This Black Democrat Has a Chance in Tennessee
SMITHVILLE, Tenn. — The locals showed up by the dozens, a few in denim overalls, others wearing plaid shirts and hats emblazoned with "Army" and "John Deere." They sat on wooden benches beneath a picnic shelter adorned with red, white and blue bunting, sipping iced tea and downing spicy pulled pork sandwiches.
But on this muggy evening in rural middle Tennessee, the predictable conventions of a small-town political rally in the South ended there.
Addressing the sea of 200 white faces was a black man. And the crowd sat in rapt attention, interrupting with frequent applause.
Yes, Harold Ford conceded: He is a black Democratic congressman from liberal Memphis, the gritty, turbulent city where his family name is associated with machine politics. But Ford argued that the old labels do not apply -- not to this centrist, pro-war, anti-gay-marriage, deficit hawk of a social conservative who once criticized former President Clinton for lying about infidelity and mounted a challenge to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) by calling her "too liberal."
And even as he warns of race-baiting to come, Ford drops subtle hints that his ethnicity could prove an unlikely advantage at a time when voters want change.
"When they tell you that he's too young, and he's not from around here, and he's from Memphis, and he looks a little differently," Ford said in Smithville, "you should remind them that every single one of those big problems up there that's been caused in Washington, all that spending that takes place, there weren't many guys who looked like me that created any of those problems."
The scene that night has become typical as Ford attempts a feat never before achieved: becoming the first black U.S. senator from the former Confederacy since Reconstruction. The seat he hopes to take is being vacated by Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, whose departure is not supposed to create a successful race for Democrats.
Ford and his strategists have studied the harsh precedents: the failed Senate candidacies in 1990 of Harvey Gantt in North Carolina and in 2002 of Ron Kirk in Texas, two states still colored by racial fault lines.
Ford and his team feel they are forging a different path.
