MSNBC’s Joy Reid: Alabama’s newest Congressman among ‘biggest stars’ of freshman class

Alabama's newest Congressman-elect was praised by MSNBC's Joy Reid Thursday who, at the end of her show called Shomari Figures likely to be one of the "big stars" of the freshman class in 2025.

Figures, 39, a Mobile Democrat, was elected on Tuesday to serve the 2nd congressional district by defeating Republican Caroleene Dobson . He won a seat redefined last year through court-ordered redistricting and flipping a congressional seat that had been in Republican hands for the past 14 years.

Figures was interviewed by Reid during her nightly "Reid Out" show.

He touched on a couple issues, including raising concerns about hospital closures that have occurred throughout rural Alabama over the past couple of years. Figures made health care and rural hospital closures a top policy concern during the campaign.

The Figures win is c rucial to the Democratic Party's hopes to flip the U.S. House . Going into the election, the House was at a razor-thin Republican majority of four seats.

As of Thursday night, there were 26 seats that still needed to be called, according to The Associated Press . Republicans held onto a 210-199 advantage, with 218 seats needed to claim the majority.

The Figures win was also historic for Alabama.

For the first time, the Figures win coupled with Birmingham Democrat U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell's victory in the 7th district, means Alabama - for the first time since at least Reconstruction - will have two Black members of Congress serving at the same time.

Figures is the first Black person to be elected to Congress from Alabama outside the 7th district. About 27% of Alabama residents are Black, according to census data reported last year.

Figures is also the first Black man elected to Congress from Mobile.

The district, once reliably red, was redrawn by three federal judges last October after the U.S. Supreme Court, in a shocking 5-4 decision in Allen v. Milligan, agreed with a lower court's determination that Alabama should have at least another congressional district in which Black voters were a majority or were close to it.

The Supreme Court's verdict also suggested that Alabama Republicans violated the Voting Rights of Act 1965 when they approved the original congressional map.

In short, the Supreme Court agreed that Alabama's Legislature had diluted the influence of Black voters when drawing congressional lines, tossing the final decision for the congressional lines to the three-judge panel.

The congressional map was redrawn to give Black voters an opportunity to elect a candidate of their choosing within the 2nd district.

According to the latest Associated Press figures, 56 U.S. House seats remain undecided on Wednesday. Republicans hold a 199-180 advantage . It takes 218 seats to claim a House majority. Republicans entered Tuesday's election with a four-seat advantage.