thad cochran survived a very tough challenge by understanding and exploiting the reality that mississippi relies heavily on the federal government for assistance and ate. he did not back away from that. this was the climactic battle between the tea party and the establishment of the republican party. daniels, a young state senator, was ahead after the first round of voting, led in the primary but neither got 50%. they had to go through the second round. he was able to defy the odds. he was the underdog at this point and also defy history. the assumption is in a runoff, turnout goes down. his strategy was we were going to try to boost turnout. in fact, turnout across the state went up 20%. it went up significantly more in some of his best counties. gwen: how did he do that specifically? very unorthodox approach to this. drill down and tell us exactly what he did. >> he did two things, one which goes completely against what you would expect in a republican primary. he reached out to democrats and particularly african-americans. he has -- he has been effective in delivering, as i said, a lot

with senator cochran surviveing a much thought to be heated fight.e breathing a sigh of relief. charlie gasparino, and liz, and gary and caylee they are back. what are you on this? money guys getting more? >> i don't think so. i think there is a lot of worry. who are the money guys? neil: your friends. >> my sources. not friend,. neil: do you turn on them. >> i do. i turn on everyone. neil: i have seen it myself. >> i am like jason, i keep coming back like a rabid dog, we could just keep going. anyway, they are more moderate, so out of touch with grass roofs movement conservatives. neil: that would have been dismissive of reagan? >> i don' i don't know. reagan reached out to wall street. neil: but not in '76. he won them over in '80, but it was a fight. >> at first they sideed with ford but the establishment moved to reagan for a lot of reasons. neil: what about now? >> they are worried that tea party will run the party in to the ground, not saying that is going to happen you about that is what they are worried about. they still -- you think about it

if cochran survives, it will be a sign among the establishment there are passionate voters, at leastpassionate on the tea party side. >> cochran won nine consecutive elections in mississippi without ever once appealing to racial feelings at all. he's been above it. he's been a wonderful public servant. i agree with david that the remarkable thing about him -- michael barone put it well, says he represents a vanishing breed of the southern republican. he's personally decent, he doesn't demonize the other side. he works across the aisle. he does pride himself on being home. he's conservative but not rigidly so and agreeable to everybody. i mean, it's really a courtly southern type which is no longer in vogue. i really do think that he's in trouble. there's no question about it. he didn't get the majority that they hoped for. mississippi, former governor william winter, who is an excellent player on both racial reconciliation and education in this state told the "new york times" this would be the worst stereotype confirmed on mississippi if mcdaniel and the tea party win this one. and i

in mississippi, six-term republican senatored that cochran survived a strong tea party challenge. cochran got help from some democrats, african-american voters, in his win over mcdaniel. in new york, democratic congressman rangel is celebrating today after another close call. rangel's opponent, though, the state senator adriano espaillat, is not ready to succeed, at least not yet. in oklahoma, endorsements from palin and cruz were not enough to help former speaker of the house shannon. and help from outside conservative groups actually may have backfired. representative james lankford easily defeated shannon in the republican senate primary. we may not have heard the last word from the bitter runoff in mississippi. the tea party candidate mcdaniel is hinting at a possible court challenge. after his loss to senator thad cochran, mcdaniels said he wanted to make sure, quote, the sanctionty of the vote was upheld, and he blasted cochran for courting democrats. our chief congressional correspondent dana bash has more on the race. >> reporter: wolf, voter turnout is usually way down in

in mississippi six-term incumbent senator thad cochran survived a challenge from chris mcdaniel to hangork, charlie wrangle is leading challenger adrian adriano espaillat. so, karl is tonight the empire strikes back? >> this really becomes sort of of case of how out of state super packs, many aligned with the tea party came to a state, made a big stink and it backfired on who it was intended to benefit. over the course of the last month, polls changes, shannon had a lead at one point now, it's gone. oklahoma has said they didn't want to be told what to do it's not just here, it's in mississippi. it's a big win for republicans and casts a lot of negative press on the super packs for these set backs >> karl, we'll watch. thanks for watching this election news update. stay with fox news channel for the latest election results. back to the o'reilly factor. thanks forever staying with us. bill o'reilly in the is it legal segment tonight. three hot topics beginning with the memo me explaining why presidents have the authority to kill u.s. citizens. this off the drone attack that killed anwr a

