Tuesday, May 13, 2008
MS-01 Special Election Results – Childers WINS!
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Democrat Travis Childers is hoping to end the long Republican reign in Mississippi’s first district tonight. Childers won the first special election on April 22nd with 49% of the vote over Republican Greg Davis but failed to get the 50% needed to get the seat.
As always the best place to go for Mississippi politics is CottonMouthBlog. Our friends at Swing State Project are also covering the race.
NPR has a story on the special election here.
We’ll be covering the results as they come in tomorrow night. A win by Childers would make him the 796th superdelegate… a number we haven’t seen since January 15th.
Polls close at 8:00 EDT.
Childers WINS!
Travis Childers (D) -54% – Lead: just under 8,000
Greg Davis (R) – 46%
# of Vote In: 100%
Update 9:15 EDT – Childers in the lead. He seems to be running ahead of his numbers in the previous election, but really too early to tell.
Update 9:30 – Childers opening a bit of a gap – lead up to 3,100 votes.
Update 9:45 – Davis catching up – lead at 1,800
Update 9:50 – 66% in, Childers reopens that 3,000 vote lead
Update 10:00 – 72%, and just like that, its very close
Update 10:05 – 79% in, Childers with small lead. He’s running slightly ahead of his numbers in the previous election, and if that holds, he wins.
Update 10:07: Childer’s home county, Prentiss, is still mostly out.
Update 10:15: Childers wins!
Update 10:50: Turns out it wasn’t even close. Childers is up 53-47, 7,000 vote lead, with 94% in.
Update 11:05: Stop the madness. Childers is turning this into a relative rout: 54-46, 7,700 vote lead with all but 1 precinct in.
Posted by Matt at 8:53 PM 
I was looking for an article to give me the flavor of this race and I think I found it in this Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal article from Saturday. Childers has been subsidizing gas purchases for motorists on his “Fed Up While You Fuel Up Tour”.
Get this, he offers the first 50 people who show up the chance to buy up to 10 gallons of gasoline for $1.25/gal. I don’t see how this isn’t ‘buying votes’. His point(?) is that Greg Davis, his Republican opponent voted for a hike in the state gas tax back when gas prices were $1.25/gal.
Not to be outdone, Davis has come up with an interesting quote:
Davis’ campaign manager Ted Prill denounced the statements as hypocrisy, saying Childers “has been supported almost solely by liberal Democrats in Washington who would allow Fidel Castro to (drill for oil) closer to our shorelines than we can.”
This is a plank in the Democrats’ platform I hadn’t heard about! Thank you, Greg Davis, for tipping me off to the liberals’ plan to allow Fidel Castro to drill for oil closer to our shorelines than we can.
If this guy is true Democrat I want him in the House! One Democrat more is a good thing for the nation in this moment!
Good luck, Mr. Childers!!!
Matt,
Could you change the ‘tomorrow night’ to read “Tuesday night” (or even “tonight”) to make it a bit clearer when the primary is being held? As is, the message makes it appear the primary is being held on Wednesday.
Mike
Prentiss hasnt reported at all, thats a Childers strong hold, I think its safe to say we took this seat.
AP just declared Childers the winner
AP calls for Childers 796 Superdelegates.
The Clarion-Ledger calls it for Childers! Put lightly, a Democratic strike in the blood-red heartland of the GOP. Congratulations, Representative-Elect Travis Childers (D-MS).
MSNBC has reported that AP calls the race for Childers!!!
Superdelegate count goes back to 796!!!
Mike
Ahhh the sweetness of a Democrat winning in a heavily Republican district!