Hillary Clinton makes the case that the Mississippi GOP primary in which Thad Cochran defeated Chris McDaniel "was of historical importance because the Republican Party of Mississippi expanded its base." And then she elaborated on that thought:
“I think that Mississippi runoff election was of major historical importance because the Republican Party of Mississippi expanded its base,” she said. “It reached out to Democrats and particularly black Democrats, and said, ‘Join with us. Thad Cochran is a better choice.’ And they succeeded. Now there’s a lesson in there: Expand your base. Get out of your comfort zone. Actually talk to and listen to people you don’t agree with, and build back that sense of trust which is the glue of any democracy.”
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Let me say up front that I totally disagree with Hillary's take on Cochran's win because I think it's a complete misreading of what actually occurred. I'm no professional political analyst or strategist but I think this interpretation by Clinton is pretty breathtakingly off-base.
Does she really believe that the African-American turn-out for Cochran was based on the fact that they or ANY other demographic of crossover Dem voters turned out for him because they thought "Hey, Thad Cochran has reached out to me and I think I'm gonna expand his base"?
My understanding, (and feel feel free to correct me if I'm wrong) is that most of the Democratic crossover vote was done to spank McDaniel and to assure that if the seat did stay in GOP hands that it least it wouldn't be in the hands of the worst kind of RWNJ.
It's true that in many cases Dems WANT the RWNJ to win because they think that in the general they will lose. That was the thinking in Virginia in hoping that Cuccinelli would be the candidate to face MacAuliffe.
I do not think that was the case in Mississippi. I think that Mississippians took the pragmatic view that if they were gonna get a Republican Senator, at least they could get one that had a modicum of sanity.
It does appear to be true that the African American vote did help put Cochran over - It looks like African Americans really did help Thad Cochran win
So, do you agree with Hillary that Cochran won because he sincerely reached out to Democrats and "expanded his base" or do you think that the crossover vote was a strategic vote to guarantee the lesser of two evils? If Cochran had truly expanded his base, one would expect that new base to stick with him in a general election over a Democratic contender. Will that be the case?
Of course it's possible that Hillary thought the Mississippi vote for Cochran positively feeds into her own "can't we all just get along" sort of messaging and she chose to cast her own spin on the results. Good move?
Your thoughts?
Update:
It's worth noting here that Mississippi DOES have a Democratic contender for the Senate race - Travis Childers. I wonder if he finds Clinton's glowing comments about Cochran expanding his base and reaching out to Democrats as helpful or harmful?
Does GOP's Mississippi showdown give Democrats a shot at the Senate seat?