One thing 45-year-old Traci Johnson Graham says she's learned as a salon owner in Euclid is that people tend to prefer the familiar.
Traci Johnson Graham: In this business, when people are looking through magazines to decide on a look for themselves they always pick people...there's something about the person they pick that looks a little bit like them.
And that's why she says she still has doubts that Illinois's Democratic Senator Barack Obama can win in November and become the first African American president.
Traci Johnson Graham: Once you go in the booth and no one's looking, people pick people who are more like themselves.
Graham is a registered African American voter, a group that makes up 12% of Ohio's registered Democrats. She's part of that one group whose allegiance is being pulled in two directions and she still hasn't decided whether her race or gender will impact her vote. That's a common story around the country, says John Green, a political analyst at the University of Akron's Bliss Institute.
John Green: African Americans in Ohio look very much like African Americans nationally with about the same proportion of the Ohio electorate, many of the same issue positions, same strong partisanship for the Democrat Party.
A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that Obama's support among African American women has risen 35 points since October. He's now winning nearly 60% of the black vote.
John Green: Typically, whatever happens in national polls reflecting the attitudes of African Americans is generally happening here in Ohio, so recent trends we've seen of some support increasing for Obama among African Americans nationally is very likely to be taking place here in Ohio.
And if Super Tuesday's Democratic primary election results are as close as polls predict, Ohio's 161 delegates could become a prize worth serious battle. Jason Johnson of Hiram College, also a political scientist, says a close result today means Democratic candidates will be wooing Ohio's black voters.
Jason Johnson: So it's not that blacks are inherently important as a voting block, it's where they happen to be. The large concentration of African Americans in the state of Ohio happen to be in the congressional districts that are going to have the most delegates. So it may not matter in Lorain if you have African Americans vote for you, or even Toledo for that matter. But it's going to matter in Cleveland. It's going to matter in Cincinnati. And it's going to matter in Columbus.
Writer Tumeka Harris says she voted for Bill Clinton in 1996, but this year she's drawn to Obama's message of unity and change.
Tumeka Harris: I am a fan of the Clintons and if Obama wasn't running, I would definitely be for Hillary. Hands down.
Harris sits in the chair as stylist Graham trims her bangs. As black women, they say they're blown away by the significance of race and gender in this year's election. Especially Obama's unexpected success in the primaries so far.
Traci Johnson Graham: I'm very proud of the fact that he's being taken so seriously.
Mhari Saito: Do you feel the same sort of pride because Hillary is the first woman getting this far?
Graham and Harris: No.
Harris: I would say perfectly honestly, no. Just because race always comes first in people's eyes, then what gender you are.
Harris says race is a part of her decision to vote for Obama. She's disheartened when she hears black voters say they are voting for Clinton because as a white person, they think she's got a better shot in November.
Tumeka Harris: African Americans should educate themselves so that way they're not just voting because of what they think can or can't happen. Make a wise choice off information, not off what other people are saying or what other people think you should or shouldn't do. Just educate yourself then make the wise decision whether it's Hillary or Obama.
That's exactly what salon owner Traci Graham says she's going to do. Her biggest concerns are where the candidates stand on the economy and education. Mhari Saito, 90.3.