our understanding was if thad cochran survives the primary, republicans win and that's it.ly in the wake of this tragic human event with the suicide and how that divides two factions down there. are you confident republicans can come together and for november and win this thing? >> not anymore, no. there's a sense that this is over as far as any kind of challenge and all, they are going to go through there. the odds of them actually finding enough irregularities to make a difference in the race is probably slim their clearly are some but i don't think it's as widespread as they are trying to make people believe. i don't see any real stomach for saying look, we're supporting thad cochran. it's something not there among the rank in file of the tea party movement and his core supporters. and i don't think it's there for mcdaniel right now at all. >> all right, my thanks to sam hall. you've been great covering the story. appreciate all of the work you've been doing. we'll get more into the politics of the story and what comes next for the tea party right after this. anies? yes.

but right now it appears that cochran barely survived.nd yes, because of those democratic voters. >> and because of that, there are a lot of frustrated conservatives this morning who are making the case that if you elect an establishment candidate, it's pretty much the same as electing a democrat. you had the founder of the tea party express tweeting out, the gop is done, saying if cochran wins this race, the gop is done, they teamed up with the dems to steal a race, kiss the base good-bye. i was actually watching "hannity" last night listening to sarah palin. here's some of what she had to say. >> if republicans are going to act like democrats, then what's the use in getting all gung-ho about getting more republicans in there? we need people who understand the beauty of the value of allowing the free market to thrive. otherwise, our country is going to continue to be overregulated, driving industry away, driving jobs away. we're going to be a brupts, fundamentally transformed country unless those who know what they're doing and aren't go

cochran. if there is some polling out there that the democrats actually shot -- if graham survives and gets and escapes a runoff, i wouldn't be surprised if a bunch of money gets thrown in and cochran gets the support he made need in order to survive this. that said, it seems a runoff is very difficult for him to win given the circumstances and the lower turnout and it's the tea party base of a party that appears to be the most fired up. joni ernst with a resounding victory in iowa. i think it sets up what will be one of the closer general election fights. bruce stum braley stumbled out, and it really is astounding that that the new normal is she got more money from outside groups campaigning than she spent herself. iowa republicans have to deal with that bizarre runoff deals, which potentially could have been troublesome. i think the surprise to me of the night is the success of sorts of the republican party in california. to quote mark twain, the idea that somehow the death or the potential death -- rumors of the death of the california republican party have been somewhat exaggerated. they se

but everyone is watching the race in mississippi to see if thad cochran can survive the tea party challengeg joe" back after this. ♪ [ male announcer ] whether it takes 200,000 parts, ♪ 800,000 hours of supercomputing time, 3 million lines of code, 40,000 sets of eyes, or a million sleepless nights. whether it's building the world's most advanced satellite, the space station, or the next leap in unmanned systems. at boeing, one thing never changes. our passion to make it real. ♪ being the new kid on the block can be intimidating. take your our passion to make it real. kids on a walk through the online neighborhood. show them sites you feel are acceptable. teach them how to deal with cyber bullies and encourage them to navigate safely. the more you know. ♪ >>> knock the walls down, mississippians. knock the walls down. >> today is about mississippi's tomorrow. >> today is super tuesday, and the marquee race is mississippi's republican senate primary. let's bring in nbc political news reporter kasie hunt live from jackson, mississippi. kasie? >> reporter: morning, mika. we were here a couple

you can also say that thad cochran doesn't look like he could survive a strong general election. he may be popular, but he could also be vulnerable. either way, we don't know yet whether it's the democratic constituency, the african-american vote that's making the difference. but the wonderful thing is we've had so many narratives this year, the tea party was dead. no, the tea party is alive. now the tea party is dead. i was talking to political reporter who said i think it's chris mcdaniel by six points. you don't know until you know. that's the wonderful thing about election night. by the way, it's good to be back with you. >> indeed, agreed. >> thank you. jonathan, the pressure on this race, national pressure, but the pressure on the republican establishment with haley barbour coming in, they're doing everything they can to basically revive the cochran campaign, which got in much more trouble than it should have for an incumbent senator with the experience you're supposed to have with running these re-elections. but cochran just kept amazingly, i'm now catching up with some of

