Alexander’s Capture Of The Black Vote

By Kleinheider Posted on November 14, 2008 at 11:03 am

The New York Times makes note:

“What people were listening for in this election is, what are you going to do about my pocketbook, my health insurance, my electric bill,” said Mr. Alexander, a former governor and presidential candidate who is seeking to return as the No. 3 Republican in the Senate. “We need to step back and fundamentally change the way we talk about issues and be focused more on what we can do to help the country rather than what we can do to help the Republican Party.”

While colleagues like Senator Elizabeth Dole of North Carolina were coming out on the losing end in part because of a strong African-American vote for their opponents, Mr. Alexander, who had a record of appointing blacks to government and education positions, was able to win about 26 percent of the black vote.

Now Jeff Woods can downplay this if he likes but Lamar Alexander’ ability to ciphon off this percentage of the black vote in this political climate with a black man atop the Democratic ticket and his former Tennessee political director running against him is an impressive achievement.

Woods is correct that Tuke did not mount much of a campaign but because of that Alexander could have just sat back back and coasted to reelection. Instead, he took the opportunity to take the GOP brand to the black community and create a lot of Obama/Alexander split tickets.

It’s something deserving of at least grudging political respect, if not outright kudos.

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Tags: African American vote, Barack Obama, black, Bob Tuke, Lamar Alexander, Memphis