SELMA, Ala. — Republican presidential candidate John McCain campaigning in heavily Democratic west Alabama is as rare a sight as an elephant in a cotton field.

But won't the majority black area still vote Democratic in November?

AP Photo/David Martin

With the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge in the background, Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., campaigns in Selma, Ala., on Monday.

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"Oh yeah, but maybe not as strongly," said Gov. Bob Riley, a Republican who joined McCain on Monday for a rare GOP presidential campaign swing through the political thicket of rural west Alabama.

McCain chose to kick off his weeklong "It's Time for Action" tour in the region known and named for its black soil, which once produced bumper crops of cotton. These days, the region is two-thirds black and struggling with higher unemployment than most of the rest of the state or the nation and, in many counties, a declining population.

Besides Selma, McCain visited Camden, Gee's Bend and Thomasville.

Selma's civil rights history makes it a required stop for Democratic presidential candidates. Sen. Barack Obama, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and former President Clinton visited the city last year for a civil rights celebration and a photogenic trek across the historic Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River.

McCain supporter Frances Smith, 81, of Selma, said she could never recall a Republican presidential candidate taking time to visit. Smith, who is white, was among about 100 people in the mostly white crowd that greeted McCain. She said some of her friends supported Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee when he won Alabama's GOP presidential primary in February, but she expects them to join her in supporting McCain in November.

"They certainly won't vote for a Democrat," she said.

In Selma, McCain stood near the Edmund Pettus Bridge and described in detail how voting rights marchers were beaten by state troopers in 1965 in what became known as "Bloody Sunday." The event and an ensuing march to Montgomery led to passing of the Voting Rights Act, which opened Southern polling places to blacks and changed the South's tradition of all-white leadership.

One of Selma's current civil rights leaders, Democratic state Sen. Hank Sanders, stood behind McCain as the Arizona senator praised Sanders' work as co-chairman of the Alabama Black Belt Commission. The bipartisan commission is trying to bring industry to the region, and it's most recent success, a U.S. Steel plant, was announced Friday.

Sanders, who is black, is also a leader of the Alabama New South Coalition, which has endorsed Obama, but the Alabama senator had kind words for McCain's visit.

"All the candidates should do this. Sometimes people can get lost in the shuffle, and sometimes we get lost in the shuffle," he said.

Sanders wouldn't make any predictions on how McCain's visit might affect the region's historic voting patterns, but his wife, Selma attorney Rose Toure, said most whites will vote Republican in November and most blacks Democratic.

"McCain's policies unify us. That's why you don't see black people here," she said.

McCain acknowledged that history during his visit.

"I am aware the African-American vote has been very small in favor of the Republican Party. I am aware of the challenges, and I am aware of the fact that there will be many people who will not vote for me, but I'm going to be the president of all the people," he said.

William Bowen, who is white and runs a nonprofit organization for the visually impaired, said McCain's visit might not change the region's Democratic voting history, but it could have an impact on undecided voters like himself.

"When you hear about Republican candidates, you hear about them hanging around rich Republicans. With him coming to Selma, he's showing he will hang around with poor folks," Bowen said.