JACKSON — Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran has won a seventh term in the U.S. Senate after enduring a primary that was the toughest challenge of his political career and a general election in which he rarely acknowledged his Democratic opponent.
The 76-year-old former chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee defeated two challengers Tuesday — Democratic former U.S. Rep. Travis Childers and Reform Party candidate Shawn O’Hara.
“As we all know, it’s been a long and interesting campaign. I’m glad it’s over, and I know you are, too,” Cochran told cheering supporters at his victory party late Tuesday in Jackson.
All four of Mississippi’s U.S. House members also were re-elected for two-year terms. Democratic Rep. Bennie Thompson was first elected in 1993 in the 2nd District, which encompasses the Delta and most of the capital city of Jackson. Republican Rep. Gregg Harper won the central 3rd District seat in 2008. Republican Reps. Alan Nunnelee in the northern 1st District and Steven Palazzo in the southern 4th District were elected in 2010.
Childers, who served in Congress from mid-2008 until he was defeated by a Republican in 2010, was outspent by Cochran and overshadowed by an extended fight over the Republican primary.
“While we may have lost this election, we will never give up on the state of Mississippi,” Childers told supporters Tuesday night in Tupelo.
Cochran was first elected to the U.S. House in 1972 and won his first six-year term in the Senate in 1978. He waited until late last year to announce he was seeking re-election, weeks after a tea party-backed state senator, Chris McDaniel, had entered the race.
Unofficial U.S. Senate results with 97 percent of precincts reporting:
■ Thad Cochran, GOP (i) 344,192 – 59 percent
■ Travis Childers, Dem 225,553 – 39 percent
■ Shawn O’Hara, RP 12,849 – 2 percent
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