Wednesday, May 27, 2026

DAY 10 OF THE CLOSURE. 70 DAYS SINCE THE OFFICE LAST SAID A WORD ABOUT IT.

Fresenius Kidney Care closed its Tuskegee dialysis center on Sunday, May 17. Today is Wednesday, May 27. The closure has now been operational for ten full days. The schedules of roughly fifty Macon County patients have absorbed the drive to Tallassee, to Auburn, and to Union Springs across two business weeks now. Each three-times-a-week patient has logged the closure another twelve to fifteen times since it began. None of those drives have been shortened by anything the congressman’s office has done. The last public statement from the office on the closure remains the March 18 release, the one that confirmed Fresenius would delay the shutdown until May 17 and pledged to “continue to explore long-term solutions for dialysis treatment.” That release is now 70 days old. The closure date the release named has come and gone. No successor operator has been identified publicly. No federal bill has been introduced on rural dialysis access. No Macon County town hall has been held. No site visit has appeared on the congressman’s schedule. The press releases listing on figures.house.gov this morning still shows February 3, 2026 as the most recent entry. That stands at 113 days now. Releases that have been issued since exist as orphan URLs that do not appear in the listing. The public-facing summary of the office’s work has not been updated since the winter.

*** 70 days since the last word on the closure. 10 days of an empty building. 113 days since the press releases page has been updated at all. ***

THE MAP FIGHT GOT LONGER YESTERDAY. IT DID NOT GET RESOLVED.

A three-judge federal panel in Birmingham unanimously issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday morning blocking Alabama from using its 2023 congressional map for the 2026 elections, finding the map “intentionally discriminated based on race.” The panel consists of one Reagan-and-Clinton appellate judge and two Trump-appointed district judges. The court directed the state to continue using the court-drawn map that governed the 2024 elections. Within hours Attorney General Steve Marshall filed an emergency appeal at the U.S. Supreme Court. In his public statement he wrote that he found “nothing in the U.S. Supreme Court’s vacatur order of May 11 that would provide a basis for this outcome” and confirmed an immediate Supreme Court appeal. The Supreme Court issued the May 11 order in this same case. It has not yet acted on yesterday’s filing as of this morning. What that means in plain terms for the 2026 cycle in District 2: which map governs the August calendar is not currently settled. Which map governs the November ballot is not currently settled. The litigation is being fought one calendar week at a time at the Supreme Court. Watch the Court’s order list and the SCOTUS docket today and through the rest of the week. What does not change: the fight to take back District 2 from Shomari Figures. The record this brief is built on — the dialysis center, the press releases page, the votes in Washington, the residency questions — is the record regardless of where the boundary lines land. The election in November is on the calendar. The fight is on.

THE INCUMBENT HAS SPENT THE REDISTRICTING FIGHT TALKING ABOUT THE REDISTRICTING FIGHT.

Figures’ statements over the past two weeks have stayed on the map question. The May 11 Supreme Court vacatur prompted a response calling the decision a setback for Black representation. The August special-primary calendar prompted statements about voter confusion. Yesterday’s federal injunction prompted statements claiming vindication. The Tuskegee closure that affects his actual constituents on his actual schedule has not produced a statement since March 18. That is the contrast that does not move with the map. Whatever lines run, the office’s schedule still produces statements on legal news from Washington and silence on constituent news from Tuskegee. The redistricting docket has produced more public output from the office in two weeks than the dialysis closure has produced in 70 days.

TWO COLUMNS — WHAT THE COURT-APPOINTED INCUMBENT HAS SAID AND WHAT THE COURT-APPOINTED INCUMBENT HAS DONE

THE WILCOX PARALLEL HITS DAY 68 TODAY.

The dialysis closure in Wilcox County on March 20 is running on the same arc and continues to produce no substantive follow-up from Representative Sewell’s office. Two rural Black Belt closures, two announcement releases, zero substantive follow-up at the closure date or in the months since. The pattern does not stop at a district line.

WHAT THE CAMPAIGN WORK LOOKS LIKE THIS WEEK.

Whatever map governs the August calendar, the campaign work this week is the same. Carry the record of the office of the incumbent into every conversation you have. Show people who live in District 2 what the press releases page looks like this morning. Tell them how many days have passed since the office last said a word about a closure in a building they drive past. The map question is being settled in Washington. The record question is being settled in the kitchens, the church halls, and the diners of District 2. The first one is out of our hands. The second one is the work we do.

THREE THINGS TO CARRY INTO THE WEEK.

Carry the count. 10 days of an empty dialysis center. 70 days of silence on its closure. 113 days since the press releases page was last updated. Carry those numbers when you talk about this office. Decouple the map fight from the record fight. The map question is in litigation. The record question is closed. Whatever lines run, this office did not show up. Take the record fight to the voters this week. Watch the docket, but do the work. The Supreme Court will move when it moves. The campaign work to take back District 2 begins again every morning whatever the docket does. Today, the work is the conversation in front of you.

TWO COLUMNS — SAID vs DONE

SAID: The March 18 release named the “tremendous gap” the Tuskegee closure would open in the Macon County health care system. DONE: The gap opened May 17. No follow-up release has been issued. No closure-day statement was posted. No public site visit has occurred. Day 10 of the closure today.

SAID: The same release pledged to keep working on long-term solutions for dialysis treatment. DONE: 70 days later, no long-term solution has been named publicly, no successor operator has been identified, no federal bill has been introduced.

SAID: His statements on yesterday’s federal injunction landed within hours of the ruling. DONE: His statements on the closure that affects his constituents have not been updated in 70 days.

SAID: His May 22 qualifying statement said he is running in the district that contains the counties he currently represents. DONE: Macon County, which he currently represents, has now gone 10 days — including a federal holiday weekend — without hearing from him about the closure.

SAID: Public statements from the office on the Tuskegee closure since May 17: DONE: None.

SAID: Press releases on the figures.house.gov listing page since February 3, 2026: DONE: None visible. 113 days and counting.