Mississippi Senate candidate Chris McDaniel addressed at neo-Confederate conference and costume ball in August, according to Mother Jones.
The two-day event—hosted by the pro-secessionist group Jones County Rosin Heels, a local chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans—invited attendees for a conference filled with speakers who “may also show how America’s current issues are related to the War,” as well as a dinner where casual attire or “Confederate unions and antebellum ball gowns or wee kilties” were recommended.
McDaniel, a current state senator, said last week he would challenge incumbent GOP Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014, and quickly picked up endorsements from the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund—two PACs dedicated to a Tea Party takeover of the Republican Party.
In an email announcing his endorsement for McDaniel, Club for Growth president Chris Chocola wrote, “Chris is a state senator in Mississippi who has a proven record as a defender of liberty and economic freedom…A skilled litigator, he represented the state of Mississippi in its lawsuit against Obamacare. There is no doubt in my mind that, if elected to the United States Senate, Chris would quickly become a key leader among pro-growth Senate conservatives.”
Chocola added that, since Mississippi is a “firmly red state,” a Democratic candidate is unlikely to take the Senate seat, “making this a key opportunity to help elect a pro-growth, limited government champion instead of a go-along-to-get-along, moderate Republican.”
McDaniel is one of three 2014 congressional candidates endorsed by Club for Growth, along with Arkansas’ Tom Cotton and Idaho’s Bryan Smith.
If national polling is any indication of the Republican Party’s fate, next year’s midterm elections could see a 2010 rerun, when the Tea Party movement achievement electoral success with victories with candidates such as Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Nikki Haley.
Traci Lee