Racial split in Louisiana’s Democratic primary

By MIKE MOKRZYCKI

updated 11:18 p.m. ET Feb. 9, 2008

Black votes for Barack Obama outpaced white support for Hillary Rodham Clinton in Louisiana's racially split Democratic primary Saturday, while John McCain made little headway among the most conservative, highly religious voters as he battled Mike Huckabee in their first head-to-head Republican matchup, exit polls found.

Blacks were nearly half the Democratic primary electorate, and Obama racked up a typically vast margin among them as he beat Clinton in Louisiana. He won more than eight in 10 blacks, male and female, according to the exit polls for NBC News, the other television networks and The Associated Press.

Most other Democratic voters were white and Clinton won them by roughly 70 percent to 25 percent. She has had margins at least that large among whites only in Alabama and her former home state of Arkansas among 19 Democratic primaries surveyed this year.

Continuing a pattern seen in other Southern states, Obama won fewer than three in 10 white men and did no better among white women. Outside the South, Obama has tended to win far more votes from white men than white women, who have been one of Clinton's strongest groups in nearly every primary so far.

Most say race wasn't a factor
Despite the voting patterns, three in four Democratic primary-goers said race wasn't a factor in their vote and about as many said that about the candidates' sex.

About one in 10 white Clinton voters and roughly as many black Obama voters did say race was the single most important factor in their vote. Similar numbers of female Clinton voters and male Obama voters said gender was the most important factor.

Looked at another way, of those whites who said race was an issue in their vote, 8 in 10 voted for Clinton _ more than those who said race wasn't important _ while blacks voted for Obama in equal proportions regardless of whether they said race was important to their vote.

Claudette Arceneaux, 50, whose family is both black and white, voted for Obama and said she's been a fan since his "stunning" keynote at the 2004 Democratic convention in Boston.

Neither race nor sex was important to her vote Saturday, she said, but it will be important if Clinton wins the nomination _ and not in a positive way. "If she won now, we'll have another Republican in the White House. I think there are more sexists out there than racists," Arceneaux said.

But she added: "It's history-making either way, isn't it? It's still something to be incredibly proud of. In our lifetimes. In our lifetimes."

Gregory Espinal, a 29-year-old Hispanic barber, said he voted for Clinton because of "her influence on politics while her husband was in charge. I knew she was probably a person who thinks far in the future, strategically."

Experience a plus for Clinton
Clinton's experience won her many votes. One in five Democratic voters said experience was the most important candidate quality and nine in 10 of them backed Clinton. More than half of voters said it was most important that a candidate can bring about needed change, and while most of them backed Obama, Clinton did win a quarter of their votes.

As in other Democratic primaries, Clinton did better among older voters and those with lower income and less education.

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