COLUMBIA (AP) -- South Carolina's election results appear to suggest landmark racial progress in a state that still flies the Confederate flag near its Statehouse.

This week, voters nominated an Indian-American woman for governor and a black state lawmaker for Congress. But some ask whether the victories by state representatives Nikki Haley and Tim Scott are a sign of real change or just an aberration of conservative politics.

Political scientist Merle Black of Emory University in Atlanta says the results mark a change in a state where voting has run along racial fault lines.

But Haley and Scott stressed their message, not their ethnicity or gender.

Voters said they supported the tea party-endorsed candidates as conservatives willing to shake things up.

(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)