Democrat Wins House Seat in Mississippi

Democrats scored a remarkable upset victory on Tuesday in a specialCongressional election in this conservative Southern district, sendinga clear signal of national problems ahead for Republicans in the fall.

The Democrat, Travis Childers, a local courthouse official, pulledtogether a coalition of blacks, who turned out heavily, and old-line“yellow dog” Democrats, to beat his Republican opponent, Greg Davis,the mayor of Southaven, a Memphis suburb. With 99 percent of theprecincts reporting, the vote was 54 percent for Mr. Childers to 46percent for Mr. Davis.

The seat had been in Republican hands since 1995, and the district, largely rural and stretching across the northern top of Mississippi,had been considered one of the safest in the country for PresidentBush’s party, as he won here with 62 percent of the vote in 2004.