Thad Cochran

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State Rep. Chris McDaniel has been vocal in his opposition to Common Core, which garnered him support over incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran in Mississippi's hotly contested Republican Senate primary (AP Photo/The Hattiesburg American, Kelly Price)

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Sen. Thad Cochran, Mississippi Republican, seeking a seventh six-year term, faces a runoff June 24 against a Tea Party-backed rival, whom he won't debate. (Associated Press)

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Neither Sen. Thad Cochran (right) nor Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel managed to get more than 50 percent of the Republican vote and will face off in a June 24 election. (Associated Press photographs)

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Sen. Thad Cochran (left), who has served in Congress for over four decades, is facing a challenge from Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel. (associated press photographs)

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Sen. Thad Cochran, Mississippi Republican, has promised that, if re-elected, he will continue to fight to make sure his state gets its "fair share" of the federal government pie. His primary challenger, tea party-backed state Sen. Chris McDaniel called Mississippi a "welfare state" and pledged to get the federal government off the state's back. (Associated Press)

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U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., left, presents his photo identification to Baretta Mosley, the Lafayette County Circuit Clerk, prior to voting absentee in Oxford, Miss., Saturday, May 31, 2014. Cochran, 76, in Congress since 1973, is in the fight of his political life, a brutal, too-personal Republican primary that has drawn his bedridden wife into the melee and resulted in criminal charges against some of his opponent's supporters. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

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Former Alaska Governor and vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin introduces U.S. Senate challenger Chris McDaniel at a rally Friday, May 29, 2014 at Jones County Junior College in Ellisville, Miss. McDaniel is challenging Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. (AP Photo/George Clark)

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FILE - This May 14, 2014, file photo shows Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., arriving for a vote at the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington. Cochran, 76, in Congress since 1973, is in the fight of his political life, a brutal, too-personal Republican primary that has drawn his bedridden wife into the melee and resulted in criminal charges against some of his opponent's supporters. (AP Photo)