West Virginia primary: President Obama vs. federal inmate Keith Judd
This man won over 40 percent of the vote against Obama in the West Virginia Democratic primary.
Tuesday night’s primaries contained some significant results: After 36 years in office, Indiana GOP Sen. Richard Lugar lost to a conservative challenger, signaling an end to his Senate career. North Carolina voters amended the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage and civil unions.
But no result was more surpassing than what happened in the West Virginia Democratic presidential primary, where President Obama wasn’t the only candidate on the ballot.
Keith Judd, a federal prison inmate, took 41 percent of the vote against Obama, who won 59 percent.
Judd, also known as Inmate No. 11593-051, is serving out a 17.5-year term in a Texas federal prison for making threats at the University of New Mexico in 1999.
Many took the result as a sign of Obama’s unpopularity in certain corners of the country as he officially rolls out his reelection bid.
Nowhere is that feeling more evident than West Virginia, a bastion of white working-class voters. The Associated Press notes that Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin and Sen. Joe Manchin, both Democrats, would not say if they support Obama for reelection. In 2008, after Obama had essentially locked up his party’s nomination, he was dealt a 41-point defeat in the state’s primary.
But wait a second. Just how did a convicted felon get on the ballot in West Virginia? More from the AP:
Judd was able to get on the state ballot by paying a $2,500 fee and filing a form known as a notarized certification of announcement, said Jake Glance, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office.
The inmate performed so well, that he’s actually entitled to have delegates at September’s Democratic National Convention. But reports indicate no one has stepped forward to serve as a delegate for Judd.
It’s not the first time that Judd has gotten on the ballot, he made the Idaho primary ballot in 2008, but it’s clearly his most successful run for office.
Our take? His support wasn’t so much about politics as it was about his hair.
(Photo: Project Vote Smart)
