Cohen Wins Racially Charged Dem. Vote

Woody Baird, (AP)

- Freshman congressman Steve Cohen has won the Democratic primary for Congress by defeating an opponent who tried to focus the campaign on race.

Cohen, the first white congressman for the mostly black Memphis district, beat challenger Nikki Tinker in voting Thursday. In the heavily Democratic District, the winner of the democratic primary is almost assured of victory in the general elections.

The Memphis district, which is 60 percent black, sent Cohen to Congress in 2006. He is the first white congressman for the district in more than three decades.

Race was a big part of the campaign from the beginning but TV ads by Tinker focused that attention even more sharply in the closing days.

One sought to link Cohen to the Ku Klux Klan.