Reply #21: No, I mean in their respective elections in their careers.

[AP]

and not in the primaries.

Edwards might have gotten as much as 1 million black votes in his one senate election. I think I read that that was more than all the other's combined, but that must have been in each one's most recent election. However, it's possible that Gephardt only has maybe 350,000 career black votes.

If you count by the number of individuals and not the number of times they've voted, Edwards might still be out front (eg, Gep might have only about 45K unique black voters, while Edwards has 1.1-1.25 million. I don't know what demographics are in Mass, but NC has more EVs, I believe, so Edwards could still be ahead of Kerry there, and I doubt that the black vote has ever been the make or break vote for Kerry as it was with Edwards in 98 -- after Gant's two elections, black voters were motivated to get Edwards a win; he really delivered for black voters more than anyone else).

It was the black vote in NC that won him that race in '98.