“Cochran Asking Blacks to Rescue Him in Republican Primary”

NYT:

It is a remarkable political science experiment, and it also may be the only path to victory left to Mr. Cochran. But after being narrowly edged out by Mr. McDaniel, 41, in the Republican primary earlier this month, Mr. Cochran, 76, needs to expand the number of voters who will show up for the runoff, which is open to any Mississippi resident who did not vote in the Democratic primary. The winner on Tuesday will face former Representative Travis Childers, a conservative Democrat, in November.

“We’ve got efforts reaching out to black voters in Mississippi who want to vote for Thad because they like what Thad is for,” said Austin Barbour, a Cochran campaign adviser. “Thad Cochran is someone who, even with his conservative message, represents all of Mississippi. He’s not some hostile screamer.”

But to many, the outreach seems like a long shot. Asked whether he could ever have imagined the possibility that African-Americans could play a defining role in a Republican race in a state where the two political parties are divided by race, Representative Bennie Thompson shook his head in disbelief. “If someone had told me that it would, I’d tell them they were on something,” said Mr. Thompson, a Democrat and Mississippi’s sole black member of Congress.

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