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 
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