McDaniel’s Legal Challenge Now Rejected By Mississippi High Court

Chris McDaniel’s months-long quest to overturn the results of the Mississippi Republican Senate primary appeared to reach its end when the state supreme court rejected his legal challenge Friday.

McDaniel lost to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) in the June primary, but he has been using the legal system ever since to undermine the election. Allegations of voter fraud and illegal crossover voters have abounded, and the case eventually made its way to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

But the court dismissed McDaniel’s challenge on Friday, citing timing and political considerations, according to election law expert Rick Hasen’s analysis.

“Sometimes these rulings are a mercy killing. McDaniel’s evidence of fraud seemed weak, and his legal theories about crossover voting even weaker,” Hasen wrote. “This timing ruling was a way for the courts to end the process without going through a long drawn out trial. Not that the courts would ever admit they were doing that, but I guess this was in the back of at least some Justices’ minds.”

According to the Clarion Ledger, neither McDaniel or his attorney would definitively ruled out any further legal action. Hasen wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court or U.S. Senate, the two bodies to which he might appeal, don’t seem likely to take up the case.

Cochran, meanwhile, is expected to cruise to re-election in a little more than a week.