Politician
American politician (born 1985)
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Shomari Coleman Figures is an American politician and attorney serving as the U.S. representative from Alabama's 2nd congressional district since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Figures was first elected in 2024.
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Shomari Coleman Figures (born September 3, 1985) is an American politician and attorney serving as the U.S. representative from Alabama's 2nd congressional district since 2025. A member of the Democratic Party, Figures was first elected in 2024.
Shomari Coleman Figures was born in Mobile, Alabama, on September 3, 1985. Figures is the son of 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, Michael, was lynched by members of the United Klans of America. Donald was awarded $7 million dollars, which bankrupted the organization.
Figures was raised in Mobile, where he attended Council Elementary School and Phillips Middle School before graduating from LeFlore Magnet High School. 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.
After law school, Figures served as a law clerk for Nannette A. Baker of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri. He next worked for Barack Obama's 2012 reelection campaign as a field organizer in Akron, Ohio. He subsequently served as domestic director of the White House Presidential Personnel Office in the Obama administration before becoming the White House liaison to Loretta Lynch, the attorney general of the United States. Figures later became legislative counsel for U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown (OH) and worked on the presidential transition of Joe Biden. He subsequently served as deputy chief of staff and counselor to Attorney General Merrick Garland until resigning in October 2023.
Following Allen v. Milligan, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama's previous map violated the Voting Rights Act, because it dispersed the Black population, preventing voters from electing their choice of representative. To reflect the demograhics of the state, the Court ordered Alabama to redraw its congressional maps to have an additional Black district. Alabama's 2nd congressional district was redrawn to reflect a contiguous Black majority.
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. 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. 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".
Figures defeated Daniels with 61% of the vote in the April runoff election. Figures spoke at the 2024 Democratic National Convention. He defeated Republican Caroleene Dobson to win election to Congress and was sworn into office on January 3, 2025. Upon taking office on January 3, 2025; Figures became the first Democrat since 1963 to represent a significant portion of Mobile, and only the fourth since then to represent a significant portion of Montgomery.
In 2025, Figures introduced the bipartisan Rural Hospital Stabilization Act, which would provide federal grants to support rural hospitals. He also co-introduced the Bridge to Medicaid Act with Representative Terri Sewell, legislation that would provide temporary health care subsidies for individuals in the Medicaid coverage gap in states that have not expanded Medicaid. He later co-introduced that year the bipartisan Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements (SCORE) Act, which would establish a federal framework governing college athletes' compensation from their name, image, and likeness.
In 2026, Figures introduced the Affordable Youth Enrichment Opportunities Act, legislation that would create a federal tax deduction for eligible parents' out-of-pocket expenses for children's extracurricular activities, including sports, arts programs, and academic enrichment activities. Later that year, he introduced the Tuskegee Airmen Memorial Act, legislation that would authorize the construction of a memorial in Washington, D.C., honoring the Tuskegee Airmen, with funding provided by the Tuskegee Airmen Inc. rather than federal funds. The bill received bipartisan support from the other members of Alabama's congressional delegation, who joined as cosponsors.
For the 119th Congress:
Committee on Agriculture
Subcommittee on Commodity Markets, Digital Assets, and Rural Development
Subcommittee on Nutrition and Foreign Agriculture (vice ranking member)
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure
Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings and Emergency Management
Subcommittee on Highways and Transit (vice ranking member)
Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment
Davis's caucus memberships include:
Future Forum
New Democrat Coalition (Transportation Task Force, chair)
Congressional Black Caucus
Congressional Trucking Caucus (co-chair)
On December 9, 2025, Figures voted in favor of the Secure Rural Schools Reauthorization Act of 2025. The act passed overwhelmingly in the chamber, passing in a vote of 399–5. The act extends federal payments to rural counties to support schools, roads, and local services.
Figures supports expanding Medicaid in Alabama and has advocated federal assistance for rural hospitals, arguing that access to local hospitals is important for both health care and economic development.
Figures met Kalisha Dessources in 2014 while they both worked at the White House. They married on December 2, 2018, and have three children. They live in Mobile, Alabama. He is a Protestant.
