Nothing left but the shoutin’
One sure bet is that once the polls close tonight we will have both a Democratic and Republican nominee for the United States Senate seat in Mississippi. Barring a supernova event, former US Congressman Travis Childers will be the Democratic nominee. On the Republican side the conventional wisdom is that Sen. Thad Cochran will emerge victorious thanks in part to the coalescing of the Republican establishment and the fact that perhaps several thousand Democrats will crossover and vote in the GOP Primary to ensure the Tea Party darling McDaniel is cut off at the knee.
While many Democrats are unhappy with Childers over votes he took as a northeast Mississippi congressman, he remains the party’s best shot against the eventual GOP nominee. Many of Childers’ votes and positions as a congressman continue to rub many Democrats the wrong way but the party is looking for a win and see Childers as its only shot.
Mississippi U.S. Senate Race Still Safe GOP, Sabato Says
Both Thad Cochran and Travis Childers are the preferred candidates of inside-the-state strategists. Surprisingly both are on the verge of narrowly winning their respective primaries today.
While Sen. Chris McDaniel “might also have been a decent general election candidate, he disappointed many Republicans with his bare knuckle style attack on the elder statesman Cochran as well as implications that his campaign was somehow linked to the “Photo-gate” scandal involving Cochran’s ailing wife and a local wingnut blogger.
Larry Sabato of the Univ. of Virginia Center for Politics organization is still calling the race Safe Republican, but, “it’s not a given that Cochran or McDaniel will escape unscathed from a long and perhaps brutal primary.”
Fightin’ in the Fourth
Most observers can agree that The Republican primary in Mississippi’s 4th congressional district between Incumbent Rep. Steven Palazzo and former Democratic turned Republican Rep. Gene Taylor will likely go into a runoff. Since announcing, Taylor has barnstormed the district making his case. What Palazzo has lacked in retail politics he has made up with money, blanketing the district with ads, mailers and staff.
We’ll be updating as the day progress!