Friday, May 15 — Two days from today, the only dialysis center in Macon County closes

Tuskegee — two days, fifty-eight days of silence

On Sunday, May 17, the Fresenius Kidney Care dialysis center on East Martin Luther King Highway in Tuskegee closes. Roughly fifty patients lose the place they go three times a week to stay alive. The nearest remaining facilities are in Tallassee, Auburn, and Union Springs — thirty to fifty miles each way. 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 closure date is the deadline Rep. Figures himself negotiated. His office announced it on March 18 in a press release from Washington. That release said the office would “continue to explore long-term solutions for dialysis treatment.”

Today is day fifty-eight since that release. There has been no public follow-up. No new statement. No Tuskegee site visit on the public record. No companion bill. No committee hearing. The press release stood. The deadline arrived. The deadline is in two days.

Macon County stays in District 2 under both the court-drawn map and the 2023 map that the Supreme Court reinstated on Monday. Whichever way the litigation runs from here, the dialysis patients are District 2 voters. They will remember who showed up. They will remember who did not.

If you are organizing this weekend — church bulletins, neighborhood meetings, county GOP gatherings — this is the fact to carry. Two days. Fifty-eight days of silence. The deadline he negotiated. The follow-up he never made.

Briefs are due today. The Court-Appointed Incumbent still does not know which district he is running in.

Yesterday, Lagniappe Mobile reported that Shomari Figures “has not yet decided whether he will seek re-election along Alabama's Gulf Coast or in its Wiregrass region.” His campaign's statement to Lagniappe, on the record:

“The Supreme Court did not dismiss the case, so we still do not know what the district lines will ultimately be.”

Two days before the Tuskegee dialysis center closes, the Court-Appointed Incumbent's campaign is on the record saying it does not yet know which district he is running in. Not which message. Not which strategy. Which district.

Today is the day his fate gets argued in court. Briefs from both sides on the plaintiffs' temporary restraining order motion are due to the three-judge panel in the Northern District of Alabama today, Friday May 15. The Court-Appointed Incumbent is sitting in the gallery waiting on the ruling like the rest of the gallery. He has no plan for what to do if the panel sides with the plaintiffs. He has no plan for what to do if the panel sides with the state. His campaign told Lagniappe Mobile, on Wednesday, that they are waiting for the courtroom to tell them which seat to run for.

The Republican field for August 11 — five days to qualifying

Governor Ivey set the special primary for Tuesday, August 11. Major-party qualifying opens five days from today, on Wednesday May 20, and closes Friday May 22 at five o'clock in the afternoon. Three-day window. After 5 PM Friday, the field is the field.

Three Republicans are publicly committed to District 2 as of this morning:

Hampton Harris — the previously-qualified Republican nominee. Already on the May 19 ballot for District 2.

State Rep. Rhett Marques (Enterprise, HD-91) — switched from District 1 on the evening of Monday May 11. Under the 2023 map, Coffee County is in District 2. Marques is an in-district candidate.

Joshua McKee (Robertsdale, Baldwin County) — switched from District 1 the following evening, May 12. Under the 2023 map, Baldwin County is in District 1. McKee, after his switch, remains an out-of-district candidate.

The Republican field arrives at the August 11 starting line with one in-district incumbent state representative, one previously-qualified outsider candidate who has been working District 2 since the court-drawn lines went up, and one Baldwin County entrant who lives outside the seat he wants to represent. The Democratic field arrives at the August 11 starting line with a court-appointed incumbent who told the press on Wednesday that he does not know which district he is running in.

Three questions still on the table

One: When the courtroom that made him is gone, does the money stay?

The DCCC, EMILY's List, the Section 2 litigation PACs, the national redistricting machinery — all of it invested in a court order, not in a candidate. With the court order vacated and the partisan environment shifted twenty-two points to the right, the case for continued national investment has to be made fresh, every quarter. The next FEC report (Q2) covers April through June and is due July 15. The receipts side of that filing will tell us who is still on the Court-Appointed Incumbent, and who is on a plane to the next Section 2 case in another state.

Two: Will his spouse and family leave their Maryland home and join him on the trail?

