GOP race down to the wire in Mississippi
Jackson, Mississippi (CNN) – It’s unclear how Tuesday’s GOP Senate race in Mississippi will end, but the race has no doubt been close–and ugly–in the final stretch.
Incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran, 76, is hoping to win a seventh term in Congress, but he faces state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a 42-year-old conservative challenger with strong tea party support.
Cochran’s supporters acknowledge the senator faces an uphill battle, but they believe he’s still the best man for the job.
“There’s not any doubt that Cochran is running against the current here. The political environment is perfect to upset a longtime incumbent like Cochran,” Henry Barbour told CNN.
Barbour helps run Mississippi Conservatives, a pro-Cochran PAC, with his uncle, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour.
But, he added, “the reason (Cochran’s) going to win is he’s the best candidate. He has a record of accomplishment. His opponent is a flawed candidate who’s run a flawed campaign.”
Cochran backers also say that if Republicans take back the Senate, the senator would become chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee-a powerful position in Congress.
Barbour’s group has spent heavily in support of the senator. Just recently it sent out anti-McDaniel fliers that look like greeting cards. When you open them up, you hear McDaniel saying what Barbour described as derogatory things from his days as a conservative radio host.
“It’s just an example of some of the stupid things he’s said that I think disqualifies him to represent our state,” he said.
And because the Mississippi primary is open, Cochran supporters are also hoping that some Democrats show up to vote for the GOP incumbent.
CNN caught up with one such voter, Gary Gusick, who described himself as a “lifelong” Democrat who’s never voted for Cochran-until Tuesday.
“I’m so concerned about McDaniel and so opposed to him that in a Republican state I think voting for Cochran is our best chance to keep McDaniel out,” Gusick said, adding that “quite a few” of his Democratic friends are doing the same. “It’s more important that we don’t have McDaniel… than it is to cast a vote in the Democratic primary for the Democratic candidate.”
But McDaniel says he feels good about his chances.
“I feel like we’re going to win this thing,” he said Tuesday, shortly before voting. “No doubt about it.”
McDaniel points to Cochran’s long career in Washington and argues Mississippi needs a new face in the nation’s capital. “I think after 42 years, he’s had his time.”
The state senator argued that Cochran has also failed to be a representative voice for the state.
“You know, Senator Cochran has not been the conservative we asked him to be. Mississippi is a conservative state, it just doesn’t fit any longer,” he said. “When he went there in 1973, Richard Nixon was president. It was a different era, different time, different concerns, different worries.”
“The most conservative state in the republic does need the most conservative senator,” he added.
CNN’s Ashley Killough contributed to this report.