The chair of the Tennessee Democratic Party has issued an apology after saying certain Democratic candidates have struggled to gain traction because the state is racist.

Mary Mancini, re-elected by the state party's executive committee in January to her third two-year term as its leader, says she chose the wrong words while discussing the state of politics in Tennessee during a recent tour to visit local county Democratic parties.

"We have a little bit of a problem in this state, and I'm just going to say it out right," Mancini said while speaking earlier this month with the Coffee County Democratic Party. "This is a racist state."

Mancini made the comment while talking about how the state party should continue to put forward candidates who are less conventional in Tennessee, including black and Latino people, millennials and members of the LGBTQ community.

"We have to disregard that old trope that Tennessee Democrats have been living under, which is that we have to find a candidate that looks like the community," she said.

In an audio recording of a second recent county party meeting with Mancini, she can also be heard calling Tennessee "a very racist state."

After an interview about her recent comments, in which Mancini pointed to "leadership in the Republican Party who like to inflame our differences," she later released a statement to the USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee apologizing for her remarks during the meetings.

"In the heat and the frustration of seeing and hearing the constant drumbeat of bigotry, misogyny and homophobia coming from the Republicans at the state legislature, I used a poor choice of words and vented my frustration and I apologize," Mancini said.

"My statement is not representative of how I or the Tennessee Democratic Party view the people of our state. Racism is not an issue that we can shy away from addressing head-on. However, I am more aware than ever that words matter when discussing tough issues like race. I commit to continuing this conversation thoughtfully and respectfully with the voters of Tennessee."

In the interview, Mancini alleged that the state GOP was causing division to "become ingrained" in residents around the state, but acknowledged that racism persisted in the Democratic Party, too.

In a statement, Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden said it was disappointing that Mancini called the state racist. He said Republicans are working to “lift all Tennesseans up,” citing the state’s economy and efforts to boost educational attainment.

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While speaking to Coffee County Democrats, Mancini talked about how even some Democrats in state House District 82 — which was represented for years by Craig Fitzhugh until he did not seek re-election in order to run for governor — suggested that Andrea Bond-Johnson, an African-American candidate for the seat, wouldn't have a shot at winning there due to the small minority population.

"Two out of the three counties in that area are extraordinarily racist," Mancini told the group.

Asked in the interview about the comment, Mancini said she agreed there were still racist members of the Democratic Party, but that she was uninterested in keeping their support or that kind of thinking in the party.

"I wasn’t the only one who was told that we need to run someone who is not African-American in that district, because (some believed) an African-American cannot win in that district because white people will not vote for an African-American."

Mancini's apology follows freshman Rep. London Lamar, D-Memphis, apologizing last fall for saying "Tennessee is racist" and that Republican voters are uneducated.

Mancini at the time called Lamar's remarks "a mistake made in anger after witnessing intense voter suppression aimed at people of color," but defended Lamar's frustration.

Mancini said the state party is on the right path forward and has encouraged people of color and other candidates representing minority groups in Tennessee to continue running for office.

"I think it’s hard to be a party that is not winning," Mancini said. "So I think people look for ways in which we can win. I think this is a long process of changing our thought process, building the Tennessee Democratic Party for the future, and not for looking back in the past.

"I think that’s a very important change that we have to make and we have started to make and that we have to continue to make."

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Reach Natalie Allison at nallison@tennessean.com. Follow her on Twitter at @natalie_allison.

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