Vivian Davis Figures

Vivian Davis Figures (born January 24, 1957) is an American politician who is a Democratic member of the Alabama Senate, representing the 33rd District in Mobile County since she was elected on January 28, 1997 to serve the remaining term of her late husband, Senator Michael A. Figures, who was the President Pro Tempore of the Senate. She was re-elected without opposition in 1998 and 2002.

Figures graduated from Williamson High School in Mobile, and received her bachelor of science degree in Management Science from the University of New Haven in Connecticut. She put herself through college by working at Yale University, and in a family owned grocery. She was attending Jones School of Law in Montgomery when her husband's death forced her to discontinue her legal education. Figures has three sons. Her youngest, Jelani, is on a basketball scholarship at Morehouse College.

Figures is President/CEO of Figures Legacy Education Foundation and serves on the Board of Directors of the Mobile Area Education Foundation. She is a past at-large member of the Democratic National Committee. She was initiated in the Delta Theta Omega Chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in 2002.

Before her service in the Alabama Senate, Figures was a member of the Mobile City Council. In that capacity, she was known as a staunch community advocate. Early in her council career, she led the opposition to a proposed facility for burning petroleum-contaminated oil near downtown Mobile. As a council member, Figures was also the initial proponent of naming Mobile's new minor league baseball park for home run legend Hank Aaron, a Mobile native. In Figures's 2008 U.S. Senate race, Aaron campaigned for Figures and hosted fundraisers in several Alabama cities.

In the Alabama Senate, Figures serves as the chairwoman of the Education and Mobile County Local Legislation Committees. In the legislature, Figures may be best known as the perennial sponsor of a bill to ban smoking in indoor, public places statewide in Alabama. In the 2008 general session, the bill passed the Senate, was believed to have sufficient support to pass the House, and Governor Bob Riley had indicated he would sign it. The bill died when legislative filibusters prevented a final vote in the House. Figures was also instrumental in the passage of economic incentives that were critical in the location of a Thyssen-Krupp steel plant near Mobile.

Figures was the Democratic nominee for the United States Senate seat currently held by Republican Jeff Sessions in the 2008 election, after winning the June 2008 Democratic primary with 64% of the vote. An August 28, 2007 poll showed Sessions defeating Figures 59% to 37%. A May 27, 2008 Rasmussen poll showed Sessions winning 62% to 29%. A Rasmussen poll taken a month later indicated that Figures had closed the gap by several percent, to a 58% to 34% margin. According to finance reports filed just prior to the June primaries, Sessions had raised $5.5 million over the last six years, compared to $199,000 Figures had raised since beginning her campaign. On November 4, she was defeated by Sessions with 37% of the vote to Sessions' 63%.