Karl Rove Silent on Mississippi Race Tactics

Photo Credit: APThis morning in the Wall Street Journal, former Bush aide Karl Rove writes a column that includes the following on the Mississippi Senate race:

Mississippi’s Sen. Thad Cochran pulled off a difficult and surprising win Tuesday night, and he has the state’s open primary law to thank for it. In the June 3 primary, Mr. Cochran trailed tea party favorite Chris McDaniel by 1,386 votes or 0.5% of the 313,443 votes cast. This week, he beat Mr. McDaniel, a state senator, by 6,373 votes or 1.6% of 374,893 votes.

Turnout was up in the runoff, which last happened in a Senate race 30 years ago. The six-term senator’s victory was due to a strategy by his campaign and the support of the Mississippi Conservatives super PAC led by GOP national committeeman Henry Barbour and his uncle, the very popular former Gov. Haley Barbour. They aimed to turn out for the second-round Republicans who did not vote in the primary and bring out Mississippians, including Democrats, who had not voted in either party’s primary and thus could vote in the runoff.

These organizational efforts paid off, with turnout increasing in counties Mr. Cochran carried in the first round at about twice the rate as turnout rose in counties Mr. McDaniel won. (Full disclosure: I donated to Mr. Cochran’s campaign and the super PAC that I help, American Crossroads, donated to Mississippi Conservatives in the primary and runoff.)

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