A black lawmaker is battling the son of one-time segregationist Strom Thurmond for the Republican congressional nomination in South Carolina's 1st District.
It's a contest that could provide an indicator of both racial progress in the South and the GOP's ability to diversify.
There are black men in the White House and at the helm of the Republican Party, but there hasn't been a black Republican congressman since Oklahoma's J.C. Watts retired in 2003.
Tim Scott, already South Carolina's first black Republican legislator in a century, has a shot at changing that, but first he has to beat Paul Thurmond, whose father ran for president as a Dixiecrat on a segregationist platform six decades ago.
There's a runoff Tuesday because no one got more than 50 percent in a primary last week.
© Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.