Dear Editor,
The 2014 Mississippi U.S. Senate election should have been the straw that broke the camel’s back. In one of the tightest statewide elections in recent years, then State Senator Chris McDaniel beat sitting U.S. Senator Thad Cochran 49.5 percent vs. 49 percent of the vote in the Republican Primary. Because he failed to get 50 percent + 1 of the total votes cast, McDaniel, a Tea Party outsider, was forced into a runoff against Incumbent Cochran.
The Republican establishment, not wanting to lose their hold on power in Mississippi went looking for Democrats to vote in the Republican Primary. There was no Democratic runoff since Travis Childers won their nomination for U.S. Senate with 70 percent of the vote. Four years later, a March 8, 2018, article by Geoff Pender in “The Clarion-Ledger,” “‘Remember Mississippi?’ Good Lord, how could we ever forget #MSSen 2014?” which read, “Cochran’s team in the three weeks between the primary and the runoff hit upon another idea for victory: Get Democrats to vote for Cochran in the GOP primary runoff. Since Mississippi has open primaries, people don’t have to register by party. And even if someone didn’t vote in the Republican primary election, they could vote in the runoff election so long as they had not voted in the Democratic primary. With no contested Democratic primaries to speak of that year, the population of potential Democratic voters was large….On June 24, 2014, Cochran narrowly defeated McDaniel in the runoff, 51 to 49 percent, with obvious help from Democratic voters…” The MS Secretary of State (in charge of elections) at the time was Delbert Hoseman (Republican).
Later, Henry Barbour’s SuperPAC, Mississippi Conservatives, was fined $19,000 for breaking federal election laws after spending nearly $145,000 getting Democrats to cross over and vote for Thad Cochran in the Republican Primary Run-off. Even after that, the Mississippi Republican Party did — nothing. This clearly showed that the Republican establishment has no interest in listening to the voices of the majority of Mississippi Republicans.
Some people wonder if Delbert Hoseman, after watching Thad Cochran beat Chris McDaniel in 2014, considered using a similar strategy in this year’s Lieutenant Governor’s race. There certainly were some interesting comments and observations by Mississippi Democrats on social media in the days leading up to the August Primary. Even Sid Salter in his Aug. 16, 2023, article discussed Democrat crossover voting in Republican primaries involving McDaniel and others.
It is past time to move to closed primaries in Mississippi. Advantages include preserving party integrity, preventing external influence, encourage informed decision-making, and facilitating party cohesion. Republicans need to be able to make their own decisions in Mississippi.
Paul C. Reese
Grenada
