# Mississippi election for U.S. Senator **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [June 5, 2014, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122 "2014-06-05T15:26:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kolga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e56c9b/32.png) [@Kolga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kolga)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 7:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/41 "2014-06-25T07:33:55Z")
That was unexpected. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/42 "2014-06-25T13:10:28Z")
No matter who ultimately gets the nod, this looks like a win for Democrats. Maybe they get a beatable nominee and maybe they don’t, but either way this is a ton of money that can’t be spent on actual elections. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/43 "2014-06-25T13:12:33Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > No matter who ultimately gets the nod, this looks like a win for Democrats. Maybe they get a beatable nominee and maybe they don’t, but either way this is a ton of money that can’t be spent on actual elections. Well… yes. Except that I’m not sure I agree that they need to spend much money in the general election to win Mississippi. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/44 "2014-06-25T13:39:23Z")
I think Cochran can spend nothing at all from here on out and coast to re-election. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/45 "2014-06-25T13:41:40Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Well… yes. Except that I’m not sure I agree that they need to spend much money in the general election to win Mississippi. Yeah, but a lot of the money spent in the primary came from outside groups: FreedomWorks and the like. So it won’t be spent on actual elections _outside_ Mississippi. I have no illusions about the odds of any Democrat winning a statewide election in that state. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/46 "2014-06-25T14:01:43Z")
McDaniels would have been a win for Democrats. Watching the Tea partiers celebrate as they sink their own party never gets old. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2014, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/47 "2014-06-25T14:44:39Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > LOL, McDaniel [refuses to concede](http://finance.yahoo.com/news/mississippi-tea-party-candidate-refuses-040900287.html) in a furious post election speech. What an asshole How so? It was a rather narrow margin, and there may be legitimate questions about whether some of the voters were ineligible (because they already voted in the Democratic primary). Of course, if McDaniel starts talking up that point in terms that don’t require a Captain Midnight Decoder Ring to translate as “they shouldn’t have let all those n_gg_rs vote”, then by all means call him an asshole. > [@Bricker](#): > > Well… yes. Except that I’m not sure I agree that they need to spend much money in the general election to win Mississippi. Any competent Republican can easily win Mississippi under normal circumstances. The circumstances are not normal. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2014, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/48 "2014-06-27T17:52:22Z")
And now a tragic and bizarre side story: > [@](#): > > [Tea party leader Mayfield dead of apparent suicide](http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2014/06/27/mark-mayfield-dead/11456769/) > > Attorney Mark Mayfield was found dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound Friday at his Ridgeland home. > > Mayfield, vice chairman of the Mississippi Tea Party, and is one of the three men charged with conspiring with Clayton Kelly to photograph U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s bedridden wife in her nursing home and create a political video against Cochran… Other accounts say that a suicide note was found, but the contents haven’t been disclosed. Cue avalanche of batshit-insane conspiracy theories in 5…4…3… ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/49 "2014-06-28T02:21:31Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Of course, if McDaniel starts talking up that point in terms that don’t require a Captain Midnight Decoder Ring to translate as “they shouldn’t have let all those n_gg_rs vote”, then by all means call him an asshole. [How’s this?](http://www.breitbart.com/Breitbart-TV/2014/06/27/Chris-McDaniel-Weve-Found-1000-Examples-of-Ineligible-Voters-in-One-County) ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/50 "2014-06-28T16:27:13Z")
Looks like McDaniels was pretty careful to couch his objections as being to Democrats voting rather than black people. He accuses _Cochran_ of race-baiting (though I suspect his understanding of the term is not widely held.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 7:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/51 "2014-06-28T19:08:33Z")
So, does [Childers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Childers) have any chance of beating Cochran in November? Any chance at all? ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/52 "2014-06-28T19:21:54Z")
Maybe if McDaniel runs a sore-loser campaign and splits the vote. ---
