Returns showed Cochran with a lead of about 3,800 votes, holding 50.5 percent of the vote to McDaniel's 49.5 percent with 98 percent of precincts reporting.

The race attracted $12 million in spending by outside groups. Cochran made the argument to voters that he was a solid conservative who would continue routing federal money back to Mississippi, just as he's done for decades. McDaniel held up Cochran as the face of an out-of-touch Congress responsible for a...]]>