The Figures family's residence in the Washington area is a matter of public record. It was the geography when he ran in 2024. It has been the geography for his term. One hundred seventy-two days until the general election. The question of whether the incumbent will live in Alabama for the next ninety days matters more today than it did last week. Most Alabama members of Congress fly home on the weekends. The Court-Appointed Incumbent has a four-hour drive between his front door in Maryland and the Capitol — and a five-hour flight between his family's front door and the Wiregrass.

Three: Will he hold events in the Wiregrass? Does he even know where the Wiregrass is?

Shomari Figures spent his term representing Mobile, Montgomery, and the Black Belt under the court-drawn map. The Wiregrass was never his territory. Now Coffee, Dale, Geneva, Houston, Henry, and Pike counties are added to District 2 under the restored 2023 map — roughly two hundred thousand voters. He has no campaign history there. No events on the public record there. No relationships there. He has one hundred seventy-two days to introduce himself to a region that is now nearly half his constituency.

Three Wiregrass town hall topics we are still waiting for the Court-Appointed Incumbent to schedule

The Maryland-to-Mobile-to-Wiregrass commute — a fireside chat.

How the Court-Appointed Incumbent plans to introduce himself to two hundred thousand voters in counties he has never campaigned in, while keeping his family residence in the Washington suburbs. Refreshments provided. Maybe.

Peanuts: an introductory lecture.

The Wiregrass produces roughly half the peanuts grown in the United States. Coffee County alone exports more than the Republic of Argentina. The Court-Appointed Incumbent has fifty-eight legislative co-sponsorships on the public record from his term in Congress. Zero are on peanut-industry legislation. A workshop on what a peanut farmer does between dawn and noon would be educational.

Section 2 and You: a litigation update from today's court filings.

Today the three-judge panel in the Northern District of Alabama hears briefs on the plaintiffs' TRO motion. The Court-Appointed Incumbent's campaign told Lagniappe Mobile on Wednesday that “we still do not know what the district lines will ultimately be.” Voters in the Wiregrass might appreciate hearing directly from the candidate about whether they are constituents he is committed to representing, or constituents he is waiting to be redrawn out of. A moment of silence will be observed for the map.

What this weekend asks of you

This is the closing weekend of the May 19 standard primary. It is also the five days before the August 11 special-primary qualifying window opens. The August 11 race is the race the Court-Appointed Incumbent has to win to keep the seat. Four days from today, voters across Alabama vote in the May 19 primary — including the Senate primary at the top of the ticket. Five days from today, the August 11 qualifying window opens.

Four things to do this weekend.

Carry the Tuskegee number. Fifty-eight days of silence. Two days to closure. The deadline he negotiated. The follow-up he never made. Use it in every conversation about who actually shows up for District 2.

Vote on Tuesday, May 19. The Senate primary is at the top of the ticket. Polls open 7 AM, close 7 PM. Monday, May 18, is the last day to hand-deliver a completed absentee ballot.

Make a plan to organize after Tuesday. The August 11 special primary qualifying window opens Wednesday, May 20. After that window closes Friday, May 22, the Republican field is set for ninety days. Now is the time to make a plan for door-knocking, phone-banking, and church-bulletin distribution in the new map's eastern counties.

Follow take2back.com. Every brief, every Wiregrass-town-hall topic, every count of days of silence is at take2back.com. The site is built to be shared. Send the link to one new person this weekend.

The fight goes on. The map is the map.

The Court-Appointed Incumbent told the Alabama press on Monday night that “the fight must and will go on.” That is correct, as a matter of litigation. The plaintiffs' temporary restraining order motion is in court today. The fight is in the courtroom today, the same week the Court-Appointed Incumbent's campaign tells Lagniappe Mobile it still does not know what district lines he will be running in.

For District 2 Republicans, the fight is also in the precinct. It is in the Wiregrass. It is in the church basement in Coffee County and the senior center in Houston County and the diner in Pike County. It is in the dialysis clinics that are closing on the Court-Appointed Incumbent's watch. The map is the map the Supreme Court restored on Monday. We have one hundred seventy-two days to organize the precincts inside it. Today the answer to the question “does he know where the Wiregrass is?” is still no.

Four days to the primary. Two days to Tuskegee. Five days to the qualifying window. One hundred seventy-two days to take it back.