Artur Davis Will Not Be Alabama’s First Black Governor

Rep. Artur Davis has lost his bid to become the first African American elected governor in Alabama, the Associated Press has reported.

State Agriculture Commissioner Ron Sparks appears to have easily beat Davis, a Harvard-trained lawyer and friend of President Obama, in the Democratic primary.

Davis had angered civil rights groups such as the Alabama New South Coalition and the Alabama Democratic Conference by bypassing their endorsement process. Those groups backed Sparks, who is white. Davis had said he had wanted to take his case directly to black voters, who traditionally make up about half of Democratic primary voters in Alabama.

Sparks will face the winner of a hotly contested Republican primary, in which the AP reports a tight race among physician Robert Bentley, Greenville developer Tim James and former community college chancellor Bradley Byrne. If no one gets 50% of the vote, the top two finishers will meet in a July 13 runoff.

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