… Mississippi, a state often ignored by the national political world, managed to do something rarely seen in politics: Produce two upsets in the same race in a three-week span. And it bucked a trend of generally pathetic turnout in primaries nationwide to produce the second and then first-largest primary […] Read more »
It Looks Like African-Americans Really Did Help Thad Cochran Win
Tuesday night, Republican Sen. Thad Cochran defied the polls and defeated tea party challenger Chris McDaniel in the Mississippi Senate primary runoff by a 51 percent to 49 percent margin. Cochran couldn’t have done it without expanding the pool of voters, and in the last three weeks he did just […] Read more »
Tallies Signal Black Voters Played Role in Cochran Win
Sen. Thad Cochran’s upset victory on Tuesday was built in large part on support in Mississippi counties where African Americans are most concentrated, suggesting the unusual occurrence of black voters saving the political fortunes of a Republican office-holder. CONT. Dante Chinni (American U.), Wall Street Journal Read more »
Big Jump in Turnout Is Key in Thad Cochran’s Victory
Turnout hadn’t increased in a Senate runoff primary election in 30 years until Tuesday night, when a momentous surge of voters allowed Senator Thad Cochran to defeat Chris McDaniel, a Tea Party-backed state senator, in Mississippi’s Republican Senate runoff. … The Cochran campaign’s efforts to appeal to Democratic-leaning black voters […] Read more »
Population Shifts Had Nothing to Do With Cantor’s Defeat
… But here’s one such theory, as described by a New York Times article published Sunday: Perhaps Cantor’s defeat — and the near-defeat of Republican Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi — has something to do with migration patterns. If more people are moving into areas where they are less familiar […] Read more »
The Mississippi Gamble
Over the last few weeks, it has been hard to watch six-term Sen. Thad Cochran fight for political survival in Mississippi’s Republican primary without thinking of some of the lyrics from Kenny Rogers’s song “The Gambler.” In the second stanza, we hear an old-timer say, “Son, I’ve made a life […] Read more »