**Author:** ![Ibn\_Warraq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/e19b73/32.png) [@Ibn\_Warraq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ibn_Warraq)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/53 "2014-06-28T20:46:19Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > Maybe if McDaniel runs a sore-loser campaign and splits the vote. Does Mississippi allow that, or would he only be allowed to run a write-in campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/54 "2014-06-28T21:38:36Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > So, does [Childers](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Travis_Childers) have any chance of beating Cochran in November? Any chance at all? He has a fighting chance. Definitely an uphill battle, but there are deep divisions in the GOP. It’s unknown whether McDaniel is actually going to file a lawsuit, or attempt some sort of write-in campaign, or just continue to stamp his feet and cry. Rumors are flying–including some that certain Tea Party supporters may back Childers out of spite. The Dems are enthused…they smell blood in the water. I expect enough money will come in to allow Childers to make a very serious run. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2014, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/55 "2014-06-28T22:10:36Z")
> [@Oakminster](#): > > He has a fighting chance. Definitely an uphill battle, but there are deep divisions in the GOP. It’s unknown whether McDaniel is actually going to file a lawsuit, or attempt some sort of write-in campaign, or just continue to stamp his feet and cry. Rumors are flying–including some that certain Tea Party supporters may back Childers out of spite. > > The Dems are enthused…they smell blood in the water. I expect enough money will come in to allow Childers to make a very serious run. It helps that the Democratic voters who put Cochran over the top 1)will have a recent memory of making a difference and 2)are seeing echoes of bad-old-times vote-suppression tactics in McDaniel’s desperate attempts to invadlidate the election. Both of these (particularly the latter) will help boost turnout (which has traditionally been a Democratic weak point). ---
**Author:** ![Oakminster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/77aa72/32.png) [@Oakminster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oakminster)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/56 "2014-07-03T02:24:45Z")
McDaniel is soliciting donations to find a lawsuit. [Story here.](http://news.yahoo.com/defeated-u-senate-candidate-mississippi-vows-fight-results-195025937.html) _“Thanks to illegal voting from liberal Democrats, my opponent stole last week’s runoff election, but I’m not going down without a fight,” McDaniel said in the fundraising email one day after his supporters filed suit to gain access to voter records._ This race continues to make Red Viper v The Mountain look like a slap fight. ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/57 "2014-07-03T03:56:06Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > It was a rather narrow margin, and there may be legitimate questions about whether some of the voters were ineligible (because they already voted in the Democratic primary). I suppose there was a mechanism to prevent such ineligible votes, a few mistakes, and the idea that even a few mistakes could affect a close election. Or is there more to it? And if there were mistakes, since ballots aren’t tied to voters, what redress could there be other than yet another runoff? > [@](#): > > [Mississippi] also has a statute – considered unenforceable – that says people should not vote in a party primary unless they plan to support the party’s nominee in a general election. This has been the subject of litigation and calls for closed primaries in the past. But Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann and others said that only those who voted Democratic on June 3 were prohibited from voting Tuesday. Is the threatened lawsuit based on that “unenforceable” statute? (I support enforceable regulations to further confidence in electoral integrity! Where I differ from some is that I want such regulations to be motivated by … wait for it … a desire for confidence in electoral integrity.) ---
**Author:** ![Ca3799](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/9f8e36/32.png) [@Ca3799](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ca3799)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 10:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/58 "2014-07-03T10:32:55Z")
The weirdness continues: [Thad Cochran Press Call Turns Into Disaster After Caller Asks About 'Harvested' Black Votes | HuffPost Latest News](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/07/02/thad-cochran-call_n_5552903.html) Cochran held a press conference call. Charles Johnson, a blogger who paid a black Pastor, Rev. Fielder, for an interview in which the Pastor claimed Cochran paid black voters $15.00 a pop to vote for him, advertised the conference call and got ringers to join the call with the intention of disrupting the call. And they did. "…an unidentified caller began asking whether Cochran improperly “harvested” votes from African-Americans like “black people harvesting cotton” amongst other things. Both Cochran’s opponent, McDaniel, who has refused to concede, and Johnson, the blogger, are raising funds. McDaniel needs the money for his lawsuit against Cochran and Johnson needs it just because he is awesome (according to him). There has also been a suicide regarding this campaign. One of the two guys who were implicated in the entering of the nursing home to take a picture of Cochran’s wife incident killed himself. Some think this is all Obama’s doings, too! ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/59 "2014-07-03T13:06:25Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Is the threatened lawsuit based on that “unenforceable” statute? So far, the lawsuit threats seem to be “based” (if that word applies) on general allegations that the election was fixed, “supported” (see previous note) by a Gish Gallop of random anecdotes. It would be entertaining to see McDaniel sue on the basis of a statute that apparently requires the state of Mississippi to have Professor X on retainer as an election judge, but there’s no sign it will get quite _that_ bizarre. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2014, 1:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122/60 "2014-07-03T13:30:45Z")
Mississippi is a scary place. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mississippi-election-for-u-s-senator/690122.md?page=4)