Figures, Dobson advance in Alabama's runoffs for new House district

Voters in Alabama's new congressional district chose their party's nominees Tuesday in a race that could ultimately tip the balance of power in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Shomari Figures, former deputy chief of staff for Attorney General Merrick Garland defeated Alabama House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels in the Democratic primary, according to a race call by The Associated Press.

Figures thanked his supporters at a speech on Tuesday night and said that he would employ "old school" campaigning techniques like knocking on doors between now and November in order to gain support.

"I'm enormously grateful for the confidence and the trust and the faith that the voters of this newly drawn District 2 have placed in me to represent the Democratic party in November," Figures said. "That is something that I do not take lightly, something that I will take with me every single day to make sure that we're giving everybody in this district a seat at the table, a voice in the conversation."

In the Republican primary, Montgomery attorney Caroleene Dobson emerged as the winner in the race against former Alabama state Sen. Dick Brewbaker, also according to a call by The Associated Press.

Dobson reached out to rural voters in the district saying she understood their concerns growing up on a cattle farm that her family has lived on for five generations.

"Making it as a farmer isn't easy," she said in a recent campaign ad. "It takes faith, grit and sacrifice, especially now in Joe Biden's America."

In the ad she attacked the president's immigration policies and blamed him for "skyrocketing" prices.

Tuesday's runoffs came after no candidate in either party, Democratic or Republican, was able to secure enough votes on Super