Candidate wins grandmother’s seat

INDIANAPOLIS – The grandson of the late U.S. Rep. Julia Carson won a special election Tuesday to succeed her, keeping the seat in Democratic hands and becoming the second Muslim ever elected to Congress.

Democrat Andre Carson had a 4,000-vote lead over Republican Jon Elrod out of nearly 49,000 votes counted. With 73 percent of 445 precincts reporting, Carson had about 53 percent of the vote compared with about 44 percent for Elrod. Carson will represent a district that covers most of Indianapolis for the remainder of the year. Indiana’s District 7 is predominantly Democratic and Carson had a large fundraising advantage over Elrod, along with more than $150,000 in spending by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee on Carson’s behalf.

But Carson also faced several obstacles including expected low voter turnout and potential backlash over complaints of political nepotism.

Carson, 33, has been a member of Indianapolis City-County Council since August. Elrod, 30, is a first-term state representative who won election in 2006 by eight votes over a five-term Democratic incumbent.

Julia Carson, a Democrat who first won election to Congress in 1996 and died in December, was the first black to represent Indianapolis in Congress – from a district that is nearly two-thirds white.

Carson, whose grandmother raised him in a Baptist church, converted to Islam more than a decade ago.

Carson will join Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., as the only Muslims in Congress. His religious identity has drawn little attention during the campaign, and Carson said he doesn’t believe it hurts him politically.