office on March 18. That release said his office would "continue to explore long-term solutions for dialysis treatment."

That was fifty-four days ago. There has been no public follow-up. No new statement from his office. No Tuskegee site visit on the public record. Roughly fifty kidney patients have to find a new place to receive treatment they cannot miss without dying. The closest remaining facilities are in Tallassee, Auburn, and Union Springs — thirty to fifty miles away. Tuskegee Mayor Chris Lee said in February that for these patients, the loss of the local center is "the difference between life and death."

The Wilcox County Fresenius dialysis center, on the same operator's timeline, closed March 20. Wilcox is also in District 2. Two facility closures, two months apart, both in his district. The pattern is the same: a press release from Washington at the announcement, then nothing. Press releases from Washington did not keep either facility open.

Thursday's town hall in Montgomery was less than forty miles from the Tuskegee facility. He did not mention the closure that hits the people of District 2 six days later.

The Supreme Court window

Today at 5:00 PM EDT, the challengers' response is due to Justice Clarence Thomas on Alabama's emergency application to use the 2023 Legislature-drawn congressional map for the May 19 primary. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has asked the Court for a ruling by Thursday, May 14, at 10:00 AM. The next regular Supreme Court conference is Monday, May 18 — one day before primary day. The Alabama Republican Party filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the state's application.

Under the 2023 map Alabama is asking the Court to allow, District 2 returns to roughly 40 percent Black Voting Age Population and a R+17 partisan profile. The 2024 court-imposed map drove BVAP up to 49 percent and produced the seat Figures now holds. Whatever the Court decides this week, the work to take this district back continues. The campaign is November 3, on whichever map the courts allow.

Iran, fuel, and the kitchen table

Brent crude closed Friday at $101.29 per barrel, up 1.23 percent on the day. U.S. Central Command reported defensive strikes against Iranian targets in the Strait of Hormuz after U.S. destroyers came under fire. U.S. forces also struck and disabled two empty Iranian patrol boats. Brent has traded in a $100 to $104 corridor on alternating Hormuz exchange and diplomatic-progress headlines for two weeks. The Strait has been effectively closed since late February.

For a District 2 voter making a thirty-to-fifty-mile drive twice or three times a week to find new dialysis treatment, the price at the pump is not abstract. Trump-led peace through strength is the framework that gets us to a stable price. The alternative is the failed energy posture Democrats have run on for a generation.

What District 2 voters can do this week

* Watch the Justice Thomas docket after 5:00 PM EDT today. Whatever the Court does, the November campaign in this district is the same.

* Tell the Tuskegee story. Six days. Fifty patients. Fifty-four days since the Congressman's last public statement on the closure he himself negotiated. Local press, pastors, elected officials — the narrative of who delivered and who didn't is being written right now, not after the closure.

* Talk to neighbors about the May 19 primary. The U.S. Senate and PSC primaries are on the ballot in every District 2 county. Turnout in the primary is muscle memory for turnout in November.

* Stay in the work. The redistricting question is not the campaign. The campaign is November 3. The work is giving District 2 a representative who is running to do the job, not running to keep it.