Background

The Mississippi State Senate was closely divided with Republicans maintaining a slim working majority as the fall 2007 election neared. Senate District 29 provided an opportunity for a Democratic pickup because of the district’s demographic shifts. However, an 18 year incumbent Republican refused to roll over.

The newly competitive district included several precincts with large numbers of conservative voters who had fled the city of Jackson for lower taxes and safer neighborhoods of unincorporated areas of Hinds County. The district also included traditionally Republican precincts in the neighboring city and many precincts in south Jackson that had been the scene of major white flight and middle-class black flight during the last decade.

We knew the GOP landslide at the top of the ticket, on the strength of popular governor Haley Barbour, would provide a boost for the incumbent Republican senator. Gov. Barbour was reelected 59-41and Republicans won seven of the eight statewide offices.

In addition to the strong top ticket, Republicans had another advantage. Because of a high profile reverse discrimination voting rights suit elsewhere in the state, Republican campaign plans included “Ballot Integrity” staff. These operatives were well schooled in voter intimidation, and we believed they would work to suppress the vote of our targeted African American voters in Senate District 29.

Mississippi does not require party registration and the Democratic Party voter file was sketchy with limited race data and partisan primary voter history before the 2007 cycle. To achieve a victory, we had to pinpoint Democrats and get them to the polls at higher rates than the Republicans.

We acquired a list of residents who had moved into the district in the last five years and cross-referenced the list with voter rolls elsewhere in Hinds County.

From this information, we found more than 850 voters who were living in key precincts in Senate District 29 but were voting in other Senate Districts. Given the local housing patterns, we were confident that the overwhelming majority of these voters were African American.

We called these targeted voters as part of a coordinated phone/mail campaign to remind them of the re-registration deadlines and to explain the procedure for changing their polling place. We knew that we had to ensure that the targeted voters were not only properly re-registered at their new precinct, but that they also knew their rights in case they were challenged. We provided this information on our calls.

In the election’s final days, we called the targeted voters again to remind them how to vote affidavit in the new polling precincts.

We reached 541 households that would probably have voted in another senate district or not voted at all.

The Democratic candidate, David Blount defeating four-term incumbent, Richard White in a spirited contest.