So much for the African Americans will vote for the African American meme.
Nikki Tinker, the Democratic attorney who based her primary challenge to first-term Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) almost entirely on appeals to race and religion, has gone down to an ignominious defeat.
Cohen won a divided primary for this safe seat in 2006, becoming the only white Congressman to represent a majority-minority district in the South. Tinker, who also ran in that primary, based her challenge this time around on direct arguments that the state’s African-Americans should have a seat in Congress, and also aired a particularly nasty ad attacking the Jewish incumbent Cohen for visiting “our churches.”
79% to 19% sends a pretty strong message.