. >> host: bad cochran has emphasized this and survive as. is one of those and then we'll come back to get your thoughts. >> i'm thad cochran. this election is about mississippi's tomorrow. as your united states senator i can d be more for mississippi. >> our aerospace industry, shipbuilding, military bases, research and development, agricultural breakthroughs, thad cochran's strong leadership makes it happen. he's a powerful voice for our state. let's keep him working for us. >> i'm thad cochran at i approved this message because mississippi is worth fighting for. >> host: emily wagster pettus is was the associate press mississippi political reporter. do we know where thad cochran is going to be today and chris mcdaniel as well? >> guest: thad cochran after he voted on saturday, so does that have to do that today, he will be out among supporters but we know he will be in suburbs. chris mcdaniel is voting this morning down in his home, and after that he is making a number of appearances as well. >> host: and where are you going to be and what

. >> the race has that everyone talking, mississippi senator thad cochran, the second longest serving republican in the chamber survivedtogether a broad coalition, including democrats and african-americans. >> that was a nail biter. another big political story to tell you about right now, in washington, a stark sign of the incredible frustration there, a mounting effort by congressional republicans to sue the president. house speaker john boehner along with dozens of fellow lawmakers now on the record talking about filing suit against president obama over his use of executive orders and also what they consider to be unilateral action. >> the president has made no secret of using executive orders to bypass congress, including on issues, gun control, climate change, minimum wage, gay marng, power plants, health care, immigration. >> i've got a pen and i've got a phone and i can use that pen to sign executive orders and take executive actions and administrative actions that move the ball forward. >> now, the white house has not weighed in on the speakers threat to sue, but this morning nancy pelosi called the idea represe

cochran in 1970. will he be able to survive his last campaign? with state senator adriano espaillat. probably the last african-american that will represent this district. question is, is that this year or next term? ranghe felt l got into trouble, after charging espaillat's only credential was his ethnicity. rangel called it a subjective question. then he said this. >> most of the states that they represent were confederate states that fought the union? were they slave-holding states? and when they come to washington you see more confederate flags than american flags. >> well, okay then. we'll get to the rangel fight in a minute. first i'm joined now by joe nasaf. good morning to you, sir. >> thanks for having me. >> let me ask you a few questions. you think this party can unite if mcdaniel is the nominee? >> i do. i think we'll be able to unite, regardless of who the nominee is. we've got to. mississippi is a conservative state. the last thing we want to do is to have a senator that doesn't reflect the values and the positions of mississippi voters and so i'm confident that right no

survived in kentucky. it is not clear that cochran will. i think it will be very close down there. >> i think howard makes a great point which is in some ways the tea party has cannibalized the gop and establishment candidates like tom till s are tea partiers cloaking themselves as establishment republicans. to howard's point about mississippi, do you think travitravis stands a chance. >> it is an icicle's chance in hell. it is mississippi. obama got 44%. this guy travis is not going to get the liberals to show up. he voted against the affordable care act. he is against gun control. he is against gay marriage. so the liberals don't have somebody on the ballot to show up for. so there is going to be a suppressed turn up. if we could turn all the democrats out in mississippi and some republicans are outraged -- >> in terms of iowa senate joni ernst, almost as if the senate conservatives of course they are going to be their candidate. this is someone who can legislate. it seems to be the amnesia that if you elect someone like joni ernst from t

interesting development to see cochran realize after june 3rd when they finished narrowly behind mcdaniel, mcdaniel did not have the money or organization to really survive in a three week competitive runoff. so they turned their tide. they turned their message. >> robert costa from the woest woe woe"washington post." thank you so much. >>> senator cochran, incumbent white establishment republican from the deep south has an unlikely soulmate today. incumbent african-american establishment democrat in the north who's also facing an upstart primary challenge that may finally spell his political demise. congressman charlie rangel. plagued by ethics problems even before his re-election two years ago and challenged by a redrawn district also evident in the last election cycle which significantly increased the latino population in his district and who two years ago won by only 1,100 votes. the man who came within 1,100 votes of beating congressman charlie rangel two years ago is back today in a rematch. that challenger, adriana aspiat. senator rangel, quote, yes, i have attacked his record and shouldn't have because there is no record. there is no love lost be

survive. >> well, yeah and listen, i total gri with michael steele. what cochranid this time is run an actual campaign and went back and relied on fact that maybe half of the state only voted for him before but represented the entire state for more than 40 years. they played such a smart game this time around. i don't think it wasn't -- it wasn't to me as cynical as so many republicans said it was, it was basically saying i've worked for you and can you work for me. they had yard signs they didn't have, walk lists and call lists and democratic african-american elected officials in mississippi driving around with vote for thad signs. that's what he should have done before. he's done a lot for that state and everybody in that state. i think the voters in mississippi were smart enough to recognize that. we've seen so many republicans dedefeated when those have done a lot for states that they represented. this time mississippi i think sort of kind of woke up and realized thad cochran was in danger in losing and showed up to the polls in the way they did first time aro

