republican primaries and runoffs work thad cochran didn t have a chance. i m stunned. echoing what eugene said, a great victory for heyly barbour and the whole mississippi establishment world, when the runoff was going to happen, they flooded down there. let s talk about that. the mississippi runoff defied conventional wisdom. the cochran campaign got help from the national republican senatorial committee and big names like the barbours who helped turn out voters in strong areas, seeking out african-americans making the argument that cochran delivered for mississippi. it worked. several african-american communities saw major jumps. heinz county 70% african-american, cochran increased turnout there by nearly 50% from the previous
did you vote in the actual primary? no, i did not. why did you come and vote in the run-off. i feel he s the man to do the job for us here. who did you vote for? thad cochran. did you vote in the june primary? i did not. what made you today vote for senator cochran? i ve known him all my life. reporter: i ve talk to those voters in heinz county. that s where i am right now. it s where the state capital is. this county put out 7,000 more votes for thad cochran in the run-off than on the primary day. he won by 6,000 votes. mcdaniel did get more votes as well but it just shows you how critical the county is which in those particular areas which is largely african-american to thad cochran doing so well. the question now is will he remember these african-american voters when he begins his new term?
who you ask. the tea party base mcdaniel supporters, you know where they stand, and they are the ones who are the angriest about it. cochran s camp has been kind of couching this in terms of reagan and putting that back on mcdaniel which was he reached out to a democratic base as well to help expand his electorate, but as far as the way it wrorks down here. there is no automatic recount. the only way that he s going to have a successful challenge is to be able to prove that there was enough illegalities or controversial votes to either toss out individual votes or cause recounts in certain counties. he s going to look at heinz county. there were unsubstantiated reports of pros party voting, people voting in the democratic party and talking with the members of the campaign last night and early this morning, already attacking pete perry who is the chairman of the
history of bricking back resources to the state, or do i want a republican who in addition to his racial missteps and nasty rhetoric also is stridently anti-government conservative who may not bring home federal funds for schools and military bases and projects. and from the reporting i ve read, this is exactly the calculation black voters made in mississippi. they ve decided that at the end of the day, cochran was the man they could work with. cochran was a man they knew. well, jamelle, i m interested in the fact it looks like african-americans did make the difference. in the ten counties where the incumbent senator actually improved the most, those were the ones where blacks make up 69% or more of the population. s so you had a direct impact it appears from the african-american population. heinz county, mississippi, the african-american population there is 70%. a very dense african-american population. and cochran won 7,000 more votes
but particularly the runoff. but what we have been able to determine from some of the results that have been coming in are very interesting. some of the reports that i gave to you earlier today on the situation room and elsewhere, anecdotally about african-americans, democrats, traditional democrats coming out and voting for thad cochran appear to be bearing out in what we re seeing with these results. for example, heinz county, which is a very large african american community where i was actually today, that has surged between june 3 and today, the primary today for thad allen. and a few other areas. with predominantly african american people living there, have also done much better for thad cochran. and but, here is the but we are still waiting for other areas of this state that have been traditionally mcdaniel territory. the place where you really have seen that strong anti-incumbent, anti-washington wave, the chris