Nikki Tinker, the Democratic attorney who based her primary challenge to first-term Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) almost entirely on appeals to race and religion, has gone down to an ignominious defeat.

With 67% of precincts reporting, Cohen leads with 38,491 votes, or 79%, to Tinker's 9,327 votes, 19%.

Cohen won a divided primary for this safe seat in 2006, becoming the only white Congressman to represent a majority-minority district in the South. Tinker, who also ran in that primary, based her challenge this time around on direct arguments that the state's African-Americans should have a seat in Congress, and also aired a particularly nasty ad attacking the Jewish incumbent Cohen for visiting "our churches."

But Tinker's attacks on Cohen don't appear to have even remotely caught on with the voters.

Late Update: With 87% of precincts reporting, Cohen's 79%-19% margin has held steady.

Late Late Update: With 98% of precincts reporting, Cohen's lead has still held at 79%-19%.

Guess what: The Democratic primary challenge by attorney Nikki Tinker against incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen -- you know, the one that has involved a seriously Jew-baiting TV ad -- will be settled tonight. The race has turned into a nationally-watched campaign, thanks to all manner of racial and religious tensions and all-around nastiness.

This primary suddenly exploded onto everyone's radar screen yesterday, when Dem challenger Nikki Tinker ran her ad lambasting Cohen -- who is Jewish -- for visiting "our churches." There have been a bunch of developments since.

For instance, the dust-up got so much attention that Barack Obama, in his role as the new leader of the Democratic Party, weighed in with a statement today, even though presidential nominees almost never dirty their hands in local primaries.

"These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee," Obama said. "It's time to turn the page on a politics driven by negativity and division so that we can come together to lift up our communities and our country." That's effectively an endorsement of Cohen.

That's not all.

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This brutal new attack ad from House candidate Nikki Tinker, who is challenging liberal Tennessee Rep. Steven Cohen in tomorrow's Democratic primary, just might be the nastiest, most race-baiting (and Jew-baiting) ad of the entire cycle:

"While he's in our churches, clapping his hands and tapping his feet ... he's the only senator who thought our kids shouldn't be allowed to pray in school," the announcer says, referring to an old vote against school prayer from when Cohen was a state senator. And remember, this is coming from a Democrat.

Cohen is the only white Congressman from a majority-minority district in the South, and was elected largely because of the divided field of black candidates in the 2006 primary, which included Tinker herself. Tinker never really stopped running against him, and has picked up the support of EMILY's List and a few members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Furthermore, Cohen is a Jew -- which makes the "our churches" line all the more suspicious. Tinker's campaign has not yet returned our call for comment on what message the ad is supposed to communicate.

Late Update: Tinker's campaign has pulled the ad from their YouTube account. We can only hope it's also been pulled from the local airwaves.

State Sen. Steve Cohen, a white Jewish liberal who won a divided primary for Harold Ford's seat, has come up with a novel proposal in his campaign: if elected, he'll ask to join the Congressional Black Caucus, according to The New Republic (paid subscription required). If accepted, he would be the first white member of the Black Caucus—an interesting scenario, to say the least. Cohen faces Harold Ford's brother Jake, who is running as an Independent in this solid Dem district, so it certainly is important for him to do everything he can to tell his prospective constituents in this majority-black district that he would effectively represent them. Will this work, though, or he will he be seen as something of a poseur?

Cohen nevertheless has strong words for those who would vote against him simply because he is not black:

"To say I shouldn't run is to say that Dr. King's dream is a failure. If they can't accept me, then they can't accept anybody."