Tea Party candidate weighs legal options
Sen. Thad Cochran’s (R-Miss.) primary challenger Chris McDaniel is looking into possible legal routes to challenge Cochran’s runoff win.
Multiple sources tell The Hill that the campaign is evaluating their options after Cochran orchestrated an improbable win over McDaniel on Tuesday night, defeating the challenger by about 6,300 votes.
The campaign’s concerns hinge on heavily African-American Hinds County, which includes the state capital of Jackson and where nearly 70 percent of the residents are black and the voting population is more Democratic than most counties in the state. Cochran netted about 7,000 more votes there in the runoff than the first round of primary voting.
Cochran won the county during the first round of primary voting by a sizable margin, but the significantly increased turnout there this time around helped his lead.
More voters in Hinds County backed Cochran in the runoff — 17,927 — than the total number that turned out in the first round of GOP primary voting (16,640). Turnout increased by about 50 percent from the primary to the runoff, and Cochran expanded his portion of the vote from 66 percent to 72 percent.
That difference of 7,000 more votes than what he netted in the June 4 primary was critical to his slim margin of victory statewide. McDaniel picked up about 1,300 more votes from the primary to the runoff in Hinds County.
McDaniel seemed to hint at the likelihood of a legal challenge in a speech to supporters after the Associated Press called the race for Cochran.
“Before this race is over we have to make absolutely certain the Republican primary was won by Republican voters,” McDaniel said.
“Today the conservative movement took a backseat to liberal Democrats in the state of Mississippi,” said the state senator, adding that “there were literally dozens of irregularities” and “you know why.”
The Hill
6/25/14
Magnolia Tribune
