Black Democrats look to Cochran on voting rights

Associated Press ^ | Jul 5, 2014 4:04 AM EDT | Bill Barrow and Emily Wagster Pettus

[Olog-hai]

After black voters helped Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran survive an intense Republican primary runoff against an insurgent conservative challenger, some civil rights leaders in the South want him to repay the favor.

Their request? Cochran should lead the charge in the Senate to renew a key section of the Voting Rights Act struck down last year by the Supreme Court’s conservative majority. […]

Cochran angered some conservatives with his unabashed appeal to Democrats in the June 24 runoff election against state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who eked out a win with the support of tea party groups in the state’s primary but didn’t win the outright majority required to avoid a runoff against the six-term incumbent.

Black Mississippians, who AP exit polls have indicated overwhelmingly vote Democratic, have voted for Cochran in general elections in the past, but have never before been such a key voting bloc in a contested GOP contest. He must now ponder how to respond to that unusual primary coalition while mending fissures inside the state GOP, which is mostly supported by voters who are white. …

[RummyChick]

There are operatives on twitter totally twisting info about Mcdaniel.

It is astounding

One guy is claiming that physical threats were made on that conference call. Anyone know if that happened?

[SunkenCiv]

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