THIS is How Republicans Do Politics: Staff Members of GOP Senate Candidate Caught Overnight in Courthouse Were Election Ballots Were Kept

Illustration by Cory M. Grenier.

By Benjy Sarlin
Barring some disaster, Chris McDaniel’s tea party-backed primary challenge to Mississippi Republican Sen. Thad Cochran looked likely to succeed on Wednesday morning. After all, McDaniel already weathered one lurid scandal in which four supporters were arrested for allegedly plotting a nursing home break-in. Surely his campaign could make it to the June 24 runoff without another bizarre police investigation, right?

Well, maybe not. The Hinds County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday that it was investigating three McDaniel supporters who were locked inside the local courthouse, where primary ballots were held, on election night.

Unlike the nursing home arrests, which involved prominent backers of McDaniel but no one directly tied to the campaign, the courthouse lock-in included a top McDaniel staffer, campaign coalition director Scott Brewster. According to the McDaniel campaign it was an innocent misunderstanding.

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