May 14, 2008

Travis Childers wins Mississippi congressional race

Childers among many Democrats dethroning Republicans

Democrat Travis Childers won a special congressional election in a heavily conservative Mississippi district.

For Democrats, a victory by Childers is the latest in a series of special-election wins for the party and provide a strong tailwind heading into November.

Republicans had hoped to dispel notions the GOP is in for a widespread thrashing next fall and prove that efforts to link local Democrats in conservative districts to Barack Obama and his former pastor could be a winning strategy in what appears to be a difficult election year for the party.

Instead, Democrats handed them a loss in a district that had been easily held by incumbent Rep. Roger Wicker for nearly 14 years and where President Bush took more than 60 percent of the vote in 2004.

Last week, the GOP ran an ad in Louisiana linking Democrat Don Cazayoux to Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Cazayoux won the election by three percentage points. The Baton Rouge-area district hadn't sent a Democrat to Washington since the 1970s.

And in March, Democrat Bill Foster won a special election victory in former House Speaker Dennis Hastert’s Illinois district, another Republican stronghold.