cochran is going down to defeat. at least that's the betting right now. whereas mitch mcconnell survived. debate, the battle still goes on within this party and on the whole, i think it is going -- it is weakening the party. >> we should point out lindsey graham had six opponents down there in south carolina. whether he had one, and that would have changed the dynamic, we don't know. >> the republican party is going to have to decide what its goal is. i think part of the lesson from this is the republican party isn't deciding much anymore. it's going to be the people at the grassroots who are going to have a big say in this. i think george's final point is really key. eric cantor was very good at the things that bring success in washington. he brokered compromise. he sought policy reforms. he held dinner meetings where he talked to members about which direction house republicans should go, but he was less good at the things that made him elected in the first place down in his district. the glad handing, the spending time, the constituent services. >> we'll talk about the leadership horse

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cochran. at that point you say it's time to get off the tiger go make friends with the villagers and survive.nd that's what he did. >> john, i love that analogy. and i love this strategy. i think it's really exciting and i love that african-american voters in mississippi said, you know what? this primary run-on is where the election is likely to be decided and we want to have a voice. it's also quite ingenious and revolutionary for a republican candidate, challenged from the right to actually move left and win, rather than running as far right as he can. is this a model that could work in other races? >> well, it all depends on what kind of primary you're running in. i agree with you that thad cochran did the right thing because he wanted to win. it's fantastic he did that. i also think that you have to understand the democratic party did not necessarily want this to happen so that african-american voters voted for thad cochran because they wanted to for their own interest because they thought thad cochran was better for the state given his position as a possible appropriations chairman. so,

cochran would wind up losing to chris mcdaniel. >> 1400 votes separate them. >> the people of the country are waking up today. >> will the lion of len ox avenue survive the campaigni believe we will win and win comfortably. >> i feel very confident that i've done my job and i've done it well and it's now in the hands of the voters. >> in today's top trender, scott guard -- >> if scott walker thought he had a shot at the white house, he could forget about it. >> prosecutors in the john doe investigation allege that you are the center of a criminal scheme, are you? >> no. >> there's no doubt in my mind the governor is involved and right in the center of this thing. >> conservatives circle wagons in support of scott walker. >> unconstitutional scheme on the part of the prosecutors. i think they have been abridging the right to free speech. >> christie says attacks against walker are coming from his political opponents because he's trying to bring change to the state. >> it really was a political witch hunt. >> joining me tonight, editor of the progressive magazine in wisconsin. good to have you with us. i want to go right to senator johnson is saying to the media an

two veterans of washington's political wars survived the primary challenges, or did they? six-term mississippi senator thad cochranrimary runoff but mcdaniel may not be giving up the fight yet. and in new york charlie rangel declared victory in a democratic house race but his opponent is refusing to concede defeat. dana bash is live in jackson, mississippi. what happened in mississippi last night? >> reporter: so many things unusual with this race. it's hard to know where to start. let's start with how many people came out for the runoff last night. 60,000 more people voted in the runoff than in the primary, incredibly unusual. what is even more unusual is that it wasn't just the people in the party. >> so much for bold colors. so much for principle. >> reporter: a nasty finish to a tough race. mississippi tee party candidate chris mcdaniel with a not so conciliatory race after losing to thad cochran. >> there is something a bit strange, there is something a bit unusual about a republican primary that's decided by liberal democrats. >> thank you all for being here to help celebrate a great victory. >> reporter: co

cochran and the loss of tancredo? does it say anything to you about where things are going in the republican party or is it just all politics are local and there's no message? >> hannah survived. >> yeah, hannah survived. listen, despite what you might see portrayed, the republican party is a big tent party. and parties are coalitions. if you travel overseas and you see parliaments, those are made up of these wildly different coalitions of cobbling certain groups and philosophies together to form a governing body. here in america we do it with two parties and in those two parties are just a tremendous amount of coalitions. that's the way our parties have really operated for a long time. so what you're seeing now is a filtering out and a struggle and a healthy debate about which of those coalitions gets more seats in the republican party than the other coalitions. and i thought it was -- at the end of the day i think americans are ready for some governance. this last five years has been so devastating to the middle class, it's been devastating to energy prices, it's been devastating to our national security, it's been devastating to their own health care. they're looking for s

