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A BAD NIGHT FOR DEMOCRATS If you can divine a national trend from a runoff election in Mississippi, be our guest. But rather than pondering the motives of 3,188 Mississippi voters who made the difference in a bitter, hyper-local election, there’s a more useful consideration today. What’s at stake nationally this year is control of the U.S. Senate, and Republican chances of taking the majority went up significantly Tuesday night. [During New York Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel’s victory speech, the stage nearly collapsed. Rangel asked “heavier people on the stage… to take safety over ego” and step down.]

Thad Cochran’s political resurrection began with a campaign shakeup and ended with a Hail Mary television ad. Just three weeks ago, in the dead of night on June 3, the Mississippi senator’s staff sat shaken and dejected, crestfallen at the results of a primary that deprived the six-term incumbent of an electoral majority. With Cochran forced into a runoff fight against an aggressive and energetic challenger, a dark mood shadowed his backers in Washington and Mississippi.

snip There were 24,889 votes cast in Hinds County in the runoff—17,927 were for Cochran and 6,962 were for McDaniel—but only 20,567 Republican voters are listed in Hinds County, according to the well-known Labels and Lists Voter Data Base. The extraordinarily high turnout in Hinds County is much more than what happened in Hinds County in the primary just a few weeks ago, when 16,640 total votes were cast—10,928 for Cochran and 5,621 for McDaniel. When asked if that seems a bit off, Cole responded: “Right.” “I noticed in his speech, McDaniel said ‘dozens of irregularities,’” Cole said. “So I...

Battling for his political survival, six-term Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran narrowly edged out challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel for the win in a tight Republican runoff race that was too close to call for much of the night.

HATTIESBURG, Mississippi — Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) survived the most intense challenge he’s ever faced in his 41-year political career, winning a runoff against conservative state Sen. Chris McDaniel. The Associated Press called the race for Cochran, who is up 6,880 votes with 99.9 percent of precincts reporting.

The GOP establishment just set a new low by mimicking race card antics of left-wing activists like Al Sharpton in a desperate attempt to have Senator Thad Cochran defeat challenger Chris McDaniel in today’s Mississippi primary. The Daily Caller reported robocalls are trying to mobilize black Democrats to support Cochran by tying McDaniel to the Tea Party and its opposition to President Obama. In the automated message appearing to target black Democrat voters in Mississippi, the female voice on the line claims that tea party challenger Chris McDaniel would lead to more obstruction in Washington and create more “disrespectful treatment”...

Lifelong Democrat Jackie Bland is doing something she never thought she'd do: Urge people to vote for a Republican. Bland supports Thad Cochran, a six-term Mississippi senator who's trying to fend off a fierce tea party challenge to his seat from Chris McDaniel as voting got underway in Tuesday's primary runoff. Two weeks ago, Bland helped put up 5,000 pro-Cochran posters in black communities and talk to people about his record. "We wanted to raise the awareness to African-Americans that we do have a stake in this runoff election," she said. She pointed to Cochran's efforts to secure federal funds...

Can't make it to the Election Party? Check out the live stream by TPNN here at 7:00 PM. CDT

State officials in Mississippi are warning groups backing state Sen. Chris McDaniel that their efforts to organize poll watchers for Tuesday's runoff might be illegal. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), the underdog in his primary runoff fight with McDaniel, has been pushing African-American and Democratic voters to turn out for him on Tuesday to try to expand his share of the vote. Under state law, Democrats who did not vote in the first primary round are allowed to vote in the GOP runoff, but conservatives backing McDaniel have argued the law prevents voters from supporting a candidate in the primary that...

BILOXI, MS (WLOX) - At the Ocean Springs Civic Center, the lines were long as voters waited to cast their ballots. The turnout surprised some poll workers, like Paula Clifford. "I am. I'm very surprised at what we've had so far. We've had more people come in and vote this time than we had the last time," Clifford explained. Voters, like Robert Kline, seem to sense that something big is about to happen, no matter who wins. "This is very important to our state, picking out the congressman we want to continue, and I just felt like it was a...

Please post what you are seeing at the polls today.

