U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., waves to supporters as he leaves a stop on the first day of a three-week campaign on June 4, 2014. Cochran, 76 and seeking a seventh term, faces state Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville.JACKSON, Miss. – Republicans huddled Thursday over the slow-motion showdown of the Mississippi Senate runoff, with allies of Sen. Thad Cochran aiming to sharpen his message and supporters of tea party-endorsed challenger Chris McDaniel exploiting his opponent’s vulnerabilities. Cash, campaign help and advice flowed into a titanic clash of the factions splitting the GOP.
McDaniel, a state senator, led in Tuesday’s primary and had momentum from a national patchwork of archconservative organizations looking for their first incumbent scalp of the midterm election year. Cochran, a six-term Senate veteran, was on the defensive amid a frenzy of anti-Washington, anti-establishment fervor.
On Thursday afternoon, Cochran promised a fight throughout the campaign.
Told that the conservative Club for Growth, which spent $2.5 million backing McDaniel before the primary, had called for him to drop out, Cochran laughed. “Whoa,” he said after a stop at a Raytheon Co. facility about 50 miles east of Jackson. “They can relax. … I have no intention of dropping out. I have every intention of winning the election.”
Alongside him was Stuart Stevens, a top strategist for Mitt Romney’s failed presidential campaign in 2012. Romney hasn’t endorsed Cochran, but Stevens’ presence was another reminder that Cochran has run as an establishment Republican, backed by the national party’s Senate campaign committee and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, among others.