The dynamics of the mayoral runoff echo California’s Proposition 8 vote in 2008, where black voters formed an unusual alliance with conservatives to approve a measure that banned same-sex marriage, said Richard Murray, a University of Houston political scientist.
“You don’t have many cases where you have an older straight, black male supported by conservatives matched up against a younger white female who happens to be gay, and is backed by non-establishment sources,” Murray said. “Normally, you see progressive whites allied with African-Americans. This is exposing the same fault line we saw nationally in Prop 8.”
But Ta-Nehisi Coates says that’s unfair.
UPDATE: Various readers aren’t as convinced as Ta-Nehisi that this study proves what he thinks it does.