| Shomari Figures | |
| Birth Place: | Mobile, Alabama, U.S. |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Relatives: | Michael Figures (father) Vivian Davis Figures (mother) Thomas Figures (uncle) |
| Education: | University of Alabama (BA, JD) |
Shomari Coleman Figures (born 1985/1986)[1] is an American politician from Mobile, Alabama. Figures is the Democratic Party nominee for the United States House of Representatives in Alabama's 2nd congressional district in the 2024 election.
Figures is the son of the late Michael Figures, a civil rights attorney and member of the Alabama Senate, and Vivian Davis Figures, who succeeded her husband in the Alabama Senate after his death. His father was the attorney of Beulah Mae Donald whose son was lynched by Klan Members of the United Klans of America. She was awarded $7 million dollars which made United Klans of America bankrupt.[2] [3]
Figures graduated from LeFlore Magnet High School in Mobile, Alabama.[4] He attended the University of Alabama and earned a Bachelor of Arts in criminal justice and history in 2006 and the University of Alabama School of Law, earning a Juris Doctor in 2010.[5]
After law school, Figures served as a law clerk for Nannette A. Baker in the Eastern District of Missouri.[4] He worked for Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign as a field organizer in Akron, Ohio.[6] [7] He then worked in the Obama administration as the domestic director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office. He then served as the White House liaison to Loretta Lynch, the attorney general of the United States.[8] Figures became legislative counsel for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown and then worked on the presidential transition of Joe Biden.[9] Figures served as deputy chief of staff for Merrick Garland while he was attorney general until resigning in October 2023.[4]
Following Allen v. Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama's previous map violated the Voting Rights Amendment, the Court ordered Alabama to redraw it's congressional maps to have an extra black district which made majority black.[10]
In November 2023, Figures declared his candidacy to represent Alabama's 2nd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives in the 2024 elections.[11] In the Democratic primary, he led the 11-candidate field with 44% of the vote and advanced to a mid-April runoff election against Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels.[12] [13] In the primary race, cryptocurrency political action committees spent millions to elect him and months after the primary, Figures asked the Democratic National Committee to adopt more pro-crypto policies in addition to encouraging Kamala Harris to select a "pro-innovation' Securities and Exchange Commission chair and a vice presidential candidate "sophisticated in digital asset policy".[14]
Figures defeated Daniels with 61% of the vote in the April runoff election.[15] Figures is scheduled to speak at the 2024 Democratic National Convention.[16]
Figures met Kalisha Dessources in 2014 while they both worked at the White House. They married on December 2, 2018, in East Brunswick, New Jersey,[17] and have three children.[4]