Thad Cochran Wins GOP Senate Primary in Mississippi, Incumbents Nationwide See Positive Results at Polls
GOP Sen. Thad Cochran struck a major blow to the reemerging Tea Party movement with his victory in Tuesday's primary run-off race for the Mississippi Senate seat.
The six-term senator defeated Tea Party favorite Chris McDaniel by a narrow margin Tuesday night by appealing to anti-Tea Party constituents like Democrats and African-Americans. Cochran is now the favorite to win in November against Travis Childers, a Democratic former congressman, USA Today reports.
Cochran hailed his supporters after his victory Tuesday night.
"It's a group effort," Cochran said. "We all have a right to be proud of our state tonight."
McDaniel tried to paint Cochran as a weak conservative, and claimed that he increased the country's budget deficit when he was on the Appropriations Committee. McDaniel, who had a small lead in the June 3 primary, was supported by the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund, two conservative groups that aim to defeat incumbents from the GOP establishment.
McDaniel was boosted by the support for Dave Brat, a Tea Party newcomer in Virginia who defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor. However, the recent reemergence of the Tea Party in certain states was not enough to lead McDaniel to primary victory.
After his loss Tuesday night, McDaniel told his supporters that he would "never stop fighting" for his conservative beliefs.
Unofficial returns from the primary race showed that Cochran received more votes in counties with a large black population than during the first round of voting. Tea Party groups had poll watchers throughout the state, as they were concerned about Cochran's growing popularity among moderate Democrats.
"There is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that is decided by liberal Democrats," McDaniel later posted on Twitter.
There is something a bit unusual about a Republican primary that is decided by liberal Democrats.
— Sen. Chris McDaniel (@senatormcdaniel) June 25, 2014
Cochran, who is a former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, won over a number of Democrats in the conservative state by presenting evidence of his success in acquiring federal dollars to boost the economically weak state. He was also boosted by a U.S. Chamber of Commerce ad supporting his campaign that featured former NFL quarterback Brett Favre, in addition to support from conservative bigwigs like Sen. John McCain.
Matt Kibbe, the president of FreedomWorks, a Tea Party group that supported McDaniel, slammed the GOP and the Chamber of Commerce for supporting a "campaign platform of pork-barrel spending and insider deal-making, while recruiting Democrats to show up at the polls."
Rob Engstrom, the national political director for the Chamber of Commerce, denied such claims, saying Cochran has "an impeccable record, not only of supporting policies that boost economic growth and job creation, but of leadership to get things done."
The Missisippi Senate race was only one of a number of primary races Tuesday night that yielded favorable results for incumbents.
Charles Rangel, the 22-term Democratic congressman from New York, won the primary senate spot in the states's 13th Congressional District. Rangel defeated Democratic State Senator Adriano Espaillat once again, with 47.44 percent of the vote, beating Espaillat's 43.62 percent. Rangel defeated Espaillat in the 2012 primary election as well.
Rangel will enjoy at least two more years of his 43-year run as a U.S. congressman.
Rangel and Cochran are known in congress as "old bulls," a nickname for veteran lawmakers and committee chairmen who have a strong influence in both chambers of Congress.
While Rangel stepped down from the House Ways and Means Committee in 2010 when he was investigated for ethics violations, constituents believed his claim that his years of experience in Washington will benefit the district more than Espaillat, who is a state senator in Albany.
The 13th district, which includes Harlem, has changed a great deal since Rangel was first elected in the district in 1970. Harlem is now predominantly Hispanic, as are precincts in the Bronx, which were added to the 13th district after redistricting. Rangel was previously criticized for saying that Espaillat was only popular because of his Dominican background.
In other races across the country, GOP Rep. James Lankford was nominated as the Senate nominee, and Democrat Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown won Maryland's nomination for governor.
In Florida, Republican Curt Clawson won a special election to succeed Trey Radel, the congressman who resigned after being arrested for possession of cocaine, according to Politico. In Colorado, Rep. Bob Beauprez won the GOP primary to face Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper in the upcoming November election. Hickenlooper is favored to beat Beauprez, who lost by 17 percentage points when he ran as the GOP nominee for governor in 2006.
If McDaniel had won in Mississippi, the state would have joined Georgia and Kentucky as another state that could be won by Democrats in efforts to triumph over reemerging Tea Partiers.
Now, funds that would have been allocated for McDaniel will be used to back Cochran and other GOP members who could take control of the Senate in November.
The defeat of Cantor seems to be an anomaly this year; every Republican senator looks poised to win the primary for the first time since 2008. Sen Pat Roberts is the favorite to win in the Kansas primary on Aug. 5 over physician Milton Wolf, and GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander is the favorite to win in the Aug. 7 Tennessee primary over Rep. Joe Carr.