JUDY WOODRUFF: It was
a remarkable contrast
yesterday, in the middle
of an ongoing pandemic.

Even as protesters took to the
streets in dozens of cities,
voters in several states

were making their voices
heard at the polls, both
in person and by mail.

In Ferguson, Missouri, where
protests first erupted in 2014
after the shooting death of

Michael Brown by a white police
officer, the city elected its
first African-American and

first woman mayor.

Ella Jones reflected on her
historic win last night.

ELLA JONES, Ferguson, Missouri,
Mayor-Elect: So, being the
first African-American woman,

what does that mean? That means,
I have got work to do, because,
when you're an African-American

woman, they require more
of you than they require
of my counterpart.

And I know that the people in
Ferguson are ready to stabilize
their community, and we're

going to work together
to get it done.

JUDY WOODRUFF: To look at some
of yesterday's election results
and what it means ahead of

November, I'm joined
now by someone familiar
to "NewsHour" viewers.

It's Amy Walter of The Cook
Political Report and host of
public radio's "Politics With

Amy Walter."

So, hello, Amy.

Let's start with those results
in Ferguson. It's almost like
bookends. You had the big

protests of six years ago,
with the death of Michael
Brown at the hands of a police

officer, six years later,
protests in Ferguson,
Missouri, over the --
over what happened in

Minneapolis.

It's a city still struggling,
like the rest of the country,
with this issue. How is it

thought that the election
of this woman, Ella Jones,
could change things?

AMY WALTER, The Cook Political
Report: Yes, Judy, it is quite
remarkable, again, to have

the first African-American
elected in this week in a city
like Ferguson which -- that

has so much symbolism.

But what's also remarkable,
Judy, is how much the American
public has moved on this issue,

this issue of excessive force
used by police, especially
against black folks. And what we

saw in 2014 was, only a third
of Americans thought that the
police used executive force

with African-Americans
vs. whites.

In 2016, it was still about a
third. Today, a new poll came
out, Monmouth University poll,

shows that almost 60 percent
of Americans now believe
that excessive force is being

used against African-Americans
more so than it's being
used against whites.

And I think that's an incredible
movement in such a short
amount of time. I think a

lot of that is driven,
of course, by the
horrific video that most
Americans, if they haven't

seen it themselves,
have heard about.

And I also think it's reflective
of the fact that a lot has
happened since 2014, even in

Ferguson. In Ferguson,
even before this election
of the mayor, a number
of African-Americans

were elected to the city
council, so it went from
almost all white to being
majority African-American

over the course of
these last few years.

JUDY WOODRUFF: So, Amy, so much
to talk about there, but I also
want to ask you about Iowa.

Very interesting result there.

Republican conservative
Congressman Steve King, who is
known for making controversial

statements over the years,
especially with regard to
white supremacy, and right now,

he -- so, last night,
he goes down to defeat
in that primary in Iowa.

What does this say about what
could happen in November?

AMY WALTER: Judy, seems like
almost too much of a Hollywood
script, right, to have the

first African-American elected
in Ferguson and then to have
somebody associated with

anti-immigrant and
racist statements lose
in a primary in Iowa.

It's not as simple as that, of
course. Nothing ever is in life
or in politics. The challenge

that Steve King had also came
within his own party, and he
was defeated in a Republican

primary, in large part because
the Republican leadership
abandoned him after he made some

of these comments in 2019.

But they were also
abandoning him because
of how weak a showing he
had in 2018. He almost

lost in this very conservative,
very Republican district. They
got behind a state senator

who's also very conservative,
who's also very closely tied to
Donald Trump. He tied himself

very closely to the
president in his own ads.

The campaign that the Republican
opponent to Steve King ran
wasn't taking on Steve King's

past anti-immigrant or racist
statements. He didn't mention
that really at all. It was

focused on the fact that Steve
King had lost his prestigious
committee assignment, that

Republicans had
stripped him of that.

So that was a bigger factor in
this race than the statements
that he had made previously.

JUDY WOODRUFF: And now that
seat is going to be one tougher
for the Democrats to pick

up.

AMY WALTER: That's right.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Republicans
think they have got a stronger
-- very quickly, Amy, in just

a few seconds, this dispute
over the Republican Convention
in the state of North Carolina,

where is that headed?

AMY WALTER: It looks like it's
headed to a different state.

The president wants
-- the president wants
a big convention, and
he wants a crowd. And

North Carolina's not going to
give it to him, so he's going
to figure it out, and he wants

to show America that he's
getting things back on track,
and the convention is his way to

do that.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Amy Walter, so
much to talk about. Thank you
very much. Great to see you

on this Wednesday.

We will see you next week.