Who’s really paying for Shomari Figures?

Wall of Shame — Today: Drummond

Today on the Wall of Shame: the Drummond Company PAC (Birmingham) has put $10,000 into Rep. Shomari Figures' campaign account. Figures then voted no on the National Coal Council Reestablishment Act, against the federal body advising on coal jobs and policy — one of only a handful of Democrats opposed. The Wall of Shame exists for one reason — so that total stops growing. https://take2back.com/wall-of-shame.html

Five Weeks Out, and Washington Is Spending to Hold This Seat

District 2 enters the final five weeks before the August 11 special primary, and the clearest signal of where the seat stands comes from the other side. National Democrats have placed the incumbent on the DCCC's Frontline list — the program the party reserves for its most endangered members, with money, staff, and strategy attached. The committee's own chair put it plainly: "Our path back to the majority hinges on holding seats like Shomari's." When the national party spends this hard to hold a district that backed Donald Trump by 14 points, it is telling you the seat is winnable.

Cook Just Nudged the Seat — Toward the Incumbent

Two weeks ago the nonpartisan Cook Political Report moved District 2 toward the Democrat — one of seven seats it shifted that direction, and the only Democrat-held seat in the group. Cook still rates the district Republican. Read the two facts together: the seat leans Republican on its own, and the only thing giving the incumbent an opening is the national environment and the national money now flowing in behind him. That opening closes when Republicans show up.

A District That Doesn't Match Its Congressman

Under the 2023 map, District 2 is Republican-leaning — its Black voting-age population is now about 40 percent, down from roughly 49 percent, and the map is expected to give Alabama a 6-1 Republican delegation. The incumbent is running a careful in-district campaign — Farm Bureau meetings, local celebrations — and telling voters "the issues are the same." But the votes he casts in Washington line up with the national Democratic program, not with the district that backed Trump by 14. Eight of his thirteen counties carry over; the record travels with them.

His Party Is Going Socialist. He Has Nothing to Say.

The biggest story in the Democratic Party this year is not a policy fight — it is a takeover. The Democratic Socialists of America now claim more than 100,000 members, and the Wall Street Journal called their rise one of the biggest political stories of the year. In June, socialist candidates backed by New York's DSA mayor, Zohran Mamdani, swept their House primaries and knocked off two sitting Democratic congressmen — including the chairman of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus. Mamdani told the crowd it was "the beginning." To his credit, District 2's congressman went on record against socialism once, joining a symbolic House resolution condemning it last November. But that was the easy vote, cast in a single afternoon. Since the socialist wing actually started winning — remaking the party he belongs to, primary by primary — he has said nothing: no comment on the Mamdani sweep, no word on the movement now steering his party's direction. He has plenty to say at the Farm Bureau and the ribbon-cuttings back home. On the question of who is taking over his party in Washington, the silence is its own answer.

The Money Signal — July 15

The next hard signal is eight days out. The July 15 FEC filing will show the incumbent's second-quarter haul and how much national money is already behind the seat. It is the first real measure of what the fall will cost — watch it, because the dollars reported then will set the terms of the general election.

Winner-Take-All, August 11

The Republican special primary is winner-take-all: the top vote-getter carries the standard into November against the incumbent, with no runoff. In a low-turnout August special, the outcome turns on who shows up, not on persuasion — and turnout is being decided right now, 35 days out, while most voters are still at the lake and not yet paying attention. The Republican field is consolidating ahead of the vote.

Bottom Line

National Democrats are spending to hold a Trump+14 seat; Cook just moved it toward the incumbent on the strength of that money and a friendlier national environment; and as the socialist wing takes over his party primary by primary, the district's congressman has nothing to say about it. The July 15 filing will show the dollars; the decision is August 11. The opening is real — and the time to engage is before the outside money sets the terms.