State Rep. Alex Monsour this morning said he’s endorsing U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran’s re-election bid and “walking away” from the tea party.

The two-term state legislator said he’s turned off by how much money from outside Mississippi is funding state Sen. Chris McDaniel’s campaign to unseat the six-term incumbent and the tone of the race overall.

“I have a lot of the same beliefs they do, but there’s a lot of outside interests in the race,” said Monsour, who chairs the House Ports, Harbors and Airports Committee. “With the commercials running to totally destroy Thad Cochran, who has served his state and his country, I cannot be part of that.”

Monsour, whose District 54 seat in the House covers much of non-municipal Warren County, cited the arrests in May of tea party associates accused of taking unauthorized photographs of Cochran’s wife in a Madison County nursing home and news of McDaniel supporters in the Hinds County Courthouse after hours on election night as reasons for abandoning the movement’s preferred candidate.