Sixty-one cents of every dollar Shomari Figures raised came from a PAC

THE OTHER MAN'S MONEY LOOKS NOTHING LIKE IT

Rhett Marques raised almost the identical amount over the same period. $1,318,574. Thirty-seven thousand dollars apart, out of more than a million and a quarter each.

The two piles were assembled in opposite ways.

Individuals gave Marques $1,130,105 — eighty-six cents of his dollar.

PACs gave him $188,469 — fourteen cents.

Same district. Same calendar. Same disclosure form. Sixty-one cents against fourteen.

THE PART WE ARE NOT GOING TO PRETEND

There is a version of this argument that says the incumbent has no real supporters. That version is false, and the filing is where it falls apart.

Small contributions — the unitemized gifts under two hundred dollars, the twenty-five and fifty dollar checks that never carry a name onto a form — came to $167,493 for Figures.

For Marques they came to $8,808.

If small-dollar giving is your measure of a grassroots base, the congressman wins that measure and it is not close. Nineteen dollars of his for every one of his opponent's.

So the argument was never that nobody supports him. It is narrower than that, and harder to answer: whatever his neighbors sent him, the majority of his money still arrived from committees. Sixty-one cents against twelve.

WHAT THE MONEY IS DOING NOW

Figures had spent $716,297 and was holding $662,600 on July 22. He owed twelve thousand.

Marques had spent $1,130,856 — eighty-six percent of everything he raised — and was holding $187,718. He owed nothing.

That is what a six-way primary costs. Marques bought a nomination with it on August 11 and took fifty percent against five opponents. Figures had no primary and never had to spend to survive one.

Going into the general, the incumbent has roughly three and a half dollars on hand for every one his opponent has.

WHY A LINE ON A FORM IS AN ARGUMENT AT ALL

Because a PAC is not a neighbor.

An individual writes a check because of what she believes. A committee writes one because of what it wants, and it exists for the sole purpose of wanting it in an organized way, year after year, from whoever holds the seat.

Eight hundred and thirty thousand dollars of organized wanting bought nothing that can be proven. That is not the claim. The claim is smaller and it does not require proof: when sixty-one cents of a congressman's money arrives that way, the people it arrived from expect to be able to get a call returned, and the people who did not send it are competing with them for the same hour of the same day.

There is nothing illegal in any of it. Every figure above came off a public form he filed correctly and on time. That is the point. The system is not hidden. It is published, and almost nobody reads it.

SIXTY-NINE DAYS

On November 3, District 2 decides.

The next filing lands before then and it will show what October money looks like. This page will read that one too.

Figures for the numbers: FEC Form 3, coverage through July 22, 2026 — Figures for Congress (C00856237) and Rhett for Alabama (C00916775). Pulled from the Commission's public database on August 26, 2026. Both filings are public and searchable by committee number.

Wall of Shame — Today: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama

Today on the Wall of Shame: the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama PAC (Montgomery) has put $5,000 into Rep. Shomari Figures' campaign account. Alabama’s dominant health insurer, writing checks to the congressman who represents the patients and hospitals it covers. The Wall of Shame exists for one reason — so that total stops growing. https://take2back.com/wall-of-shame.html