Cochran Asking Blacks to Rescue Him in Republican Primary.

Bishop Ronnie C. Crudup stood before roughly a dozen of his colleagues at a weekly Baptist fellowship meeting last week and asked for their help in a fight that, until now, would have been unthinkable for a black pastor in Mississippi: “Let’s send Senator Thad Cochran back to Washington,” he urged.

That Senator Cochran is a Republican and African-Americans here are overwhelmingly Democratic did not go unmentioned. But, Mr. Crudup noted with a wry smile, “in tough times, you’ve got to do some unusual things.”

And if that meant supporting Mr. Cochran against State Senator Chris McDaniel in a Republican runoff on Tuesday, it was worth the risk. Mr. Cochran had helped Mississippi’s blacks during his six terms, Mr. Crudup said, and it was now time to repay him with their support in the political fight of his life, especially against an opponent who was known to have made racially insensitive remarks when he was a talk-show host.

“You’ve got to be willing to cross the line sometimes, and go over to some strange places for our interests,” said Mr. Crudup, the senior pastor at New Horizon Church International.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/21/us/politics/cochran-asking-blacks-to-rescue-him-in-republican-primary.html?hp&_r=0