Cochran Barely Holds Off Tea Party Challenger McDaniel in tight GOP Senate Race

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Worthy News)-- Six-term Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran came from behind to narrowly beat Tea Party Challenger Chris McDaniel in a nail-biter that was too close to call for most of the night.

With nearly 100 percent of the precincts reporting, the unofficial returns show Cochran leading McDaniel 50.9 percent to 49.1 percent, just over 6,600 votes.

But it appears as though Cochran's strategy of expanding the electorate and luring Republicans and even Democrats, including African Americans, to the polls who did not vote on June 3, paid dividends. In the immediate days following the June 3 primary, the Cochran campaign and the senator's outside supporters laid out their strategy in interview with the Washington Examiner.

The race attracted about $12 million in spending from outside groups.

During his concession speech in Hattiesburg, McDaniel spoke defiantly to a crowd of supporters telling them there was “nothing dangerous or extreme about wanting to balance a budget, about defending the constitution and the civil liberties therein or for standing as people of faith for a country we built, that we believe in," he said. -- Fox News

But McDaniel didn't concede Tuesday night and in a speech to supporters referenced "dozens of irregularities" in voting Tuesday and indicated he would challenge the results over Democrats voting in the Republican primary.

McDaniel in his speech to supporters in Hattiesburg blamed the loss on "liberal Democrats" voting in the GOP primary runoff and said, "now our job is to make sure the sanctity of this vote is upheld, make sure the Republican primary was won by Republican voters." -- Clarion Ledger