Residency remains an early crucial issue as candidates in the crowded Alabama 2nd congressional district race continue to make an appeal to voters while telling their own personal stories.

Hometown concerns were highlighted, especially by the candidates who live in Mobile County, during a two-hour forum at Prichard’s Sunlight Auditorium. The gathering occurred 56 days ahead of the March 5 primary. Ten Black candidates – eight Democrats, and two Republicans – participated.

In all, there are 18 candidates – seven Republicans and 11 Democrats – running in the primary races. Several others have dropped out.

The forum arrived as the race remains jumbled, with a whopping 47% of Democratic voters polled by the SPLC Action Fund late last month as undecided.

The polling did show an early leader in state Rep. Napoleon Bracy of Prichard, whose 15% support puts him slightly ahead of the rest of the field.

“You know my family, you know who we are and what we stand for,” Bracy said, repeating concerns he has in Prichard that include escalating water bills and violent crime.

“I can’t think of one single person who have created more jobs and employment opportunities the citizens of Mobile County as I have over the last 10 years,” Bracy said. “I’ve supported every school in our area. I’ve created pipelines for employment for our schools.”

Mobile allegiance

Allegiance to Mobile County was also brought up by several other candidates including Shomari Figures, an ex-aide to former President Barack Obama and U.S. Department of Justice official.

Figures, who moved back to Mobile County to run in the race, discussed his roots in Mobile by citing his mother – state Senator Vivian Figures of Mobile, and his late father, Senator Michael Figures – for engraining in him “the importance and necessity of service.”

“I was born here, I was raised here, and I was educated from here,” said Figures, who polled at 9% in the SPLC Fund’s analysis last month, good enough for second. “This district is home to me.”

The issue of residency is one that is likely to continue through the campaign. The U.S. Constitution says that as long as someone is an Alabama resident for one day – while meeting the Constitution’s age and U.S. citizenship requirements – he or she can run for U.S. House or Senate. There are no strict residency requirements mandating that someone live within the district they are seeking.

“I am here,” said James Averhart, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran from Mobile, and current executive director of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP. “I live in this district. In March, I can vote for myself. I don’t have to put stuff on Facebook to show what I’m doing.”

The congressional district race has drawn multiple candidates who do not live within the new district’s boundaries after a three-judge panel OK’d a new congressional map for Alabama. The result created a new 2nd district that leans Democratic, and one in which current 2nd District Rep. Barry Moore, a Republican of Enterprise, has opted to run for the more right-leaning 1st congressional district seat held by U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl of Mobile.

State lawmakers

Some of those candidates – State Rep. Juandalynn Givan of Birmingham, Senator Merika Coleman of Birmingham, State Rep. Anthony Daniels of Huntsville and State Rep. Jeremy Gray of Opelika – touted their individual records and skills as elected state lawmakers.

Daniels, the Alabama State House Minority Leader, said he was proud about his efforts in getting the income tax on overtime eliminated in Montgomery. He said he planned on doing something similar on the federal level if elected to Congress.

The new law that was sponsored last spring by Daniels eliminates a 5% state tax on overtime wages.

“The first priority for me going into Congress is to eliminate the income tax on overtime pay at the federal level while at the same incentivize companies those in areas struggling to find employees and pushing and working with them,” Daniels said. “That’s why relationship are important. As a member of Congress, you are dealing with the federal level but (you need) to have relationships on the state level to ensure some of these things are moving … to ensure the policies are reflecting on what needs to happen on the ground.”

His comments came after Givan applauded Daniels for getting the overtime bill approved, but she added that “we need to take it a little further.” She advocated for a universal, and across-the-board minimum wage increase from $7.25 an hour to $15.

“Our minimum wage in this country hasn’t been increased in many years,” Givan said. “We need to make this thing happen. If you pay people, they will work and they will stay in place and they will live better.”

Givan, who calls herself a “tenacious fighter” in the Alabama House, said there are many issues that need to be addressed within the congressional district: health care, jobs, human rights, social justice and criminal justice.

Coleman touted her background in running economic development in Bessemer, and her efforts in sponsoring state legislation that, if adopted, would ensure businesses hire “indigenous people to the district,” and “if you come here you hire people from Congressional District 2 so those dollars can flow ack into the district.”

Coleman, who has been in state office for 22 years, was the only candidate to mention Allen v. Milligan, the federal case that led to a surprising U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that the Alabama Legislature’s congressional map violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and had to be redrawn.

She said one of the plaintiffs in that case touted the work of former U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, a Democratic member of the U.S. House who represented Alabama’s 5th congressional district from 1991-2009.

“In North Alabama, you have a before Bud Cramer and an after Bud Cramer,” she said. “The amount of money he brought home to North Alabama, I want to be able to bring that home to Congressional District 2.”

Gray, whose legislative efforts include lifting Alabama’s ban on yoga in K-12 public schools, said he has been a “consensus builder” within the Statehouse, and one who represents a mix of urban and rural areas within his district – similar to the mix within the 2nd congressional district that includes Mobile and Montgomery, along with a host of small Black Belt counties.

“No one can say they actually have several of the rural areas in their district,” said Gray, a former pro athlete and the current Whip of the Alabama Democratic Caucus.

Former congressional candidates

The forum also featured two Democratic candidates who have run before in congressional races – Averhart and Phyllis Harvey-Hall of Montgomery.

Harvey-Hall, a career educator who twice ran against Moore in 2020 and 2022, said she ran in previous races against Moore despite the difficult political realities of the district reliably Republican.

“If there is a fight to be done, I’ll get into that fight,” said Harvey-Hall. “I am thankful today we have so many people engaged who see this as a chance and an opportunity. For me, it’s been about you and serving you.”

She said took a shot at the state lawmakers running in the race, which drew laughter, by saying that they need to “continue doing what they are doing. There is much work that needs to be done for the state of Alabama.”

Averhart, who won the Democratic primary in District 1 in 2020 but lost to Carl in the general election, said he’s gotten more immersed within Mobile since performing what he said was the best that “any Democrat has run for that seat since 2004.”

GOP hopefuls

Republicans who were at the forum also had their say.

Karla DuPriest, a Mobile resident owner and founder of Chris & Carla Heavenly Ribs, said she would advocate for businesses unique to Alabama, such as the seafood industry. She said that “you can’t get anything done if you’re fighting like cats and dogs.”

Stacey Thomas Shepperson, a math instructor at Bishop State Community College and a business owner from Washington County, also weighed in on the residency issue by saying she chose to make the district her home.

“It’s not for a political position, but for a love of this area,” Shepperson said. “I believe it is important to have a heart for this community, and a sincere desire to see it grow and thrive.”