Six-term Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi has made Tuesday's Mississippi Senate primary run-off against state Sen. Chris McDaniel about race, said Scottie Nell Hughes, news director at the Tea Party News Network.
"It is Thad Cochran that has made this a race issue," Hughes said on
Newsmax TV's "America's Forum."
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"It is Thad Cochran that went after literally the Democrats in urban areas and did robocalls saying, 'Listen if you like what you're getting right now, make sure you put me in office because Chris McDaniel is going to take it away,'" she said.
"They're the ones that brought that black community in and made this a race issue," Hughes added.
A poll released Monday showed McDaniel leading Cochran by 8 percentage points, with 52 percent of Mississippi voters saying they support the primary challenger with 44 percent saying they plan to vote for the incumbent.
Democratic strategist Joe Lestingi told Newsmax TV that in Mississippi, "the tea party has publicly stated that they're going to black precincts to check the voters, not white ones, but black precincts," adding that it could backfire on Republicans in the general election in November.
Hughes said that this is a narrative that is being pushed by Democrats that "the tea party intends to prevent" Mississippi blacks from voting.
"I personally don’t have any blockade in my back pocket," she said.
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