Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry's pick of Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina as his running mate is a bold attempt on his part to claim the South, a region where the party did not win a single state in 2000. Why shouldn't he try?
African-Americans are the nation's most loyal Democrats: 92% voted for Al Gore in the 2000 presidential election. And in many Southern states, the black population is so large — 36% in Mississippi, 28% in Georgia, 32% in Louisiana and 26% in Alabama — that it can still sway the way states vote.
But Southern Republicans often play the race card, polarizing voters along racial lines with their coded rhetoric and Confederate flags. As a result, many white Southerners have fled the Democratic Party: 66% of them voted for George W. Bush in 2000. Edwards might be the candidate who turns this trend around. [...]
| Continue syndicated columnist Julianne Malveaux's USA Today essay "Veep pick signals a fight for the South"
posted in articles on July 9, 2004 12:20 AM | t (0)
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