Republican leaders are publicly distancing themselves from tea party anger over Sen. Thad Cochran's primary victory over Chris McDaniel.
National Republican leaders trying to appeal to non-white voters are cringing over Senate candidate Chris McDaniel’s complaints that Democrats — most of whom are black in Mississippi — voted in the state’s GOP Senate runoff and helped six-term incumbent Thad Cochran capture the party nomination.
“The more the tea party complains about how black voters vote for Republicans, I think they look racist and stupid,” said John Feehery, a GOP consultant in Washington. “We’re trying to get black voters. Now that one of our candidates got black voters, we should be happy about it.”
They're not.
It was an improbable achievement of a key but elusive goal for the GOP: find a way to survive in a nation where growing numbers of African-Americans and other minority voters overwhelmingly cast ballots for Democrats. Birth rates among whites are shrinking in the U.S., while racial and ethnic minorities are expected to make up a majority of Americans within about 30 years.
The GOP faces the daunting task of finding ways to broaden their base without angering a constituency which views any such attempt as treason.