Ford tries to energize black vote
2006-10-31
Source: Knoxville News Sentinel
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rss feedDemocratic Senate nominee Harold Ford Jr. campaigned in his native West Tennessee on Monday, trying to energize black voters who might not always vote in midterm elections.
Ford senior adviser Michael Powell said the campaign has identified 65,000 voters in Memphis who normally vote in presidential elections, but not in off-years.
"When you can go out and find 65,000 additional voters, that can be a huge advantage," Powell said.
Ford is trying to become only the sixth black senator in U.S. history and the first black senator elected from the South since the 1870s.
The Memphis congressman started his day before a largely black audience at a restaurant in Brownsville, a small town about 50 miles northeast of Memphis.
"The African-American vote is important to whoever is running, but it's very important to him," said Thomas Jarrett, 67, a retired truck driver who is black. "So we need to vote, and we need others to get out and vote."
Tennessee has a black population of about 17 percent, larger than the national average but much lower than states in the Deep South.
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