1 in 3 West Virginia Democratic primary voters choose felon over Obama

A felon incarcerated in Texas took one in three votes away from President Obama in West Virginia's Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday.

Keith Judd, who is serving time in a federal prison in Texarkana, Texas, for extortion, took 37 percent of the vote, with 50 percent of precincts reporting. Obama captured the remaining 63 percent.

By locking up more than 15 percent, Judd could be entitled to at least one delegate at the Democratic National Convention in September.

Obama's prospects for winning the Democratic nod are not in jeopardy in West Virginia or elsewhere, and Judd posed no serious threat to a second Obama term. 

But Obama's low performance in the primary underscored the extend to which voters in conservative-leaning states such as West Virginia have soured on Obama.

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who won the nomination Tuesday for his first full term in the Senate, has said he might not vote for Obama in November, and Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin (D-W.Va.) has made similar comments. 

---