Alabama Republicans delayed four of the state’s congressional primaries in the spring and scrambled to implement district lines that favored conservatives in an effort to oust Representative Shomari Figures, a Democrat.
On Tuesday, Mr. Figures won re-election anyway, The Associated Press said, defeating Rhett Marques, a Republican state representative backed by President Trump.
Mr. Figures won the Second Congressional District in 2024, after a federal court said Alabama had illegally diluted the power of Black voters through gerrymandering.
When he joined Representative Terri Sewell, a Democrat, in Washington, it was the first time the state had two Black representatives in Congress at the same time in Congress.
But earlier this year, the Supreme Court effectively gave Republican lawmakers the opportunity take back the district, with a ruling that said another Southern state, Louisiana, had illegally considered race when drawing its congressional maps.
That opened the possibility for Alabama to return to a map that the federal court had thrown out under the Voting Rights Act. The Supreme Court allowed that Alabama map to take effect.
Mr. Figures was seen as the more vulnerable of the two Democrats, and Republicans redrew his district to combine the city of Montgomery, which has a majority of Black residents, with parts of a more conservative, whiter region in the district, replacing rural counties known as the Black Belt.
Mr. Marques campaigned on his alignment with President Trump and the core issues of the Republican Party. But Mr. Figures had some recognition from his two years in the House, and worked to highlight federal funds that he had directed toward the state.
He also tapped into backlash among Black voters over the new district lines, as well as frustration with Trump policies, including cuts to health care and food assistance programs.
The post Alabama Democrat Holds House Seat Despite Republican Redistricting appeared first on New York Times.
