Matt Ortega

In the special election run-off for Senator Roger Wicker’s (R-Mississippi) former House seat, Democrat Travis Childers was declared the victor. This makes three seats in deeply Republican districts flipping to Democrats and we are not even into the summer yet.

President Bush carried the First Congressional District of Mississippi with 62 percent of the vote. Childers won the seat by eight points, 54-46.

It is important to note that the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) dropped roughly $1.3 million of their $7 million cash on hand in an eight point drubbing in an R+10 district. NRCC Chair Rep. Tom Cole (R-Moore, Okla.) did not even try to spin the crushing defeat. It is simply stunning and goes to show the Everest that Republican candidates face in November.

The defeat leaves Republicans with less than 200 seats in the House — 199.

Swing State Project asked readers to draft the NRCC press release and outlined just how big of a victory the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) and Rep.-elect Childers secured for Democrats.

A number of conservative bloggers are avoiding the Mississippi special election run-off altogether but a few chimed in with their takes.

Pejman Yousefzadeh, Red State:

Meanwhile, it isn’t as if Republicans don’t have problems. There is no denying it anymore–if it could even be denied in the run-up to tonight; Republicans have serious problems with the brand identity. Yes, I know that there are six months left until the election but what else needs to occur for the GOP to realize that it has a very serious problem on its hands? There have been any number of indications concerning a Republican image problem and nothing has been done to ameliorate matters. Either Republican leaders get on the ball very quickly, or the GOP is headed for yet another round of epic Congressional losses.

Hot Air:

And so the only election that mattered tonight, the bellwether of this fall’s congressional races, goes the wrong way. I’m going to go find some glue to huff. Talk amongst yourselves.

Earlier today, A.J. Sparxx wrote at PoliPundit:

Even though a win is a win, this win doesn’t necessary mean the bleeding has stopped for the GOP as we move towards the 2008 elections, but a loss of this seat, piggybacked to the previous 2 losses over the last 2 weeks, certainly sends out red flags that a storm is coming.

Those objects you see moving in the distance, Republicans, are red flags.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 13, 2008. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. The views expressed are of the author, and the author alone, and do not reflect the views of the Democratic National Committee.