JACKSON - Democratic presidential hopeful Wesley Clark will stop in Mississippi during his "True Grits Tour," hoping to sway voters in a state that historically votes Republican in federal elections.
Bill Buck, Clark's national press secretary, said if Democrats campaign in every state it keeps Republicans from taking any for granted.
"Gen. Clark is flying around meeting with supporters to underscore that he takes the South seriously and that the Democratic Party should also," Buck said Friday. "Democrats have won in Mississippi. It's a place where Democrats can and should do well."
Mississippi voters in 1976 gave Jimmy Carter his margin of victory over President Gerald Ford. The former Georgia governor was the last Democrat to win Mississippi's presidential vote.
Clark leaves his campaign headquarters in Arkansas on Dec. 29, with his first stop in Jackson, where he'll make remarks at the airport before attending a fund-raiser. The location and time of the fund-raiser haven't been determined, Buck said. The rest of the tour takes Clark to Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia and South Carolina.
Clark is competing for the Democratic nomination against front-runner Howard Dean, a former Vermont governor, and U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn. President Bush is the only Republican contender.
Clark is the candidate most likely to appeal to Mississippians looking for a reason to vote for a Democrat, said Marty Wiseman, director of the John C. Stennis Institute of Government at Mississippi State University.
"He's got a military background and is from Arkansas," said Wiseman.
In addition, Wiseman believes Clark's support of gun control and abortion "is something that really resonates with Democrats."
In a poll commissioned by The Associated Press and the Clarion-Ledger earlier this year, 49 percent of Mississippi's likely voters said they'd definitely vote for Bush for president in 2004, 29 percent said they'd definitely vote for someone else, and 20 percent said they'd consider someone else.
Former South Carolina Gov. Jim Hodges, during a conference call to announce the tour on Friday, said Clark's military background is an issue that resonates with Southerners, especially in areas with military bases. Clark served 34 years in the Army, rising to the rank of four-star general.
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