A Democratic operative is working with the Mississippi Conservative PAC to rally support for incumbent U.S Senator Thad Cochran (R), who is in a heated primary runoff race against Mississippi state Senator Chris McDaniel. According to The Clarion-Ledger, James "Scooby Doo" Warren says he has put together a statewide get-out-the-vote (GOTV) plan with the help of the PAC and New Horizon Church pastor Bishop Ronnie Crudup, Sr.
When asked if he was receiving blow back from members of his own party for supporting a Republican campaign like this, Warren said he "got all that taken care of on the front end."
"I called D.C. and told them what was going on with the tea party," Warren said. "But I can't do anything after the 24th because I'm a Democrat ... Whoever wins will have to deal with me in November."
While Cochran and McDaniel divided the vote fairly evenly in the June 3 primary, McDaniel is going into the runoff with a slight advantage in support and could easily take advantage of the fact that turnout is not expected to be high on June 24, the runoff election day. The winner will be the candidate who is able to get the most voters to the polls, and it won't take much to unseat the incumbent.
According to Politico, the "Now or Never" PAC recently threw in their support for McDaniel. The political action committee will spend $90,000 on radio ads which will air through next week's runoff election, using the senator's comments last week that he did "all kinds of indecent things with animals" as a kid.“Tell Thad Cochran you’re no farm animal,” the narrator of the ad says. “And you are not going to take being on the receiving end of his so-called fun any longer.”
The ad then goes on to attack Cochran for not doing more to repeal the Affordable Care Act (colloquially known as Obamacare).
Last week, former Texas Republican congressman Ron Paul announced his endorsement for McDaniel while his son, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he was going to stay out of the race as ideology clashes with political strategy. Paul senior has never had an issue putting ideology above partisanship, but Rand has future political ambitions to consider.
According to OpenSecrets.org, this has been an expensive primary race. Cochran has raised over $4.4 million, mostly from large contributors ($2,296,545) and PACs ($1,869,227), and has spent over $4.5 million as of the last report. McDaniel has raised over $1.5 million (the majority of which is also from large contributors)and has spent over $1.4 million.
This race has attracted a lot of attention from groups and operatives inside and outside Mississippi, and will likely be the focus of election coverage for many news outlets next week.
Photo Source: AP