Alabama’s Hakeem Jeffries to Support Shomari Figures: ‘MAGA Extremists’ Rely on ‘Voter Suppression’

U.S. Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York came to Montgomery on Thursday to campaign for Shomari Figures in Alabama’s central 2nd Congressional District, a potential swing for Democrats.

Figures faces Montgomery attorney Caroleene Dobson, the Republican nominee, in Tuesday’s election.

The 2nd District stretches from Montgomery to Mobile and was redrawn by a federal court last year to favor Democrats after a ruling that the state’s congressional map diluted the black vote.

Jeffries, Figures, Alabama Congresswoman Terri Sewell and Montgomery Mayor Steven Reed spoke in Montgomery’s historic Courthouse Square near the Rosa Parks statue.

Jeffries said Republicans have no track record of helping ordinary people and said they have resorted to “voter suppression” efforts, a characterization Democrats have used for initiatives that Republicans have said are efforts to vet voting lists to ensure that non-citizens do not vote.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday approved a stay of a lower court ruling that blocked an effort by the state of Virginia to clean up its voter rolls. A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against a similar voter purge effort in Alabama after finding that it got too close to the elections and that there were more citizens than non-citizens on the list of targeted voters.

“There are extremists in this country who have adopted voter suppression as an electoral strategy, and when you have people who have adopted voter suppression as an electoral strategy, you have to ask yourself, why?” Jeffries said.

“I think it’s because the MAGA extremists who have been the majority in this Congress can’t point to a single thing they’ve done on their own to make life better for the American people. I can’t point to one thing.”

Republicans have said their goal is to make sure elections are fair. It is illegal for non-citizens to register or vote. But Figures said initiatives like Allen’s and Virginia’s are solutions in search of a problem.

“When you’re talking about pushing people off the ballot, like weeks and days before an election, that’s literally an effort to discourage people from going to the polls and even voting,” Figures said.

He said safeguards are already in place to reduce invalid votes.

“So when you see proactive efforts across the country to limit the field of eligible voters, that’s when I look at it through the lens of voter suppression,” Figures said.

Drew Dickson, a spokesman for the Dobson campaign, issued a statement in response to Jeffries and Figures’ claims that Republicans have a “voter suppression” strategy.

“We shake every hand, ask for every vote and encourage every voter we meet to go to the polls and exercise their right. The Dobson campaign is trying to inflate the vote, not suppress it,” Dickson said.

Allen, asked about Jeffries and Figures’ comments about voter suppression, said he agreed with a statement he gave Wednesday in support of the Virginia initiative.

The stakes are high in the District 2 race.

The figures would be the second Democrat and second black member of Alabama’s congressional delegation, joining Sewell. A numbers victory could also help Democrats claim a majority in the US House, where Republicans hold a slim 220-212 advantage.

Jeffries’ trip to Montgomery followed by a visit from US representative Jasmine Crockett from Texas, who on Sunday attended a round table at a Baptist church and then later met with students from Alabama State University.

Jeffries recognized Alabama’s central role in advancing civil rights and voting rights for black Americans.

“The legacy of Rosa Parks and Dr. King and the city of Montgomery lives on today, and this particular place, this race, this moment, could really play a decisive role in which party has control of the United States House. Representatives,” Jeffries said. “Following this general election, we as democrats want to move the country forward. We know there are extremists who want to turn back the clock.”

Speakers at Thursday’s news conference noted several times that Jeffries could be elected Speaker of the House if Democrats win control. The figures even referred to him as Speaker Jeffries.

Sewell noted the urgency for Democratic voters to seize the opportunity to capture the 2nd District, which Republicans held for 14 years under the old map.

“It’s a place of opportunity,” Sewell said. “But we have to win this place. And so, five days before the most important election of our lifetimes, I want to thank Leader Jeffries for being right here in Montgomery. Because he knows that from this perch we really encourage the rest of this nation to remember to get into good trouble. That John Lewis and those foot soldiers and Rosa Parks and those amazing people of the civil rights and voting rights movement, marched, prayed, some died, for the right, the equal right of all Americans to vote. But we have to vote.”

The redrawn 2nd District encompasses all or part of 13 counties, stretching from the Georgia line to the Mississippi line and including all of Montgomery and most of Mobile. Figures said he worked to reach voters in rural areas as well as in major population centers and noted issues affecting smaller counties, such as hospital closures.

“We just got back from Phenix City last night,” Figures said. “I got out of Monroe County a few days ago. So we keep going across the district because every county in this district counts. When you look at the vote distribution in this district, it’s about one-third, one-third, one-third. About a third in Mobile, a third in Montgomery and a third in the other 11 counties. But it all counts.”