Peters, Clay turn back fellow Congress members in primaries

Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) defeated freshman Democratic Rep. Hansen Clarke in Michigan’s 14th District primary on Tuesday. Peters, who will be heavily favored to win in November, is now almost certain to join Rep. 
Steve Cohen

 (D-Tenn.) as just the second white member of the House to represent a majority-black district.

With 89 percent of precincts reporting, the Associated Press called the race for Peters, who led Clarke 47 percent to 35 percent. Race was an undercurrent in the multiple-candidate contest, which included Peters, who is white, and Clarke, who is half-black and half-Bangladeshi. During the campaign, Clarke expressed his displeasure about tactics he said were designed to “split up the black vote.” 

Peters won on Tuesday by firming up support in the parts of the district he has represented and securing the backing of organized labor. Peters defeated Clarke and three other Democrats.

Clarke’s tenure in the House would be short-lived, as he would have to leave after one term.

The contest between Peters and Clarke is one of two member-vs.-member primaries on Tuesday. In Missouri’s 1^st District, Democratic Rep. William Lacy Clay Jr. defeated

Rep.
Russ Carnahan.

Carnahan’s congressional career will wrap up at the end of his fourth term in the House.

The decennial redistricting process left Carnahan without a district and led him to challenge Clay in the new St. Louis-based 1^st District, which was mostly new territory for the 3^rd District representative.

Clay is virtually assured another term in Congress, as he is running in a district that gave President Obama 80 percent of the vote in 2008. Clay was first elected in 2000.

Carnahan, the son of the late Democratic senator Mel Carnahan, will be sent home after eight years of service in the House. His loss comes two years after his sister, Missouri Secretary of State Robin Carnahan (D), lost an open Senate race to now-Sen. Roy Blunt (R).

Meanwhile, Kerry Bentivolio, a reindeer farmer and teacher, won the Republican primary in the race to replace Thaddeus McCotter in Michigan’s 11^th District. Bentivolio’s victory will

You can read the rest of this article at:: http://feeds.washingtonpost.com/click.phdo?i=68f927060537c7d958b65fc6e639c2a6

Short URL: http://thepresidency.us/?p=19090

Posted by RobertButler on Aug 8 2012. Filed under 2012 Presidential Campaign. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry