People made their choice Mangum

By By Greg Mangum / guest columnist
November 11, 2004
The people have now spoken and chose to keep our great President George W. Bush in office. Record numbers of voters turned out all across the county on Nov. 2.
Here in Lauderdale County, a record 73 percent of voters went to the polls. There were several races in Mississippi that went really well and a few could have gone better, but, hey, that's true in every state.
The results
In the presidential race, Mississippi gave President Bush 59 percent and Sen. John Kerry got 40 percent. Nationwide, Bush got 51 percent to Kerry's 48 percent of the popular vote.
Two very important U.S. House races also took place in Mississippi, in the 2nd Congressional District and the 4th Congressional District.
In the 2nd, Democratic incumbent Bennie Thompson was challenged by a highly respected man, the Republican Party's Clinton LeSueur. Thompson took 58 percent of the vote to LeSueur's 41 percent.
In the 4th, Democratic incumbent Gene Taylor was challenged by state Rep. Mike Lott on the Republican ticket. Taylor won, 64 percent to 35 percent.
Other important races
However, the presidential race and U.S. House races were not all that was important in Mississippi on Election Day. A very high number of Evangelicals came out to support an amendment to ban homosexual marriage in Mississippi. It passed by a very high margin praise God with 86 percent of Mississippians saying same-sex marriages should not be allowed.
Reasons
Sen. Kerry favors partial-birth abortion and opposes restoring voluntary prayer in public schools. These are just two of the many reasons why so many Evangelicals voted President Bush back into office.
Kerry attacked Bush for mentioning God so often and I think that is pitiful. I don't think asking God to bless our country is hurting anyone; I don't care if they are Christians are not.
Kerry's overall record shows he was the most liberal U.S. senator in 2003, more liberal than Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton, according to the National Journal.
These are the reasons why Evangelicals across this country decided that we needed to keep the president that we have now.
About a month ago while on the campaign trail, Sen. Kerry was giving a speech about his faith and told his supporters his favorite Bible verse was John 16:3; of course, he meant John 3:16, but no one in the Kerry campaign was educated enough in reading the Bible to catch the mistake.
John 16:3 says, "And these things will they do unto you, because they have not known the Father, nor me." I think this particular speech might have influenced a lot of Evangelicals who were going to support Kerry to switch to Bush.