So as its initial volley in the three-week runoff campaign for the Mississippi Republican Senate nomination, the Club for Growth released a statement focusing not on Thad Cochran but on Democratic nominee Travis Childers, per this report from TPM’s Daniel Strauss:
“Cochran supporters from Washington to Jackson to Biloxi know that Travis Childers can’t win a general election in Mississippi because his record is far too liberal and he was last seen losing his seat in Congress by double-digits,” Club for Growth President Chris Chocola said in the statement. “This runoff is not about who will keep the Senate seat in Republican hands. With a record like Travis Childers’, that question is not in doubt. This runoff is about what kind of Republican is in the Senate: one who will vote for bailouts, tax hikes and trillions in debt, or one who stands up for taxpayers.”
The group goes on to say that Childers “opposes repeal of Obamacare” and voted to make current House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) speaker of the House.
This would appear to indicate that Team McDaniel believes Cochran’s best weapon in the runoff campaign is that the incumbent’s a sure winner in November while the challenger is not. If that’s correct, it’s not a bad achievement for Democrats that Mississippi Republicans are considering electability arguments in the choice of their nominees.
