Blog

This is the land of die-hard Democrats -- mill workers, coal miners and union members. They have voted party line for generations, forming a reliable constituency for just about any Democrat who decides to run for office.

But when it comes to President Obama, a small part of this constituency balks.

"Certain precincts in this county are not going to vote for Obama," said John Corrigan, clerk of courts for Jefferson County, who was drinking coffee in a furniture shop downtown one morning last week with a small group of friends, retired judges and civil servants. "I don't want to say it, but we all know why."

A retired state employee, Jason Foreman, interjected, "I'll say it: it's because he's black."

For nearly three and a half years, a black family has occupied the White House, and much of the time what has been most remarkable about that fact is how unremarkable it has become to the country. While Mr. Obama will always be known to the history books as the country's first black president, his mixed-race heritage has only rarely surfaced in visible and explicit ways amid the tumult of a deep recession, two wars and shifting political currents.

But as Mr. Obama braces for what most signs suggest will be a close re-election battle, race remains a powerful factor among a small minority of voters -- especially, research suggests, those in economically distressed regions with high proportions of white working-class residents, like this one.

Mr. Obama barely won this county in 2008 -- 48.9 percent to John McCain's 48.7 percent. Four years earlier, John Kerry had an easier time here, winning 52.3 percent to 47.2 percent over George W. Bush. Given Ohio's critical importance as a swing state that will most likely be won or lost by the narrowest of margins, the fact that Mr. Obama's race is a deal-breaker for even a small number of otherwise loyal Democrats could have implications for the final results.

Obama advisers acknowledged that some areas of the state presented more political challenges than others, but said that the racial sentiment was not a major source of worry. The campaign's strategy relies in large part on a strong performance in cities and suburban areas to make up for any falloff elsewhere among Democrats in this or other corners of Ohio.

The Obama campaign aggressively monitors any racial remarks made against the president, but officials rarely openly discuss Mr. Obama's race. The president released his birth certificate last year in an effort to quell a growing controversy about whether he is a United States citizen. He said last month that race in America was still "complicated."

"I never bought into the notion that by electing me, somehow we were entering into a post-racial period," Mr. Obama said in an interview with Rolling Stone.

"I've seen in my own lifetime how racial attitudes have changed and improved, and anybody who suggests that they haven't isn't paying attention or is trying to make a rhetorical point," he said. "Because we all see it every day, and me being in this Oval Office is a testimony to changes that have been taking place."

Researchers have long struggled to quantify racial bias in electoral politics, in part because of the reliance on surveys, a forum in which respondents rarely admit to prejudice. In 50 interviews in this county over three days last week, 5 people raised race directly as a reason they would not vote for Mr. Obama. In those conversations, voters were not asked specifically about race, but about their views on the candidates generally. Those who raised the issue did so of their own accord.

"I'll just come right out and say it: he was elected because of his race," said Sara Reese, a bank employee who said she voted for Ralph Nader in 2008, even though she usually votes Democrat.

Did her father, a staunch Democrat and retired mill worker, vote for Mr. Obama? "I'd have to say no. I don't think he could do it," she said.