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JUDY WOODRUFF: In the battle for control of the United States Senate, this summers primary contest in Mississippi exposed deep divisions in the Republican Party that still havent been reconciled.

Jeffrey Hess of Mississippi Public Broadcasting has our report.

CHRIS MCDANIEL, (R) Mississippi State Senator: The Republican primary was won very Republican voters.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

JEFFREY HESS: Forty-two-year-old state Senator Chris McDaniel is the energetic young face of Mississippis Tea Party. The Sarah Palin-backed McDaniel came within a few thousand votes of beating six-term incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Thad Cochran in a June primary and subsequent run-off by riding a wave of anti-Washington, anti-incumbent anger.

McDaniel claims election fraud helped Cochran win and is challenging the results in court. According to McDaniel, Democrats voted in their own primary and then illegally crossed over and voted in the Republican run-off, which is a violation of state law.

McDaniel blames the states Republican establishment and the Cochran campaign for attempting to stop the Tea Party in its tracks.

CHRIS MCDANIEL: They were willing to sacrifice a friend for power. And they would say and do anything they had to do to do that. And they did. Thats problematic, but not just for me, because when they called me those nasty names, when they called me a racist, which is not true, when they said I was going to cut off funding for historically black colleges and universities, which is not true, when they said I was going to end welfare and suppress voting rights, which is all not true, they were likewise saying it about 187,000 conservatives.

JEFFREY HESS: The contentious primary here in Mississippi was the most high-profile example of the primary battles that have taken place across the country between the Tea Party and establishment wings of the Republican Party. In 2010, the Republicans rode a wave of Tea Party support to retake the House. But many Republicans with ties in Washington believed that the Tea Party cost them seats in the Senate.

And the Senate up for grabs again this year, they were determined not to let that happen again, and they spent millions to make sure of it. But staunch McDaniel and Tea Party supporters arent giving up the fight.

Originally posted here:
Tea party Senate challenge in Mississippi shows rift in the GOP