

Chris McDaniel and Senator Thad Cochran (Breitbart)

Tea Party leaders and activists urged Chris McDaniel to run as a write-in candidate against Senator Thad Cochran in November. Cochran won the primary on Tuesday thanks to Democrats who turned out to support the incumbent Mississippi senator.

TIME Mag reported:

Chris McDaniel was defiant in defeat, but hasn’t signaled he’ll mount a long-shot write-in bid Tea Party activists in Mississippi and beyond urged state Sen. Chris McDaniel to mount a write-in campaign against Republican Sen. Thad Cochran on Wednesday, following McDaniel’s stunning defeat in a primary runoff vote Tuesday. “When the Republican Establishment acts like Democrats, what is the point of supporting them?” Tea Party Nation President Judson Phillips wrote in an email to supporters Wednesday morning. “Every McDaniel supporter in Mississippi from DeSoto County in the North to Biloxi in the South should stand up today and tell Chris McDaniel that if he runs as a write-in candidate in November, they will support him.” TRENDING: Black Lives Matter Activist Wearing 'Justice for Breonna Taylor' Shirt Walked into a Louisville Bar and Murdered Three People McDaniel lost in a runoff to the six-term incumbent Cochran by only about 6,000 votes, amounting to less than 2% of the total count. Many of those who pushed Cochran over the top were either Republicans who’d been unmoved to vote in the initial June 3 primary (which McDaniel narrowly won but failed to secure the 50% needed to prevent a runoff), or Democrats who were inspired to vote for Cochran to prevent a Tea Party victory for McDaniel. Turnout in Tuesday’s runoff was higher than in Round One, with about 55,000 more ballots cast, many of them by Democrats for Cochran.

McDaniel also won thanks to a racist flier attacking McDaniel.

UPDATE: We are waiting on a response from Jenny Beth Martin from the Tea Party Patriots.

UPDATE: The North Mississippi Tea Party sent out this email this morning: