Tennessee Democrats blame racism for historic election losses

When voters consign political parties to minority status, circular firing squads usually follow. But Tennessee Democratic leaders and campaign operatives aren't blaming each other for the party's stunning losses in last week's legislative elections. They're blaming racism.

Barack Obama changed the political map with the biggest Democratic victory since LBJ, but the election made a different kind of history in the alternate universe known as Tennessee. John McCain not only won the state by 15 points, he took some rural counties by 40 points or more, and those mind-boggling margins poured down the ballot to give Republicans majorities in both houses of the legislature for the first time in 140 years.

"I really think racism is what it was," one Democratic insider tells the Scene. "Obama just got killed in a lot of these rural counties. It seems pretty obvious that a lot of these people came out to vote against the black guy, and while they were at it, they voted for Republicans on down the ballot."

The winds of change were blowing across America on Election Day. In Tennessee, the breeze of stagnation was the best Democrats could hope for.

No one expected Obama to win the state or even come close. From the start, he put Democratic legislative candidates in a tight fix by ignoring Tennessee. Still, Democrats were counting on Obama doing at least as well as John Kerry four years ago. That would have been good enough to stop down-ballot Republicans from piggybacking to victories in the legislature.

Yet Democrats were taken aback by the enormity of Obama's defeat, which dwarfed Kerry's in rural areas where the party narrowly lost legislative seats.

Rural white voters rejected Obama's candidacy so resoundingly that the color of his skin is the only logical explanation, according to these Democrats. (Naturally, they all requested anonymity.)

They say the state GOP cynically fueled "the Obama fear factor" with Internet ads and press releases tarring him as a kind of Muslim Manchurian candidate.

"The Republican Party was very aggressive about letting people know all the smears about Obama, and their strategy was obviously to drive up the Obama fear factor and hope that it moved down the ticket," one says.

"I do think race played a role in it," adds another. "Particularly in some of the rural areas, an African American running is difficult."

Even Republicans admit they were surprised by the severity of McCain's win. Republicans captured eight legislative seats in 27 mostly rural counties where McCain beat Obama by 32 points. President Bush won those same counties over Kerry by 24 points in 2004. McCain won one six-county Senate district in northeastern Tennessee by 43 points.

A comparison with votes for Kerry is eyebrow-raising to be sure. As a wind-surfing Massachusetts liberal, he wasn't exactly a popular guy here. He came to Tennessee only once in 2004, and that was for a midnight airport rally near the end of the campaign. Yet he still managed to win 18 counties.

Obama, meanwhile, won six. He was walloped even in the yellow-dog Democrat counties of the Cumberland Plateau that Kerry won. Consider these four counties:

Clay: Kerry 50%, Obama 42%

Overton: Kerry 53%, Obama 42%

Smith: Kerry 52%, Obama 39%

Trousdale: Kerry 58% Obama 46%

Obama took nearby Jackson County, but only narrowly, with 50 percent of the vote. Kerry won 59 percent there. Jackson County Mayor Charlie Hix thinks Obama's race mattered.

"In Jackson, it used to be two-thirds would vote Democrat," Hix says. "We've had some new people move in and that's part of where the Republicans come in. And then some didn't want to vote for a black."

Exit polls seem to bear out this thesis. Twenty-seven percent of Tennesseans admitted race was a factor in how they voted, with 16 percent calling it important. Nationally, 19 percent said they considered race and only 9 percent called it important.

But if literally tens of thousands of rural white Tennesseans are so racist they won't vote for a black candidate—even if he is making the rest of the country go ga-ga—then how do you explain Harold Ford Jr.'s much-better showing in the 2006 Senate race? He far outperformed Obama in Jackson (64 percent to Obama's 50), Clay (57 to 42), Overton (59 to 42), Smith (57 to 39) and Trousdale (64 to 46).

It's simple, Democrats say. Ford campaigned here really hard. Tennesseans might be racist, but not so racist that they won't vote for an African American who asks nicely. (Now there's a silver lining!) Plus, Ford ran like a Republican, while Obama has a funny name.

"Junior was everywhere," one Democrat explains. "He talked about his guns and his God. He became one of the Bubbas because he was with them so much. It's hard to hate someone you know. Obama was unknown."

Racism aside, Tennessee Democrats make a compelling argument when they complain about the inherent difficulty of presidential years. In the past two White House races, the Democratic candidate has made a grand total of two visits to Tennessee. Obama only came because the debate commission chose Belmont University as a site.

GOP chair Robin Smith credits McCain's election eve trip to the Tri-Cities with goosing turnout enough to put at least three Republican legislative candidates over the top. McCain went there only because the airport is closest to southwest Virginia, where he needed to campaign. Just the same, it underscores the importance in state elections of even a single, accidental visit by a presidential candidate.