[BillyBoy]

>> they know the sitting senator is more likely to lose, and going after his opponent will only damage the party's ability to beat the Democratic candidate and take over the Senate. It's an excruciating decision for all of Cochran's supporters, from the National Republican Senatorial Committee to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. And even though they're reiterating their support, it already looks like they are ready to scale back, and that means less money and toned-down attacks. <<

I'm surprised how many freepers seemed disappointed by the numbers on Tuesday and expected McDaniel to win outright.

It's extremely difficult to pass a sitting Senator in your party during a primary, and McDaniel pulled it off. Even if Cochran had narrowly beaten McDaniel by a few hundred votes (which he didn't!), Cochran getting under 50% was still huge news and the momentum is now on McDaniel's side, which Cochran supporters seem to be conceding and realizing the odds are that Cochran will lose the runoff no matter what they do.

McDaniel is already ahead, and with the third Republican being eliminated, I expect the vast majority of that guy's votes will go to McDaniel since the people voting for the third guy weren't happy with the incumbent Senator. I really can't see any way Cochran wins the runoff unless ol' Miss has some kind of fully open primary system and there's no RAT primary and the MS RATS have a good reason to want Cochran back in Washington.

Funny thing about Cochran, he was a Republican in Miss long before it was "popular" to be one. But he has NEVER been a conservative. Thad, you may have set the stage, but now its time for new players to run the show.

[Sybeck1]

You know if Thad was up just slightly would be coming from all establishment corners for Chris to get out.

[Viennacon]

Still, I think McDaniel should tread carefully. The nursing home crap ads are venomous. He needs to counter with tact and point out how little Cochran himself seems to care about getting elected.

[AuH2ORepublican]

MS has open primaries, and Democrats took advantage of that to try to throw the GOP nomination to Cochran. Black Democrats overtly campaigned for Cochran, even running ads in black newspapers. http://m.chron.com/news/politics/article/Some-black-Miss-Dems-supported-GOP-s-Cochran-5528545.php If you look at the voting results for black-majority counties in the Delta, it’s clear that quite a few black Democrats voted in the GOP primary, overwhelmingly for Cochran (in particular, check out results from Leflore County; and Jackson’s Hinds County keeps shedding white population, so Cochran’s vote margin can only be explained if black Democrats crossed over). It is clear that Cochran kept McDaniel under 50% thanks to the GOTV effort from black Democrats.

And BTW, Cochran also did surprisingly well in overwhelmingly white, very culturally conservative NE MS, which at the state level is the last bastion of Yellow Dog Democrats in the state (and where a higher percentage of whites vote Democrat for prsident than anywhere else in the state). So I believe that Cochran got quite a few votes from white Democrats as well.

[Impy]

How can you not be disappointed, it was so close and goes to a runoff because of some scrub third candidate and rat crossover as Auh2 points out. We should have gotten the kill shot on Tuesday night.
Sports analogy, you don’t wanna go to overtime when you can win in regulation.

Still the runoff should favor McDaniel, rat crossover should be less of problem there I hope and he has the momentum.

I salute Cochran for being a Republican since before age 30 and helping grow the GOP in the state. But it’s time for him to say goodbye.