Anyone who has spent time south of the Mason Dixon line, especially in the Deep South, knows that an order of iced tea at Three Sisters in Jackson, Mississippi means one laced with a heavy dose of sugar. However, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Mississippi, is most likely going to get a gallon of tart, unsweet tea poured on him if Tea Party favorite and State Senator Chris McDaniel defeats him on Tuesday, as most pundits predict. Similar to Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor's stunning defeat at the hands of an unknown tea party college professor, few saw Cochran's defeat coming six...

As Central Texas leaders of the League of United Latin American Citizens make plans for a January education summit, they have an unlikely partner: Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn. LULAC, the Hispanic civil rights group, has long clashed with Cornyn on issues, from health care to immigration. But they say they have found common ground on education. “It’s very unusual,” LULAC Central Texas District Director Gavino Fernandez Jr. said of the partnership. Typically, Republicans “don’t reach out," he said. "They stay away from our community.” That’s changing as Republicans eyeing the state’s shifting demographics increasingly invest in reaching Hispanics, African-Americans...

Chris got 155,000 votes 3 weeks ago, he'll probably need 200,000 this time to win. GOTV

McDaniel Increases Lead Over Cochran in Latest Poll

The Mississippi GOP primary runoff between U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and state Sen. Chris McDaniel has seen both outside groups and the campaigns themselves get locked into an advertising war centered on two big issues: federal spending and the conservative credentials of both candidates. Should voters on Tuesday give another six years to a senator who’s brought billions of dollars in spending from Washington? Or should the keys be handed over to an attorney and former radio host who promises to be a real conservative representing the nation’s poorest state? Continue Reading Text Size -+reset Chris McDaniel ad: 'History' Latest...

By most accounts, going into tomorrow's Republican primary for U.S. Senate, state Sen. Chris McDaniel of Laurel has a commanding advantage over the incumbent, U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. That is, among likely GOP voters. Over the weekend, Chism Strategies—a Democratic firm that has commissioned several polls since the June 3 primary election that resulted in a runoff—unveiled its latest survey of Republicans that shows McDaniel leading Cochran by eight points. For the first time since Chism began polling, the lead is well outside the 4 percent margin of error. "Unless Cochran expands the electorate with general-election Republicans and crossover Democrats,...

Sen. Thad Cochran's efforts to mobilize black Democrats to vote for him against state Sen. Chris McDaniel in Tuesday's Republican runoff election has led McDaniel supporters to field election observers, The New York Times reported. Democrats who did not already participate in the June 3 Mississippi primary are allowed to vote in the Cochran-McDaniel Republican runoff under state law. The 76-year-old Cochran, the most senior Republican in the Senate, is fighting for his political life against McDaniel, 41, reaching out to liberals and black Democrats. Backed by the Senate Conservatives Fund, tea party groups supporting McDaniel will position poll watchers...

LISTEN UP EVERYBODY..... Is there any way that Chris McDaniel's supporters can get this word out to the people of Mississippi today and even during polling times on Election Day, tomorrow? In her Facebook rant, on June 17th, Kate Cochran, daughter of Thaddeus Cochran, called the people of Mississippi "ignorant". “I think that Mississippians are being snookered by neocon zealots on talk radio, Fox News, and elsewhere. The New Right values extremism, obstructionism, partisanship, and--frankly--ignorance.” That should be worth a couple of thousand votes for Chris McDaniel.

In Mississippi, Chris McDaniel’s Senate Bid Is Bolstered by Tea Party Energy By THEODORE SCHLEIFERJUNE 22, 2014 Inside LAUREL, Miss. — Chris McDaniel’s Republican campaign for the Senate barreled through Mississippi on Sunday on anti-establishment, Tea Party-invigorated energy as the state’s runoff primary race entered its final hours.The Tea Party Express, one of the nation’s largest organizations aligned with the movement, was the host of three bus tour events earlier...Five years have passed since Tea Party groups began protesting big government at summer town-hall meetings across the country...*snip* ...kickoff event on Friday evening...10 minutes from Mr. McDaniel’s hometown, American flags...