photos by Laura Rauch/AssociatedPress Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate Jack Carter, right, talks to his parents, former president and first lady Roselyn and Jimmy Carter, on the phone as election results come in for the Nevada primary Tuesday, in Las Vegas.
RENO - Jimmy Carter's son, Jack Carter, won the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate in Nevada on Tuesday and said he's out to show that Republican Sen. John Ensign has been too cozy with the White House.
"You know he's voted for the Bush administration 96 percent of the time," Carter said after winning with 78 percent of the vote.
With most the votes counted, Ensign had 90 percent in defeating Ed "Fast Eddie" Hamilton, a former Chrysler Corp. supervisor.
Carter defeated Ruby Jee Tun, a middle school science teacher from Carson City, who had 10 percent, with 12 percent voting for "none of the above."
Carter, an investor who moved to Nevada three years ago, acknowledged that he'd have more contacts to support his candidacy if he had lived in the state longer.
"On the other hand, as a senator, the people that I'm going to be dealing with are going to be people who don't live in Nevada," he told KLAS-TV in Las Vegas.
"And there I have a lot of contacts already. I was a member of the first family. I know a lot of the senators who are in office already. I've got business contacts around the country and around the world and those are the kind of things that I view as bringing something to Nevada," he said.
Rich Atkinson, a union worker in Sparks, said he turned out to vote for Carter.
"I think his dad did a great job, and what I've seen of him and heard from him, I like it. I'm a Democrat, and he seems to be thinking the way I'm thinking," Atkinson said.
But he said he fears Carter faces an uphill battle against Ensign.
"Ensign has such a following, and the state is so pro-Republican," Atkinson said.