JACKSON, Miss.- Election results came in declaring U.S. Senator Thad Cochran the winner of the runoff election against State Senator Chris McDaniel, but it’s not over just yet. McDaniel is not going down without another fight.
“Thanks to illegal voting from liberal Democrats, my opponent stole last week’s runoff election, but I’m not going down without a fight,” reads a fundraising e-mail sent by the McDaniel campaign Wednesday. “I know exactly how long and frustrating court battles can be, but I believe this will be worth it. There is too much at stake to back down from this fight.”
The McDaniel campaign claims to have found thousands of irregularities in the voting process. State law prohibits residents who voted in the Democratic primary to vote in the Republican runoff, which is what McDaniel said happened.
During a news conference Wednesday, Austin Barbour Senior Adviser for Cochran’s campaign fired back, “We had thousands of Mississippians who voted for Thad on the 24th who have always voted for Thad and there was just some number of them that stayed at home on the 3rd and that was our fault and what we did was focus on getting those folks, who have supported Senator Thad Cochran in so many elections in the past, back at the polls.”
Barbour said the numbers don’t add up and they’re inaccurate.
“If the McDaniel campaign wants to go look at a poll book at a precinct, or look at every poll book in the state, or if they want to challenge this election, we don’t have any problems with that. We’re happy to keep meeting them at courthouses throughout the state to review ballots,” Barbour said. “I just think that the time has come now for the McDaniel campaign to put up or shut up.”
