Obama Tells Tennessee Democrats To Unite During Party Primary

Washington, D.C.(AHN) - Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) weighed in on the racially charged race for the Democratic nomination in Tennessee's 9th congressional district on Thursday as voters in the state went to the polls.

"These incendiary and personal attacks have no place in our politics, and will do nothing to help the good people of Tennessee," Obama said in an emailed statement. "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."

Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) is in a bid to seek a second term as the only white U.S. congressman to represent a predominantly black district. He faces Nikki Tinker, an African American, who has ignited controversy by launching an ad criticizing Cohen for not supporting efforts to remove a statue of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Klu Klux Klan leader.

Fliers asking, "Why do Steve Cohen and the Jews Hate Jesus?" and written by an African-American minister who supports Tinker have also been distributed in Memphis.

Cohen, who is Jewish, sponsored a recently passed bill in the House "apologizing for the enslavement and racial segregation of African-Americans." He has reportedly been accused of assault after he threw out a filmmaker from his home on Wednesday.

Cohen says Tinker has the support of Armenian-Americans and that the filmmaker, Peter Musurlian, has inaccurately reported about his opposition to a House bill condemning Turkey's treatment of Armenian during World War II as "genocide."