# White republican wins election by fooling black voters
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667
**Category:** Politics & Elections
**Created:** [November 11, 2013, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667 "2013-11-11T19:51:02Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/61 "2013-11-12T05:26:05Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> Still not what he did.
Exactly what he did. Removed from the voters the choice not to vote for him because of his skin color - by not advertising it.
> [@](#):
>
> And yes, I don’t approve of lying and bullshitting voters.
Yet you keep voting for politicians who do.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/62 "2013-11-12T05:29:20Z")
> [@Terr](#):
>
> Exactly what he did. Removed from the voters the choice not to vote for him because of his skin color - by not advertising it.
You have no evidence that they wouldn’t have voted for him based on his skin color. His track record might have done the trick, but he kept that quiet. He also implied a phony endorsement. Alas, the endless hunt for The Real Racists\* will have to go on for another day.
\*It’s the libruls!
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/63 "2013-11-12T05:31:19Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> And yes, I don’t approve of lying and bullshitting voters.
How **can** voters, as voters, lie or bullshit?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/64 "2013-11-12T05:34:54Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> How **can** voters, as voters, lie or bullshit?
Voters is the object here. I don’t approve of lying to voters or bullshitting them.
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/65 "2013-11-12T05:39:12Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> You have no evidence that they wouldn’t have voted for him based on his skin color.
He was of the opinion (obviously) that they wouldn’t have. So he removed that possibility. I don’t see that as a problem.
His color (at least in my opinion, and probably in his) is irrelevant to the position he is seeking. So he didn’t advertise it or mention it. Kinda like in a lot of judge elections in the US the candidates do not mention any party affiliation. Do you think they must do so?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/66 "2013-11-12T05:46:15Z")
> [@Terr](#):
>
> He was of the opinion (obviously) that they wouldn’t have. So he removed that possibility. I don’t see that as a problem.
It must be fun to have to do this kind of thing to yourself to avoid criticizing sleazeball politicians because they’re your only hope. As I will continue to emphasize because it is obviously true to anyone else reading this, Wilson didn’t just hide his race, his materials were actively misleading. And in addition to obscuring his race he deleted his resume and duped the voters with that endorsement. He gleefully admits as much.
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/67 "2013-11-12T05:55:34Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> It must be fun to have to do this kind of thing to yourself to avoid criticizing sleazeball politicians because they’re your only hope. As I will continue to emphasize because it is obviously true to anyone else reading this, Wilson didn’t just hide his race, his materials were actively misleading. And in addition to obscuring his race he deleted his resume and duped the voters with that endorsement. He gleefully admits as much.
He took the opponents’ strength - low-information voters combined with reflexive voting for the race - and turned it on them. Of course I like the guy, it’s political kung-fu at its best, albeit at low political level.
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### Author:  [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/68 "2013-11-12T06:00:40Z")
> [@joebuck20](#):
>
> The position is non-partisan, so no a D or R wouldn’t appear next to his name.
Thanks for the clarification.
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### Author:  [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/69 "2013-11-12T06:01:47Z")
> [@Terr](#):
>
> He took the opponents’ strength - low-information voters combined with reflexive voting for the race - and turned it on them. Of course I like the guy, it’s political kung-fu at its best . . .
By “best” you of course mean “worst.”
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### Author:  [@Terr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terr)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/70 "2013-11-12T06:08:46Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#):
>
> By “best” you of course mean “worst.”
Nah. “Best”. Because politics is not a gentleman’s game.
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/71 "2013-11-12T07:14:35Z")
The “friend and neighbor” mailers are legit. Shame on voters for assuming a person using black models in his ads must be black himself. If they’re willing to be that ignorant about who they’re voting for, they deserve who they get.
The Ron Wilson endorsement, on the other hand, I think was wrong. Obviously most names are used by more than one person. But people are legitimately going to assume it’s the well-known person with that name who’s giving the endorsement. Using a different non-famous person who has the same name is deception.
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### Author:  [@Stringbean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stringbean)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/72 "2013-11-12T08:56:00Z")
Well, so much for a color-blind society.
This guy is going to get sued because he didn’t post pictures of himself and “implied he’s black.”
And HE’S the racist?
