Politico Racial politics in Miss. special election
In the run-up to today’s hotly-contested special election in Mississippi’s First District, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has targeted the African-American community with several fliers accusing the Republican party and its nominee, Greg Davis, of racial insensitivity.
The latest direct mail piece accuses Davis, the mayor of the Memphis suburb of Southaven, of attempting to honor Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan founder Nathan Bedford Forrest with a statue of him in his hometown -- a charge that the Davis campaign vigorously disputes.
And on Sunday, Democratic officials distributed DCCC fliers at African-American churches in the district that accuse Republicans of making it “harder for us to vote – fake phone calls, calls with the wrong election date, uniformed guards at the polls, even people inside the polls challenging each and every vote.”
Democrats also need healthy turnout among the district’s sizable African-American population to win the district. African-Americans comprise over 25 percent of the district, but often don’t turnout in significant numbers.