MS-01 Final Results: Headed for a runoff

Results for the Mississippi First District special election, filling the seat of Senator Roger Wicker.

100% of Precincts Reporting

Travis W. Childers (D):        49% (33138)
Greg Davis (R):                    47% (31066)
Steve Holland (D):               1% (782)
Glenn R. McCullough (R):     1% (957)

Childers needed 50% to avoid a runoff, and came tantalizingly close to doing it. We were probably about 400 votes away from winning a special election in a crimson R+10 district in Mississippi.

There are two ways to look at this election. First, we failed to win tonight, and that's a great disappointment considering how close we came. I didn't expect to win this election, and I'm impressed that we almost did.

The DCCC spent just south of $150,000 in this race, which is quite a bit, but it was half of what the NRCC spent. It's very possible that a greater investment in this district would have yielded a win tonight (and the DCCC certainly could have afforded to have spent more, given their tremendous cash advantage), but that's spilled milk. They did take this race seriously, and they did spend here, so it's hard to fault them too much. Still (and hindsight is 20/20, I know), they certainly had the money to at least match the NRCC investment.

I'm sure we can expect much more activity from the DCCC over the next two weeks, given tonight's results.

While we didn't win tonight, I certainly consider this a successful result. Childers beat Davis tonight, and the total Democratic vote topped 50%, so we stand a good chance in the runoff.

We also made the NRCC spend nearly $300,000, which they can't afford to do, in a race they didn't win. They will have to spend even more-significantly more, in fact-over the next two weeks in order to win this election, and that is to hold on to a dark-red Republican stronghold. The NRCC must be terrified with the LA-06 special election coming up around the corner.  

This kind of performance, in such strongly Republican territory, really is indicative of the Democratic wave coming. When we run a candidate who supports withdrawal from Iraq and SCHIP expansion, and he comes through with a performance like this in Roger Wicker's old district, there's no telling what might be in store for us in November.