Thad Cochran, Mississippi's first GOP senator since Reconstruction, dies at 81

Mississippi Republican Thad Cochran, who was elected to the Senate in 1978 and served until his resignation last year, died Thursday at the age of 81. Cochran, who was his state’s first Republican senator since Reconstruction, was a loyal member of the Senate GOP caucus, but he had some unusual twists and turns during his decades in public life. The biggest surprise was Cochran’s miraculous 2014 primary runoff victory, during which he successfully appealed to African Americans to cast a vote in the GOP contest to help him fend off state Sen. Chris McDaniel, an ally of neo-Confederate groups.

Like many Mississippi Republicans of his era, Cochran came up as a Democrat, and he later told historian Curtis Wilkie that he still supported Lyndon Johnson over Barry Goldwater in 1964 even as local white resistance to civil rights propelled Goldwater to an 87-13 win. But Cochran was a full-fledged Republican by 1968, when he headed up Richard Nixon's state campaign: Nixon took third place with just 14% of the vote, while segregationist George Wallace, a Democrat-turned-independent, beat Democratic Vice President Hubert Humphrey 63-23.

Four years later, Cochran ran for an open House seat that included Jackson and southwestern Mississippi. He defeated Democratic state Sen. Ellis Bodron 48-44, while Eddie McBride, an African American independent, took 8%. Trent Lott, Cochran's future Senate colleague and rival, also won a seat that day, which made the two just the second and third Republicans to represent the state in Congress since Reconstruction.

Cochran took over 70% of the vote in his two reelection campaigns, and in 1978, he sought to succeed longtime Democratic Sen. James Eastland, a notorious segregationist who had decided to retire. Cochran and Lott reportedly had agreed in advance that if the seat ever opened up, they would decide who would run for it. However, Cochran jumped in quickly with the support of the party establishment without talking to Lott or other up-and-comers. Lott didn't end up running, but he would have his revenge years later.

from Daily Kos http://bit.ly/2QBlfYI