While Nobody Was Running Against Him, He Banked $662,600

Wall of Shame — Today: Outokumpu

Today on the Wall of Shame: the Outokumpu Stainless USA PAC (Calvert) put $1,000 into Rep. Shomari Figures' campaign account — FEC records, December 2025. The Wall of Shame exists for one reason — so that total stops growing. https://take2back.com/wall-of-shame.html

WHILE NOBODY WAS RUNNING AGAINST HIM, HE BANKED $662,600

Every campaign in this district filed its closing financial report on Thursday. The reports cover July 1 through July 22 and they are the last full accounting anybody gets before the August 11 primary.

Here is Shomari Figures's line. He raised $58,868 in those three weeks. He spent $50,941. He finished with $662,600 in the bank.

He did not gain that money by winning anything. No Democrat qualified against him. He is not on the ballot on August 11. He has spent this entire summer with no opponent, no primary, no contest of any kind — and his balance went up.

WHAT WE ARE NOT GOING TO PRETEND

Two things, stated up front, because we would rather say them ourselves than have somebody else say them for us.

The first is that having no primary opponent is not a scandal and it is not something he did. Nobody filed against him. That is a fact about his party in this district, not a fact about him.

The second is that incumbents raise money. All of them do. A member of Congress sitting on a large balance in July of an election year is the most ordinary thing in American politics. If that were the whole story we would not be writing about it.

It is not the whole story. The number is not interesting because it is large. It is interesting because of what it is for, and when it gets used.

THAT MONEY IS NOT FOR AUGUST. IT IS FOR YOU, IN OCTOBER.

Figures has no race in eleven days. Every dollar of that $662,600 is being held for the general election in November — for television in the Montgomery and Dothan markets, for mail into these thirteen counties, for the fall campaign against whichever Republican survives August 11.

Now look at the other side of the ledger. Six Republicans are spending their money right now, and they are spending it against each other. That is what a contested primary is and there is nothing wrong with it. But on the morning of August 12, the Republican nominee walks out of that primary having spent most of what he had — and the man he has to beat has been sitting on two-thirds of a million dollars since spring, untouched.

That is the actual shape of this race, and it is worth understanding eleven days out rather than in October when the ads start.

WASHINGTON ALREADY DECIDED THIS SEAT IS WORTH IT

The national Democratic campaign committee added this seat to its protected list this cycle, and its chair said the majority depends on holding seats like this one. Outside groups have now reported spending well over $950,000 in this district — better than eight to one on the Republican side, but the Democratic money is here too, including a single $100,000 expenditure from a group called the Rolling Sea Action Fund.

People who spend money for a living do not spend it on sentiment. They have looked at this district and concluded it is genuinely in play. They are right. Trump carried it by fourteen points under these lines. It is rated likely Republican and it is one of the seats the national party is targeting to flip.

A seat that is winnable is not a seat that is won.

HIS VOTING RECORD IS FINISHED

Briefly, because we documented this at length last week and it has not changed.

The House is in a district work period. Roll call 283, taken July 23, is still the last recorded vote the Clerk has posted — we checked again this morning. Shomari Figures will not cast another vote before this primary, and probably not before much of the fall.

The record he takes into November is complete. It is documented, with roll call numbers, vote counts, and the Republican riders that Democrats cited as their reasons stated openly rather than buried, in the archive at take2back.com.

ELEVEN DAYS

The registration list closed Monday. The absentee application deadline is Tuesday, August 4 — received in your county Absentee Election Manager's office, not postmarked. Thursday, August 6 if you hand-deliver it.

Turnout in this primary is expected to come in under thirty thousand votes across thirteen counties. There is no runoff. The winner is whoever finishes first.

He has $662,600 and eleven quiet days. We have a primary to finish and a nominee to pick. On August 12 this becomes one race, and the money on the other side has a three-month head start.

Show up on the eleventh.