Unabashed Racist Wins GOP Primary in Tennessee
NewsMax.com Wires
Friday, Aug. 6, 2004
MEMPHIS, Tenn. An unabashed racist will represent the
Republican Party in the November election for a congressional seat
after a write-in candidate failed to derail his effort.
With 86 percent of the primary vote counted Thursday, write-in
candidate Dennis Bertrand had just 1,554 votes compared to 7,671,
or 83 percent, for James L. Hart, a believer in the discredited,
phony science of eugenics.
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In November, the GOP candidate will oppose Rep. John Tanner, a
Democrat who has represented the northwest Tennessee district for
15 years.
Hart, 60, vows if elected to work toward keeping "less favored
races" from reproducing or immigrating to the United States. In
campaign literature, Hart contends that "poverty genes" threaten
to turn the United States into "one big Detroit."
"I didn't expect to win," Hart said. "I thought their network
would beat my ideas."
He has run for the 8th District seat before and drawn little
attention. But people began to notice this time because he was the
only Republican on the ballot.
Since the deadline for getting on the ballot had passed,
Bertrand, also a Republican, began a write-in campaign, saying he
wanted to protect the party's honor.
"I think his beliefs are not beliefs of any party that I know
of," Bertrand said Thursday night. "I knew it was going to be a
really long shot, but in good conscience, I had to at least give it
an attempt."
Bertrand, a financial analyst and former military officer, was
on active duty with the National Guard when the deadline to get on
the primary ballot passed.
Hart said he would have lots of time to campaign for the general
election since he was forced Wednesday to resign from his job as a
real estate salesman because of the attention he drew during the
primary.
"They didn't say 'You're fired' in exactly those words, but it
was pretty clear what they wanted," Hart said.
While campaigning, Hart sometimes wears a protective vest and
carries a .40-caliber pistol, but he said he had run into no
trouble.
"When I knock on a door and say white children deserve the same
rights as everybody else, the enthusiastic response is truly
amazing," he said.
If a black person opens the door, he says he simply drops off
campaign literature and leaves.
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