What happened Between Virginia and Mississippi? A Talk Radio Assessment

Sen. Thad Cochran beat back challenger Chris McDaniel’s challenge Tuesday.

(Cochran.Senate.gov)

McDaniel, a former talk radio host himself, beat Cochran in the original Republican primary, but Cochran won the runoff mostly with Democratic votes in the open primary state.

The Cochran comeback was an upset, as many political observers expected talk radio to propel another Tea Party insurgent to victory as happened in Virginia where economics professor Dave Brat beat House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.

From one election to the next, the question went from whether talk radio is a kingmaker to whether talk radio matters.

Two talkers Laura Ingraham and Michael Smerconish give their perspectives.

From Politico:

“McDaniel focused on standard tea party issues of balanced budget, Obamacare repeal, ballooning debt…and he won among Republican voters,” Ingraham said in an email. “Had he followed the Brat template—and focused on how Mississippi’s working class has been harmed by the Establishment’s failure to secure the borders, harmed by its addiction to cheap foreign labor, harmed by crony capitalists who game the system for their own benefit—he might have blunted the effect of the Democrat turnout for Cochran.”

On her radio show on Wednesday, Ingraham said there couldn’t always be a victory like Brat’s. “There’s no magic pill you can take,” she said.

CNN and centrist talk radio host Michael Smerconish said he thinks the role of talk radio had less of an impact in the Cochran-McDaniel race because there already was intense media and voter interest ahead of Tuesday’s runoff.

“Where talk thrives as a political force is in that low-interest election where the establishment is caught unaware by the groundswell talk has created in its demographic,” Smerconish said.

To learn more about where talk radio has succeeded and where it hasn’t, read The Right Frequency.

 

Talk Radio Leads to Another Political Earthquake

Talk radio certainly did shake up the political establishment in Virginia and across the country on Tuesday.

Rep. Eric Cantor

Economist David Brat defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor and it wasn’t even close. And he pulled off the stunning upset with the help of talk radio.

From the New York Times:

Mr. Cantor, who is in his seventh term, had sought to rebut Mr. Brat’s charges on immigration, using some of his $5.4 million to send fliers and air television ads in which he claimed to oppose an “amnesty” policy. But with significant help from conservative talk radio figures such as Laura Ingraham, Mr. Brat was able to galvanize opposition to Mr. Cantor in one of Virginia’s most conservative congressional districts.

Meanwhile, Glenn Beck also voiced support on his radio show saying: “We need people like you to be able to get in and hold some of these guys’ feet to the fire.”

The subtitle to The Right Frequency is “The Story of the Talk Radio Giants who Shook up the Political and Media Establishment.”

The book details numerous other examples where talkers shifted election results. Ingraham played a major role in Scott Brown’s shocking 2010 Senate victory in Massachusetts. Beck was a driving force behind the foundation of the Tea Party movement. Bob Grant is responsible for making governors of George Pataki and Christie Whitman in New York and New Jersey. Rush Limbaugh helped the Republicans win a majority in Congress in 1994.

To learn more about how these cases happened, read The Right Frequency.