Cochran, McDaniel Neck And Neck In Miss. Senate Primary

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hide captionSen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., reads over the ballot in a privacy booth prior to voting absentee in Oxford, Miss., on Saturday.

Rogelio V. Solis/AP

Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., reads over the ballot in a privacy booth prior to voting absentee in Oxford, Miss., on Saturday.

Rogelio V. Solis/AP

Six-term Mississippi GOP incumbent Thad Cochran found himself in a nail-biting Senate primary late Tuesday, trailing Tea Party-backed challenger Chris McDaniel by a razor-thin margin with 92 percent of the vote in.

In the latest test of GOP establishment strength against a vigorous Tea Party challenge, McDaniel led Cochran by one percentage point, 49.7 percent to 48.7 percent.

If no candidate wins 50 percent of the vote, the GOP nomination fight moves to a June 24 runoff.

Voters went to the polls in eight states across the nation Tuesday – Alabama, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico and South Dakota – but the Cochran-McDaniel race captured the spotlight Tuesday.

The Mississippi Senate contest figured to be the Tea Party's last, best chance to take down an incumbent this year. Sarah Palin and Rick Santorum both campaigned for McDaniel; conservative groups including FreedomWorks, the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund also backed his candidacy with more than $2 million in outside spending.

But the race took a bizarre turn in late May after the arrests of a local blogger and several McDaniel supporters in a scheme to exploit Cochran's bedridden wife. Police said the men conspired to photograph 72-year-old Rose Cochran, who suffers from progressive dementia, in the Mississippi nursing home where she has lived since 2000.

The scandal dominated local headlines and put McDaniel – who insisted his campaign had no involvement in the scheme — on the defensive. The tone grew nasty, with McDaniel asserting that the 76-year-old Cochran — whose mild-mannered and courtly style had earned him the nickname, "Gentleman Thad" – was no gentleman at all.

For the GOP, the stakes are high: even in a conservative state like Mississippi, there are fears among Republicans that the defeat of the popular Cochran could create an opening for the Democratic nominee, former Congressman Travis Childers, to win in November.

In Iowa, where Republicans chose a Senate nominee for the seat left vacant by retiring Democratic Sen. Tom Harkin, there was less drama: state Sen. Joni Ernst won the nomination to take on Democratic Congressman Bruce Braley, who was unopposed.

Ernst broke out of a crowded GOP field with the help of some eye-catching ads – including one that where she talked about castrating hogs in her youth. With 63 percent of the vote in, she easily outdistanced her four opponents with 56 percent — well over the 35 percent threshold necessary to avoid having to contest the nomination at a state party convention.