Warren County voters head to the polls Tuesday to add their say to one of the most contentious primaries for U.S. Senate in Mississippi in a generation — though in smaller numbers than the last federal election.
The most recent tally by the Secretary of State’s Office showed 29,991 active voters countywide, down about 7 percent from the 2012 general election for president. Statewide, the number of voters is a shade less than 1.9 million.
U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, 76, who was thought to be mulling retirement before announcing in December he’d run for a seventh term, is opposed by state Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville. McDaniel, a darling of the tea party movement, has mounted a vigorous run at the 42-year lawmaker in a race marked by intense out-of-state advertising and a relentless barrage of television commercials. A third candidate in the race is Thomas Carey, a Realtor from Hernando.
Endorsements in the race from prominent Republicans inside and outside the state mirror the philosophical divide between “establishment” names and those associated with the tea party. Gov. Phil Bryant and former Gov. Haley Barbour support Cochran, while Barbour’s brother, GOP insider Jeppie Barbour, former presidential hopeful Rick Santorum and former vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin have voiced support for McDaniel.
The winner faces the victor of a four-man Democratic primary —former congressman Travis Childers, former tea party candidate-turned-Democrat Bill Marcy, perennial candidate William Compton and Jonathan Rawl, of Oxford.
Dominating attention in the primary in its final weeks are the arrests in Madison of four men involved in what police said was a conspiracy to take unauthorized photos of Cochran’s wife, who has lived in a nursing home for 13 years. The men, one of whom is a Laurel soccer coach originally from Warren County, face various felony charges.
On the House side, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson faces Damien Fairconetue, a laborer from Clinton, in the Democratic primary. Thompson is vying for his 11th term in Congress. The winner takes the seat, as no Republicans filed to run in the district anchored by the Mississippi River Delta counties and most of the City of Jackson.
Primary winners advance to the general election on Nov. 4, when local races for school board and judicial elections appear on the Warren County ballot.
Chancery and circuit judgeships in Warren County appear on the general ballot. Incumbent Ninth Chancery District Judge Vicki Roach Barnes is unopposed this year, as is Ninth Circuit Place 1 Judge Isadore Patrick. Circuit Place 2 Judge Jim Chaney is opposed by Justice Court Judge Eddie Woods for Chaney’s seat in the district.
Also, seats representing Districts 3 and 4 on the Vicksburg Warren School District Board of Trustees come up for voters’ purview during the fall election. Jim Stirgus Jr. and Joe Loviza are in their first terms in office in the districts. Qualifying for the race begins Aug. 6 and ends Sept. 5.