A congressman seeking to become Alabama’s first black governor lost to a white Democratic primary opponent who had garnered support from the state’s four major black political groups.
Primaries were also held on Tuesday in Mississippi and New Mexico, where Susana Martinez, a prosecutor from southern New Mexico, won the Republican nomination for governor and will face Democrat Diane Denish in a general election race deciding who becomes New Mexico’s first woman governor.
Another Alabama congressman who switched party affiliation last year from Democrat to Republican lost his seat when he was defeated in his district’s Republican primary by a candidate backed by the conservative tea party movement.
In the Alabama governor’s race, Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks won the Democratic primary with 62 percent of the vote to US Representative Artur Davis’ 38 percent, with 96 percent of the precincts reporting,
The state’s traditional civil rights organizations backed Sparks after Davis voted against US President Barack Obama’s federal healthcare overhaul. But Davis, a Harvard lawyer who led Obama’s campaign here in 2008, had endorsements from Representative John Lewis, a civil rights pioneer from Alabama, and Mobile’s first black mayor, Sam Jones.
The chairman of the black Alabama Democratic Conference, Joe Reed, said Davis was hurt by refusing to seek the endorsements of black American groups and by voting against the federal healthcare plan.
Sparks said he went after every vote, and his call for a state lottery to help fund education proved popular with primary voters.
Davis conceded in Birmingham, where he said he would support Sparks in the general election.
Seven Republican candidates for governor were competing in their party’s primary on Tuesday, and the top vote-getters were expected to go to a runoff on July 13.
The healthcare overhaul was also an issue in Alabama’s other big race, where Republican voters in the 5th Congressional district ousted first-term US Representative Parker Griffith, a former Democrat who switched to the Republican Party in December. Madison County Commissioner Mo Brooks won with slightly more than 50 percent of the vote in a three-candidate field. He had tea party support and the backing of local Republican leaders still bitter over losing to Griffith in 2008, when he was still a Democrat.
The north Alabama district traditionally has been Democratic, but has leaned toward Republican in recent years. Four Democrats were competing for their party’s nomination for the seat.
Meanwhile, four-term Alabama Republican US Senator Richard Shelby easily beat his primary challenger, tea party activist N.C. “Clint” Moser.
Shelby was drawing more than 80 percent of the votes in the unofficial count on Tuesday evening. Shelby, 76, is favored to beat Democratic nominee Bill Barnes, a Birmingham lawyer, in the November election.
In New Mexico, the state’s governor’s race will be only the third woman against woman gubernatorial general election matchup in US history.
Martinez, the Dona Ana County district attorney, beat her four Republican opponents with 51 percent of the vote in unofficial returns and 95 percent of precincts reporting. Former state Republican chairman Allen Weh had 27 percent.
The primary produced a political first for New Mexico because neither Democrats nor Republicans had ever selected a woman as their gubernatorial nominee. Denish didn’t have a primary opponent.
The Republicans are hoping to win the governorship after eight years of Democratic control under Governor Bill Richardson, who is term-limited and cannot seek re-election. Denish was Richardson’s running mate in 2002 and 2006.
In Mississippi, no congressional incumbents faced primary challenges.
Alan Nunnelee, a state senator, won the Republican nomination for a north Mississippi congressional seat.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese