DECATUR, Ga. — Rep. Cynthia A. McKinney, the Georgia Democrat renowned for her strident rhetoric as well as her recent scuffle with a Capitol Police officer, lost a runoff election Tuesday.
McKinney, 51, won 41% of the vote, trailing far behind challenger Hank Johnson, a moderate and soft-spoken attorney, in the Democratic runoff in Georgia's 4th Congressional District.
Johnson, who is favored to win against the Republican candidate, Catherine Davis, in the November general election, promised to bring respectability to the office.
"It's clear that most people have a low opinion of the work of our Congress, that people want to see things done a little differently," Johnson, 51, told his supporters. "I pledge to you I'm going to work with each and every person to work for solutions. I'm here to serve you and make you proud."
Though McKinney was quick to blame Republican crossover voters for her defeat, most political analysts attributed it to a lapse in Democratic support after her much-publicized March altercation with the police officer.
Throughout the campaign, Johnson's message was simple: "Replace McKinney."
Elected in 1992 as Georgia's first African American congresswoman, McKinney has long been an outspoken critic of the Bush administration. In recent years, she has called the Iraq war illegal, questioned U.S. support for Israel and suggested that Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff should be charged with negligent homicide for Hurricane Katrina deaths.
In March, McKinney allegedly struck a Capitol Police officer with her cellphone after he stopped her as she bypassed a security checkpoint. Although a grand jury in Washington declined to indict her, McKinney's critics claimed she no longer had the political clout to represent her constituents in Washington.
Still, McKinney had been expected to win last month's primary election in the heavily Democratic area -- until she was forced into a runoff after a large number of voters in the northern, predominantly white areas of her suburban Atlanta district voted against her.
On Tuesday, Johnson said he had won more than 50% of the votes in DeKalb County, McKinney's traditional stronghold, which is home to a growing number of professional, middle-class blacks.
Some political analysts saw McKinney's defeat as a sign that African American voters in Georgia were becoming less enamored with bold civil rights-era rhetoric and instead favored a new breed of moderate politicians.
