Alabama congressional candidate Shomari Figures said he will not forget that his chance to stand on the national political stage Thursday night happened because of the work of the civil rights pioneers from what is now the state’s new 2nd District.

Figures said he is humbled and grateful for the chance to speak to at the Democratic National Convention on the night Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to accept the Democratic nomination for president.

“I don’t know when the last time we’ve had anybody from this district, Mobile, Montgomery, what is now this district, if ever, speaking at the national convention,” Figures said. “And so, this is not me that’s going up there. This is the legacies of everything that has come through this district. We’re talking from the Tuskegee Airmen, to John Lewis, to Rosa Parks, to the Montgomery Bus Boycott, to Fred Gray. This is about so much more than just me.

“So when we take that stage, I will certainly be taking it with all 13 counties that are in this district. And I will certainly be standing on the shoulders of the giants that helped create the greatest movement and the greatest social movement that the world has ever seen. That ultimately is the reason we got this district in the first place.”

Figures, 39, a Mobile native who worked in the Obama administration and in the Justice Department under President Biden, faces Republican nominee Caroleene Dobson in the Nov. 5 election in Alabama’s redrawn District 2.

Dobson grew up in Monroe County in the south part of the district and is an attorney in Montgomery. Both are first time-candidates.

A federal court redrew District 2 after ruling that Alabama’s previous congressional map most likely violated the Voting Rights Act because it packed too many Black voters into one majority Black district, District 7. The new District 2 takes in all or part of 13 counties from Phenix City to Mobile. It’s about 50% Black, giving Democrats a chance to flip the seat and add a second Democrat to the state’s seven-member U.S. House delegation.

The National Republican Congressional Committee is also making the Alabama race a priority and named Dobson as one of 26 Republicans added to the “Young Gun” list, a program that provides mentorship and support for Republican candidates for Congress.

The presidential race has been a topic in the District 2 race in Alabama. Figures said he believes the party’s unification behind Harris after Biden’s withdrawal will help his congressional campaign.

“I think her being at the top of the ticket in this district, which is the birthplace of the civil rights movement, it means a lot when you look at the role that Black women played in the civil rights movement, when you look at the role that people like Rosa Parks and others played in getting us the sort of civil rights reforms that were necessary,” Figures said.

Figures said a strong contingent of voters in the district will identify with Harris’ affiliation with the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, one of the Black Greek organizations known as the Divine Nine who could be influential in voter outreach.

“Having a Black Greek woman at the top of the ticket resonates here where we have an enormous Black Greek population in the state of Alabama,” Figures said. “I think having a woman in general at the top of the ticket helps immensely in this district and across the country.”

Drew Dickson, spokesman for the Dobson campaign, issued a statement in response to the announcement that Figures is speaking at the DNC.

“It makes sense for Shomari Figures to speak at the DNC since he embraces the Biden/Harris policies that have led to runaway inflation, sticker shock in the grocery aisles and gas pumps, open borders, and crime and violence in our towns, streets, and neighborhoods,” Dickson said. “No amount of talking can explain away those disasters that have hurt Alabama families and their wallets.”

Figures said he is still working on his speech for Thursday night. He said he intends to focus on issues that are important in the district.

“There’s too much rhetoric in this nation, too much fear mongering in this nation,” Figures said. “And that’s never been what our campaign has been about. We want to talk about the vision that we have for the future, the vision that we have for this state, the vision that we have for this district. And that’s what we’re going to stick to.”

Figures’ mother, Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, has represented Mobile in the Alabama Senate since 1997. She is one of Alabama’s delegates at this week’s convention.

His father, Michael Figures, served 18 years in the same Alabama Senate senate before his death in 1996, when Shomari Figures was 11.

Figures said he wishes his father could be in Chicago to hear his speech and is grateful his mother will be there.

“This moment is not possible without my mother,” Figures said. “It’s not possible without what she has done, not just in picking up that torch politically but in raising me and raising my brothers and being the example of public service in our community and in our state.

“I’m happier for her than I am for me because she certainly produced the guy that will take the stage on Thursday night.”