McDaniel mobilizes support as McCain backs Cochran
FLOWOOD, Miss. Challenger Chris McDaniel pushed to mobilize his core supporters Monday in the closing hours of the runoff campaign for Mississippi’s Republican nomination for Senate, hours after U.S. Sen. John McCain praised incumbent Thad Cochran’s record on military issues at a Jackson event.
McDaniel rallied about 70 volunteers Monday evening along a busy suburban highway in the key Republican battleground of Rankin County.
The state senator from Ellisville is assuring supporters that their intensity and disgust for Washington will prevail Tuesday over the parade of state and national Republican officials aiding the six-term incumbent. McDaniel is bashing Cochran as “liberal” for seeking runoff votes from independents and Democrats.
“Tonight, they’re calling us unstoppable,” he told them. “It’s contingent on you getting out to the polls, bringing your friends with you. If you do that, with that kind of turnout, there’s nothing the Washington elite can do.”
McCain and other Cochran supporters highlighted the incumbent’s support for the military in their push against the tea party-backed challenger. McCain said that Cochran, a fellow Navy veteran, has been a steady ally of military spending and readiness.
“I call on my fellow veterans, I call on my fellow service members to send Thad Cochran, a good and decent and honorable senator, back to the United States Senate,” McCain told an audience of about 200 at the War Memorial auditorium in downtown Jackson.
The Arizona senator was the 2008 Republican nominee for president. His vice presidential running mate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, traveled to Mississippi in late May to campaign for McDaniel.
Charlotte Observer
6/23/14
Magnolia Tribune
