95% now, it s 50.6% to 49.4%. with thad cochran leading right now. about 40,000 votes separating the two. you have some interesting places still out on this map, some desoto county, that s the outskirts of memphis, votes that are still out being counted also some in heinz county. it is tough to see how this goes back and forth. we ve been down to 2,000 votes separating the two over the last few minutes. thad cochran desperate to hold on and win another term. mcdaniel trying to upset cochran and it was believed the tea party support would get the conservatives out. both of them did get, it looks like, the votes out. and turnout is really high in the special election, really quickly, new york, charlie rangel is hanging on right now, still early, 36% in.
republican party in heinz county who is a big cochran supporter and his form was paid to do tv for a cochran pac putting some of the blame on him saying he allowed a lot of people to vote who should not have been able to vote and that s really outside the scope, you know, of what any one person and much less pete perry would do and they will look at the delta and some of the other counties where you saw high increases in african-american votes to see if there were any irregularities that they might get tossed in court, but any challenge has to go through the courts. it s a long shot, and as long as people didn t vote in the primary, democratic primary, then they are allowed to vote in the runoofs, and the only thing that can prove that their intent for the general is what they say. yeah. that s the problem. that s going to be the problem going forward. your inability to enforce a law isn t going to be what allows a law to stand or not, that s actually a second issue but when
not. he s not conceding. last night incumbent thad cochran surprised a lot of people by narrowly edging out tea party challenger chris mcdaniel. he won by more than 6,000 votes even though mcdaniel received more votes in the first showdown. the mississippi runoff defied conventional wisdom about getting out the vote. where did the new voters come from? the cochran campaign got help from the national republican senatorial committee and big names in the state like the barbours who helped turn out voters in strong cochran areas. cochran supporters actively sought out african-american democrats making the argument that cochran had delivered for mississippi. that appears to have worked. several heavily african-american communities saw major jumps in turnout all favoring cochran. heinz county, 75% african-american. cochran increased turnout there by nearly 50% from the previous election, to the tune of thousands of votes. mcdaniel has called the tactics
courting non-republican voters into the republican runoff. as far as we can see, it was pretty legal. well, they don t have a runoff law there, and what would you find? votes are equal in this day and age. that is mississippi election law. they just count them. let s break down the significance of these results with our panel of political experts. take a deep brat, sam hall, assistant managing editor, margaret hoover, john avalon and editor-in-chief of the daily beast an errol lewis, anchor for new york one s inside city hall, all in a single breath, who is better than me, no one? i heard you breathe. just a big nose. sam hall, let s start with you on the ground down there. is this expected? what do you make of the introduction of non-republican voters? what s your headline? i think the headline in heinz county, the largest county where
95% now, it s 50.6% to 49.4%. with thad cochran leading right now. about 40,000 votes separating the two. you have some interesting places still out on this map, some desoto county, that s the outskirts of memphis, votes that are still out being counted also some in heinz county. it is tough to see how this goes back and forth. we ve been down to 2,000 votes separating the two over the last few minutes. thad cochran desperate to hold on and win another term. mcdaniel trying to upset cochran and it was believed the tea party support would get the conservatives out. both of them did get, it looks like, the votes out. and turnout is really high in the special election, really quickly, new york, charlie rangel is hanging on right now, still early, 36% in.