JACKSON, Miss.
A Republican congressional candidate in a majority-White Mississippi district runs ads trying to tie his Democratic rival with Barack Obama’s former pastor, seen by some as an anti-White firebrand. Democrats distribute fliers accusing the Republican of wanting a statue to honor the founder of the Ku Klux Klan.
The only Black justice on the Wisconsin Supreme Court is defeated after his rival runs an ad with the justice’s picture next to that of a Black convict. A watchdog group calls it a “disgraceful attack.”
In South Carolina, a Republican challenger for the U.S. Senate airs an ad with people stepping over wire fencing and protesters holding “Secure Our Borders” signs. It includes a man and woman saying, “Muchas gracias, Lindsey Graham,” the incumbent Republican.
In the first year a major party is poised to choose a Black nominee for president, American politicians are still appealing to voters’ racial fears, with varying degrees of success.
“Racial fears and racial conflict are certainly not segregated to the South,” said Dr. Michael Dawson, a University of Chicago political scientist who has studied race in politics. “Certainly, I think we see it in most parts of the country.”
Republicans have a long and often successful history of trying to label local Democrats as national Democrats, even when the local candidate disagrees with the national party on some issues.
