Gender or Race?

A few lines from a recent CNN.com report (here) struck me as odd. . . .

Recent polls show black women are expected to make up more than a third of all Democratic voters in South Carolina's primary in five days.
For these women, a unique, and most unexpected dilemma, presents itself: Should they vote their race, or should they vote their gender?

Wow. That is an unexpected dilemma. You would think it would be finding the best person to lead this country through an array of both immediate and long term issues, but hey, that's just me.

Here's another goodie:
Analysts say black women this year never have been more engaged in a political campaign or held such power in determining the Democratic nominee.

As far as I'm aware everyone gets a single vote, a vote these women have held since 1920. So how is it they have more voting power this year or than any other citizen? Isn't it the engagement that is the key to the power in voting, not the color or sex of the candidates?

Politics, religion, the continuing success of reality TV, it all boggles my mind.

EDIT: It came to my mind yesterday that even though black women have legally had the right to vote since 1920, social and racial issues may have kept them from doing so until the more recent past. Even so, my point (which was directed at Randi Kaye, the author of this CNN.com article not the women she is writing about) still stands in saying that the color or sex of the current candidates does not give them any additional voting power, but that it is, possibly, the interest and engagement of these women because of these candidates that they are now using the power that has always been theirs.