the other thing is, the cochran campaign about six weeks ago desperately tried to do something that all good incumbent survivalsurvive. they change it from being a referendum to a choice, and by calling into question mcdaniel's character, about six weeks ago, i think over the last six weeks they were allowed to get that message to go. by the way, one other thing on tea party. the one successful tea party candidate this year, is the guy where the tea party candidates didn't help them, dave bratt. >> if you look at the twitter last night from tea party types and hard right types, they were yelling and screaming, this is shocking and stunning. they expanded the republican electorate, that's exactly what beat eric cantor. it's one of the things. eric cantor had democrats going out and voting against him as well. not to this degree. this is remarkable. gene robinson, i've had a lot of republican candidates telling me that they were going to expand the electorate and they were going to get african-americans to cross over in primaries and vote for them. my response has always been the same, this coming from a guy tha

cochran and the loss of tancredo. does it say anything to you about where things are going in the republican party? or is it just all politics are local and there's no message? >> hannah survived, yeah. despite what you might see portrayed, the republican party is a big tent party, and parties are collisions, if you see parliament overseas, they're made up wildly different coalitions of cobbling certain groups and philosophies together to form a governing body. here in america we do it within two parties and within those two parties are a tremendous amount of coalitions. what you're seeing now is a filtering out and struggle and healthy debate about which of those coalitions gets more seats in the republican party than the other coalitions. i thought it was a -- tess end of the day, i think americans are ready for governance. the last five years has been so devastating to the middle class, it's been devastating to energy prices, it's been devastating to our national security, devastating to their own health care. they're looking for some leadership. sometimes that means people forming a coalition that means you're going to get something done. i think the election showed across

survived, which is what the party establishment wanted. here in mississippi today is the last of those pieces to fall into place. you have a primary betweened that cochran, he was elected in 1978. he's he's an appropriator. he's being challenged by a young state senator in a nasty race who is arguing thatted that cochran works too much with democrats, too accommodating with the other side, too enmeshed with the culture in washington. he wants to change that. the race has been spiced by allegations that supporters of chris mcdaniel, the tea party challenger, broke into a nursing home and snapped pictures offed that cochran's wife who is ill, has been for some time. that has produced charges against some allies, felony charges, against allies of chris mcdaniel. there is worry among republicans that iffed that cochran is upset today, which could happen. it's a very close race, democrats could have a chance of carrying this state, mississippi, as conservative as it is, and that would make the path to republicans taking over the senate that much longer. >> all right. that was not one of the great moments in american -- it's not even politics, i guess. >> whe

cochran finds a way back. >> absolutely. >> so i think you're going to see a much broader campaign, more unapologetic campaign and that might be the only path he has to survivee can he do, john? >> in a general election this is not a strong democratic state by any means. childress might be able to come close in a comeback bid if mcdaniel is a nominee. >> one fast note. if you voted in a democratic primary, though, you cannot participate in a republican runoff. that narrows that pool of voters down. >> let's move on to the hillary clinton roleolout. did you know she wrote a book? it's "hard choices." for the 16th time in her political career, in her husband's political career, she's on the cover of "people" magazine. a new little bit every day from hillary clinton. one of the favorite items is quoted in "playbook," saying they are staff recently met with "the new york times." they griped about the paper's coverage arguing that clinton left public office and should not be subjected to such harsh scrutiny? what planet do they live? >> obviously, hillary clinton and all figures in the public arena and who seek public office should -- >> that would be one thing i

cochran and mph of the loss of cradle. does it say anything to you going or e things are just politics and no message? hanna survived. might see pite was portrayed the republican party is a big tent party. coalitions. if you go travel overseas and ou see parliaments those are wild group.hese here in america we do it with a parties and in those are tremendous amount of coalitions. that's the way our parties have operated for a long time. so what you're seeing now is a filtering out and a struggle and a healthy debate about which of those coalitions gets more seats in the republican party than the coalitions. and i thought it was -- at the americans day i think are ready for governance. been sot five years has devastating to the middle class and energy prices and devastating to our national devastating to their own healthcare. they're looking for some lead eadership and sometimes that means people forming a coalition, that means you'll get something done. i think the elections showed the country people are ready for that. they're ready for a change in the way the country's being i think that's what you saw happen. > le