A Jewish member of congress from Tennessee has emerged victorious from a fierce primary battle in which racial and religious accusations were thrown at him by his opponent.
Steve Cohen, a freshman Democratic member of congress from Tennessee's 9th district, won in a 60 per cent margin over his rival in the state's primary elections and is expected to keep his seat in the November elections.
Mr Cohen is the first white American in over 30 years to represent the district, which is predominantly black. The Tennessee congressman has a reputation for being a strong civil-rights activists and in his first term in Congress pushed forward a historic resolution which offered the first formal apology to African-Americans for the policy of slavery in America's early years.
But despite this activity, Mr Cohen faced allegations of bigotry from Nikki Tinker, his chief rival in the primary race. Ms Tinker, an African-American candidate who had served in the past as a political aid, produced TV ads attacking Mr Cohen on issues of race and religion. One of the ads showed Mr Cohen alongside a hooded Ku Klux Klan member, suggesting the congressman was a supporter of the white-supremacist movement.