Yes. It was early days in the scandal, before everybody knew that the allegations were completely fabricated. Durham County is predominantly Black, and this case split the community along racial lines pretty well. So Nifong squeezed a narrow victory by throwing gasoline on this fire every single day.
That, and his opponent was Freda Black, famous for prosecuting novelist Mike Peterson for murdering his wife and claiming she fell down the stairs. Freda had problems in that when she was prosecuting she started fucking a guy up on domestic violence charges and she ended up dismissing his charges. And, oh yes, she is FULL BLOWN BAT SHIT CRAZY.
Funny that Nifong was the lesser of two evils in that race.