Cochran asked for a favor and now his new supporters are plotting how to cash it in. CBC to Thad Cochran: You owe us

Thad Cochran won a primary runoff by turning out the black vote. Now they are asking — what are you going to do for us?

Already the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are talking about what they want Cochran to do. The wish list is filling up with ideas like maintaining funding for food stamps, beefing up programs that help poor blacks in Mississippi and even supporting the Voting Rights Act.


“Absolutely we have expectations,’’ Rep Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) said in an interview.

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And while Cochran beat back a tea party challenger last week by reminding voters, particularly black voters, that he brings home the federal bucks, the policy asks are far more liberal than much of what the moderate Republican has championed in his four decades in office.

But that’s the Washington game. Cochran asked for a favor, and now his new supporters are plotting how to cash it in.

“My hat is off to Sen. Cochran for being as desperate as he was, to actually go out and, up front, go out and ask for those votes,” said Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.). “Those votes were delivered, and I’m hopeful he will be responsible and responsive to the voters that pushed him over the top.”

Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) agreed that Cochran has an opportunity to support the black community.

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“What I hope happens is that he comes to the realization that African-Americans are the reason I have this final six years and therefore I’m going to try and be more responsible than I have been,” Cleaver said.

Their sentiment was echoed around the Capitol and in Mississippi following Cochran’s win over tea party favorite Chris McDaniel, fueled by a surge in black voters in the Mississippi Delta. Turnout increased overall in Mississippi for the runoff, but counties that are majority black, like Jefferson County, saw voters came to the polls in record numbers.

Cochran isn’t expected to draw a huge black vote in November for the general election, but blacks still want him to remember his primary campaign promise to use his seniority to help his poor black constituents.

“Mississippi is the poorest state in the union,” said Fudge. “I think he is a very decent man. I also think there comes a point in time where every single elected official has to do what’s best for the people he represents, and his state is 35 percent minority and poor.”

( Also on POLITICO: 'Thank God for Mississippi!')

Cochran’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment.

Campaigning before the runoff, Cochran made no apologies for seeking black and Democratic votes.

Cochran said that party affiliation is a “state of mind” in Mississippi and that “everybody can participate.”

Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said that Cochran’s seniority was a major reason that the veteran Republican lawmaker got his support. Flaggs said he will support Cochran in the general election and that it is important he stays in office so that Mississippi can benefit from his longevity in Congress, particularly since earmarks are gone.

NAACP Mississippi state President Derrick Johnson said in an interview that the NAACP is looking for Cochran’s support.

“Two things that we think should come immediately after the election [are] his support of the Voting Rights Act … free of any provisions that would allow for voter ID and, second, to get the presidents of the black colleges to ask for his offices for help to make sure the [missions] of those institutions are carried out,” he said.

McDaniel and his tea party supporters have criticized Cochran for seeking out Democrats in the runoff.

“In the case of yesterday’s election, we must be absolutely certain that our Republican primary was won by Republican voters,” McDaniel said in a statement Wednesday. “In the coming days, our team will look into the irregularities to determine whether a challenge is warranted.”

Some McDaniel supporters have questioned the results and are advocating a write-in campaign for the general election.

Cochran will face former Democratic lawmaker Travis Childers in November.

Although Cochran may not have seemed like a natural choice for many black voters, Rep. Bennie Thompson said that he was the better alternative.

“Thad Cochran represented an opportunity to vote against times past,” the Mississippi Democrat said. “I think what McDaniel represented to a lot of black people who observed the race is a time past. And for so many of those individuals who suffered in the times past, they were not about to see that happen again.”

While CBC members are looking for Cochran to make good on his inroads with blacks, they also hope a Democrat will ultimately get elected in Mississippi.

Thompson said blacks’ support for Cochran won’t happen when there is a Democrat on the ballot.

“If you have Democrats and Republicans on the ballot, I think a substantial majority of those people voting who are black will vote Democratic,” Thompson said. “It’s not that I’m not worried; I’m a Democrat, but if Childers stays in the race I’ll support him.”

Fudge agreed.

Fudge believes Democrats could eventually win the Senate seat. “It may not happen this time, but I believe it could happen this time because of the black and minority population, but more importantly because they’ve seen what their vote can do,” said Fudge, who plans to campaign for Childers.