Posted on 06/24/2014 10:53:20 PM PDT by bd476
Politico
By ANNA PALMER | 6/25/14 12:24 AM EDT
HATTIESBURG, MISS. — A defiant Chris McDaniel walked up to the podium at his election night headquarters here after the Republican runoff was called for his opponent Sen. Thad Cochran — and then he didn't concede.
"We had a dream and the dream is still with us," said McDaniel to an increasingly vocal crowd, telling them that the fight is not over. "Today the conservative movement took a backseat to liberal Democrats in Mississippi."
Cochran's strategy Tuesday was to expand the electorate by ginning up votes from voters who don’t typically participate in Republican primaries, including blacks and Democrats. Mississippi voting rules allow anyone to participate in a primary.
(Full primary election results here)
But the tea party-backed McDaniel camp cried foul, sending in poll monitors and questioning the final outcome of the race.
More than 200 supporters gathered in the Hattiesburg Lake Terrace Convention Center were just as angry at the loss to Cochran that virtually assures the 76-year-old an easy win toward a seventh term in the general election.
They cheered his defiance and chanted “Write Chris In!” as he took the stage and calling out “It’s not over Chris” and “We’re not going with Thad.”
McDaniel supporters quickly moved to consider legal challenges based on reported voting irregularities.
Senate Conservatives Fund’s Ken Cuccinelli hung up on a POLITICO reporter when asked if they would consider challenging the result in court.
McDaniel said that Republicans must find their “backbone again” and called out irregularities at polling operations.
Cochran’s win was a major victory for the GOP Republican establishment that included heavy investment by the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
McDaniel had tried to position Cochran as a Washington insider with a history of pork barrel projects. His loss was the second major tea party defeat of the evening. Rep. James Lankford bested primary opponent T.W. Shannon in the Oklahoma Senate GOP primary.
It’s a major loss for national tea party groups, who had hoped to capitalize on Dave Brat’s upset in Virginia to defeat House Majority Leader Eric Cantor earlier this month. FreedomWorks put an aggressive ground game together holding rallies and blanketing the state with yard signs. Club for Growth also put in financial resources during the run-off for an ad buy.
Despite playing Pharrell’s “Get Lucky” over the loud speaker system as McDaniel closed the gap within a few thousand votes wasn’t enough to put the tea party favorite over the top.
The mood quickly soured as word that Cochran had bested McDaniel in the run-off. Some hugged, others shook their heads while yet others headed for the exits before McDaniel even took the stage to address the crowd.
What had started as a confident evening with McDaniel supporters predicting a victory quickly turned into a vent session over dirty politics.
“This is such a perverting of a fair election system that we are outraged the Secretary of State hasn’t stepped in,” said Ray Nicholson, the founding and past chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party. “I think it is going to badly hurt the Republican party in Mississippi.”
Barry Neyrey, chairman of the South Mississippi Tea Party on the Gulf Coast, blamed Cochran’s move to try and expand the electorate and increase Democratic turnout in the primary is “dirty politics.”
“That is corruption, that is Washington corruption on full display and that is what Chris McDaniel was trying to fight, is trying to fight against, the corruption of Washington,” Neyrey said.
The political activist said McDaniel’s loss is making him rethink his involvement.
“It makes you want to quit being involved. I never believed a third party would work, maybe that’s the only way to get rid of the corruption of Washington, the corruption of the Democratic party, the corruption of the Republican party,” Neyrey said. “These people do not exist to serve the public, they exist to serve themselves and each other.”
—Alex Burns contributed to this report.
If the establishment were serious they’d work out a way to get Wicker to step down for a few years and get Cochran to retire in 3.
“It makes you want to quit being involved. I never believed a third party would work, maybe that’s the only way to get rid of the corruption of Washington, the corruption of the Democratic party, the corruption of the Republican party,” Neyrey said. “These people do not exist to serve the public, they exist to serve themselves and each other.”
Barry Neyrey sounds remarkably astute.
That is absolutely precious.
The GOP-e scum enlisted Democrats to steal the Republican primary. The GOP-e can go to Hell.
>> Cochran’s win was a major victory for the GOP Republican establishment
An incumbent squeaking by in a run-off is a “major victory”. Hahaha!
Yes!
Anyone that thinks elections are going to stop the Ruling Class from imposing their rule over us, via any and all means including threats and intimidation - has a fatal case of Normalcy Bias.
We went Soviet and you are seeing the results of that cancer.
You cannot stop tyranny by civil means. Fact of history.
Uncivil men and corrupted institutions do not regard nor respect a civil society.
They will subjugate it.
Exactly. Cochran is a puppet. I hope God cuts his strings before he gets to election day.
I’m saying this as an officer in the GOP - McDaniel, run as an Independent.
Anyone who courts Democrats to win the primary like Cochran did does not deserve the GOP nomination.
if chris mcdaniel goes third party write-in, i’m with him. he could win, especially if the leftists split their vote between cochran and the dem challenger.
this country started to implode 20 years ago.. it’s NEVER going to be the country it once was.. love your family and community as hard as you can for as long as it lasts... which won’t be more than another generation or two at the most
No way are the Democrats going to vote for this guy. They saw this as a chance to nominate an unelectable, senile old man to run against their Democrat candidate.
More than one half of the Republicans are totally pissed off at the tactics of recruiting Democrats to cross over the primary.
They are not going to let this go. McDaniels will probably challenge the results of the Primary which will hurt all Republicans and a lot of McDaniels supporters simply will not vote for Thad in the general election and many may not bother to vote at all which will screw other republicans running
Blow this seat up....if Chris can run as an independent, do it. This GOPe scum need to get some blow-back.
Otherwise, they will continue to do this
Yup.....make a stand here. Blow the seat up, win it or lose it, but don’t let this stand.
So black voter Dems got manipulated and riled up by old whitey to vote for that candidate who was lying to them so they could rally to the cause of the black president who doesn’t give a rip about them all in the name of feeling outraged and good at the same time. What a cluster goat copulation. Shame on the GOPe old fools and tasbards of power hungry sickness,
Also at fault are way too many stupid Republican voters who just can’t bring themselves to vote against the incumbents of the GOPe. Are they so cemented in the brain that a six term Senator can’t be removed and replaced by another good, younger candidate from their same party and especially with all the corruption of DC? We have a stupid electorate folks with too many morons as voters. Its a real bad problem everywhere.
If McDaniel runs as a write-in, he’ll just pull votes from Cochran.
There’s no way Democrats who voted for Cochran in the runoff are going to vote for him the general.
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