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### Author:  [@Revenant\_Threshold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revenant_Threshold)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 10:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/73 "2013-11-12T10:16:47Z")
> [@Terr](#):
>
> The part where you made it up with no relation whatsoever to reality.
It’s an _example_. I’m not claiming it happened. I’m claiming that it could happen, and that it’s just an example of how race can affect voter’s decisions without race being the reason for those decisions. It’s no different than your suggestion, given that the only thing you’ve used to back it up is “Well, I think it’s so!”, and that you’re claiming this is in itself evidence. Also, it creates a circular argument on your part.
And that still doesn’t make any sense as an answer, because even if you were absolutely correct in your accusation here, that still wouldn’t show that my answer was _convoluted or contrived_. It would mean that my suggestion was lacking in evidence.
You’re attacking my argument on a basis that I haven’t claimed for it and in a way that wouldn’t back up what you’re claiming about it even if I did.
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### Author:  [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/74 "2013-11-12T13:50:33Z")
So he… passed?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/75 "2013-11-12T14:16:27Z")
> [@Terr](#):
>
> He took the opponents’ strength - low-information voters combined with reflexive voting for the race
Voters believed the election was between two black candidates. You can’t make claims about voting and racial preference on those grounds. (Or rather you can, but they’ll be laughably unsound.)
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### Author:  [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/76 "2013-11-12T14:19:34Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> How do you know they weren’t going to vote for him based on his skin color? He obscured his entire political track record as well as his race.
Do you have any reason to believe that they weren’t going to vote for him based on his track record?
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/77 "2013-11-12T14:34:12Z")
> [@Falchion](#):
>
> Do you have any reason to believe that they weren’t going to vote for him based on his track record?
I can say he was not elected mayor of Houston in 2011 and that he went out of his way to obscure his own electoral and political history, which suggests he didn’t think it would help him get elected. And we can say Wilson himself didn’t expect this trick to work. That’s probably about all we can say for sure.
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### Author:  [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/78 "2013-11-12T14:46:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> The “friend and neighbor” mailers are legit. Shame on voters for assuming a person using black models in his ads must be black himself. If they’re willing to be that ignorant about who they’re voting for, they deserve who they get.
I feel the same way. This guy is sleazy as hell, no doubt. But, this is why you should do your homework before casting a ballot, rather than simply relying on campaign literature.
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### Author:  [@Falchion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Falchion)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/79 "2013-11-12T14:56:51Z")
> [@Marley23](#):
>
> I can say he was not elected mayor of Houston in 2011 and that he went out of his way to obscure his own electoral and political history, which suggests he didn’t think it would help him get elected. And we can say Wilson himself didn’t expect this trick to work. That’s probably about all we can say for sure.
Well, and we also know that he felt compelled to conceal his race (either to further conceal his identity or increase his electoral chances).
It just seems to me that, if a black candidate had concealed his race in order to win a majority-white district, and then it came out, we wouldn’t be calling him a fraudster or saying that it obviously didn’t indicate racism on the part of the voters becuase the other candidate was also white. Instead, we’d be undergoing all sorts of navel-gazing about racism in politics and white privilege.
That being said, the fake endorsement is super sleazy.
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### Author:  [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)
#### Post date: [November 12, 2013, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/white-republican-wins-election-by-fooling-black-voters/673667/80 "2013-11-12T15:03:23Z")
> [@joebuck20](#):
>
> I feel the same way. This guy is sleazy as hell, no doubt. But, this is why you should do your homework before casting a ballot, rather than simply relying on campaign literature.
You absolutely should, yes. That doesn’t excuse deceiving people. **Terr** can pretend its a positive, but most of us wouldn’t think to go this route just to get elected to a community college board. That’s a pretty good example of screwing up the system. And leaving aside the Republican euphemism (black voters = low information voters), how many of us can really say we do this kind of digging on low level local elections?
> [@Falchion](#):
>
> It just seems to me that, if a black candidate had concealed his race in order to win a majority-white district, and then it came out, we wouldn’t be calling him a fraudster or saying that it obviously didn’t indicate racism on the part of the voters becuase the other candidate was also white.
I am not sure why it seems that way to you. You really cannot draw a logical conclusion about the voters being racist from this scenario.
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