Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
E-mail: mailbox@governing.comTwitter: @governing
In a special election, Democrat Wilber Jones easily won the Mississippi House of Representatives' District 82. The Meridian Star's twitter feed has the numbers:
100 percent of precincts reporting - Jones: 1568, Marcy: 816
And the percentages:
That's 65.74 % of the vote for Jones, 34.21 % for Marcy. This count includes all electronic votes but does not include absentee votes.
As I mentioned earlier, the dynamic here was an African-American Republican trying to pull an upset in a Democratic, majority-black district. But, as was true in 2006 for Ken Blackwell (Ohio governor), Lynn Swann (Pennsylvania governor) and Michael Steele (Maryland Senate), running a black candidate didn't win Republicans black votes in big numbers.
If Republicans are ever going to make gains with African-American voters, having African-American candidates is probably a necessary condition -- but clearly not a sufficient one.
Josh Goodman is a former staff writer for GOVERNING..
E-mail: mailbox@governing.com 
GOVERNING Politics is the place for news and analysis on campaigns and elections. If there's a ballot measure in California, a legislative election in Alabama, a mayoral election in Anchorage or a governor's race in Rhode Island, GOVERNING Politics probably is writing about it. We love everything about state and local politics, from polls and campaign ads to policy debates and demographic trends.
Twitter
Facebook
LinkedIn
YouTube
Flickr
RSS
© 2011 e.Republic, Inc. All Rights reserved. |