Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran made a surprising political turnaround and defeated tea party challenger Chris McDaniel in a GOP runoff Tuesday, The Associated Press reported. The six-term, 76-year-old lawmaker narrowly won after a scramble to drum up support that included courting liberal-leaning African-Americans and other Democrats. The race went into overtime earlier this month, when neither Cochran nor McDaniel reached the 50 percent of votes needed to avoid a runoff.
