With days left before Tuesday's general election, Caroleene Dobson, the Republican candidate for Alabama's newly redrawn second congressional district, is making her final push to win the seat in the tightly contested race.
Tuesday's election will provide little surprise in how the majority of the state will vote in the presidential election. However, the second congressional district race between Dobson and former Obama staffer Shomari Figures remains a question mark down to the wire.
Last year, the federal courts mandated a rewrite of the state's congressional lines. The resulting electoral shuffle led to incumbent AL-2 U.S. Rep. Barry Moore (R-Enterprise) vying for the first congressional seat, snatching the GOP nomination from incumbent U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl (R-Mobile) in the GOP runoff.
In a recent appearance on Talk 93.1, "News and Views," with Joey Clark, Dobson reiterated why she believes she remains the best choice to represent the district.
"My closing message is the same as my opening message: I'm running to fight for Alabama families," Dobson said. "I want a better life for every single family in this district, and we deserve that. We deserve representation that's going to fight for us in Washington, D.C. We need safer communities. We need more opportunities. We need secure borders. And the person who's going to deliver that is not my opponent who helped put in place policies that have squandered economic opportunities, that have thrown open our borders, subjected our young people to fentanyl overdose and the fentanyl epidemic, and have made our communities less safe through clemency initiatives like my opponent put in place that released 1,500 criminals into our communities, many of which have been re-arrested for drug and murder charges."
She continued, "There's a clear choice: one of us who's raising their family here in Alabama who's going to fight for our needs and concerns and opportunities, and one who's going to fight to maintain the status quo in Washington, which is frankly the last thing that we need [and] the last thing this country needs is more of the same."
During the interview, Dobson made several references to Figures' alleged lack of time spent in the state and the district, claiming his home, family and allegiances lie in D.C.
"In this case, my opponent came down to the district two days before the filing deadline to run for this seat, and win or lose, on November 6, he's going back to Washington D.C. Because that's his home."
"So much of this district is made up of rural communities and small towns, and you're never going to be able to understand what those needs are, what the experience of life is there unless you spend time. People are not going to independently know how to access you as their congressperson unless you take the time to make the outreach first, and that's been my goal in this race. For someone who lives in D.C. like my opponent and maybe spends a week down in this district, the majority of the time is going to be spent in Montgomery [and] Mobile. And the result is, whether you're Democrat, Republican, black, white, wherever your zip code is in between Montgomery, Mobile, you're not going to be represented in Washington with Shomari Figures.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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