re: Why hasn’t Wicker not been replaced in n Mississippi?

Haley doesn't control them as much as he used to. However, he can still make a few calls and get funding cut off for a candidate.

McDaniel nearly pulled it off for several reasons.

1. It was the classic case of a young, charismatic candidate taking on an old, out of touch Senator who rarely visited his state. Thad did a lot of good for Mississippi over the decades. However, Republicans in 2014 were tired of getting their asses kicked by Obama and wanted someone who would fight, you know, the U.S. Grant thing.

2. Thad ran a crap campaign. Team kept him under wraps, didn't tout his records and went totally negative on McDaniel. You saw how that worked last week.

3. This is key If you want to beat a Senator in MS. Outside groups poured MILLIONS into McDaniel's race. Can't understate how important that was. He outspent Cochran by 2:1 in the Desoto County market (Memphis) in tv ads. Thad's people were floored.

4. The McDaniel camp nailed Cochran with that affair business. Cochran was reeling. Then that stupid arse nursing home scandal erupted right before the election. Idiots. That killed the momentum and hurt McDaniel for obvious reasons. Then Cochran's people couldn't help themselves and started using that scandal in attack ads. Backfired on them as it gave McDaniel campaign something to fire back at.

5. McDaniel had an incompetent campaign staff. Had a manager who was a control freak and ran off everyone with political campaign experience as she was threatened by them. Had a punk Comms director who went out of his way to tick off. the press, whose help he would later need. The campaign had little discipline and that has shown up in his subsequent campaigns as he keeps the same people around and get the same results.

It was the outside groups who made McDaniel. He damn near got it, missed the runoff by 500 votes. Then the Cochran campaign changed leadership, brought back the real pros, and then used the open primary rules to their benefit and yes, recruited from the Black community. DIdn't help the McDaniel people screamed it wasn't fair to have Blacks vote in a GOP primary.

We Mississippians love to talk a big MAGA game but most of us are just RINOs. Love that government teat here in the Magnolia state.

He’s Cocaine Mitch politically. He’s never had a real job and has worked in politics his whole life. He’s not qualified to run a fast food restaurant, yet as the Armed Services Chair, will preside over the expenditure of trillions in the next couple of years.

As stated before, he’s carrying the torch lit by Trent Lott and Thad Cochran.

Essentially, they are fixtures for special interest that are bought by the highest bidder. They have no real belief system.

I think the average every day person that semi-follows politics is. Unfortunately, the people running aren't, nor are the people who have the purse strings. We need some new blood with new money badly, I just have no idea where that is.

He keeps the federal DoD dollars flowing to the state enough so he isn’t going to get much resistance. I voted against him in the primary but dang sure wasn’t going to vote for a D in the general. I also voted against Michael Guest in his primary. He seems to be more engaged since he had the primary scare so at least he has improved, albeit not enough.

Bennie is a dictator in the black community. That is why. He has a real machine and meddles in EVERYTHING, including JSU.