U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York came to Montgomery on Thursday to campaign for Shomari Figures in Alabama’s pivotal 2nd Congressional District, a potential flip 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 on Montgomery’s historic Court Square, next to the statue of Rosa Parks.

Read more: ‘Racial dog whistle,’ ‘Fearmongering’: Mailers inflame Alabama congressional race

Jeffries said Republicans have no record of accomplishment to help average people and said they have resorted to “voter suppression” efforts, a characterization Democrats have used for initiatives that Republicans said are to efforts to check voting rolls to make sure noncitizens do not vote.

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

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

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

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

“When you talk about pushing people off of voting rolls, like literally weeks and days before an election, that’s literally an effort to dissuade people from going to the polls to even cast a ballot,” Figures said.

He said there are already safeguards in place to discount invalid votes.

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

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

“We are shaking every hand, asking for every vote, and encouraging 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 the comments of Jeffries and Figures on voter suppression, said he stood by a statement he gave Wednesday in support of the Virginia initiative.

Read more: Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen: Supreme Court’s Virginia voter purge ruling a victory for the Constitution

The stakes are high in the 2nd District race.

Figures would be the second Democrat and second Black member of Alabama’s congressional delegation, joining Sewell. A win by Figures could also help Democrats claim a majority in the U.S. House, where Republicans hold a slim 220-212 edge.

Jeffries’ trip to Montgomery followed a visit by U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas, who on Sunday participated in a round table at a Baptist church and then later met with students at Alabama State University.

Jeffries acknowledged Alabama’s central roles 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 to this very day and this particular seat, this race, this moment, could really play a decisive role in which party is in control of the United States House of Representatives,” Jeffries said. “In the aftermath of this general election, we as Democrats, want to move the country forward. We know that there are extremists who want to turn back the clock.”

The speakers at Thursday’s press conference noted several times that Jeffries could be elected House Speaker if Democrats gain control. Figures even referred to him as Speaker Jeffries.

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

“It is an opportunity seat,” Sewell said. “But we have to win this seat. And so five days before the most consequential election of our lifetime, I want to thank Leader Jeffries for being right here in Montgomery. Because he knows that from this perch we are really encouraging 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 the voting rights movement, they marched, they prayed, some died, for the right, the equal right of all Americans to vote. But we have to vote.”

The redrawn 2nd District takes in all or part of 13 counties, stretching from the Georgia line to the Mississippi line and includes all of Montgomery and most of Mobile. Figures said he has worked to reach voters in the rural areas as well as the main population centers and noted problems affecting the smaller counties, like hospitals closing.

“We just got back from Phenix City last night,” Figures said. “We came out of Monroe County a few days ago. So we’re continuing to get across the district because every county in this district matters. When you look at the vote distribution of this district, it’s roughly about a third, a third, a third. About a third in Mobile, a third in Montgomery, and a third across the other 11 counties. But they all matter.”