*ping*
The 34th state senate district in Mississippi takes in all of Republican Smith County and Democrat Jasper County, plus (I would guesstimate) 35% of Republican Scott County and 15% of Republican Jones County (but likely the more Democratic parts of it). The district is probably around 40% black and votes and gave President Bush a bit over 60% of the vote in 2000, so a black conservative Republican such as Lott would be very hard to beat. If Mr. Lott wins the GOP nomination and the general election, he would be well positioned to run for Chip Pickering's U.S. House seat when Chip finally runs statewide.