On Tuesday night, Mississippi tea partier Chris McDaniel refused to concede that he’d lost his Republican primary runoff against six-term Sen. Thad Cochran, despite a more than 6,000 vote difference with 99% of precincts reporting.
The latest controversy over the Mississippi primary isn’t surprising: The race has been particularly messy, involving the police not once, but twice. Still, McDaniel’s hints at legal action and general foot-stomping remarks did win him a spot on our running list of the sorest losers in politics.
Check out our list and tell us in the comments: Whom would you add?
1. State Sen. Chris McDaniel, primary challenger to Sen. Thad Cochran
In a non-concession speech to supporters on Tuesday night, McDaniel suggested that legal action to investigate the results of the runoff might be in the cards. He cited reports of “dozens of irregularities” at polling precincts and of opponents that spent “millions of dollars to character assassinate one of their own.” He went on to slam Cochran for reaching out to “liberal Democrats” in the final days, an unconventional strategy that capitalized on a Mississippi law that allows anyone who plans to vote for a candidate in the general election to vote in the primary regardless of party affiliation.
“Now it’s our job to make sure that the sanctity of the vote is upheld,” McDaniel said. “Before the race ends we have to be absolutely certain that the Republican primary was won by Republican votes.”
Cochran’s strategy to win the votes of Democrats caused quite a kerfuffle: Conservative poll watchers rushed to the state, alleging fraud on Cochran’s part, and attracted the attention of even the Department of Justice as anxieties of racial profiling and voter intimidation were stoked.
2. Alan Keyes, the Republican who lost to Obama in Illinois U.S. Senate race
In 2004, when then state Senator Barack Obama defeated Republican Alan Keyes in a landslide (the future president won 70% of the votes) the conservative candidate waited two days to concede the race and refused to congratulate his opponent.
“I’m supposed to make a call that represents the congratulations toward that which I believe ultimately stands for and will stand for a culture evil enough to destroy the very soul and heart of my country?” Keyes said at the time. “I can’t do this. And I will not make a false gesture.”
Keyes later upped his game, by filing a lawsuit claiming the president wasn’t actually an American citizen. It was thrown out of court.
3. Mark Fisher, a Republican who really wanted to be on the ballot in Massachusetts
McDaniel is hardly the first to float the idea of legal action after losing a primary—in fact, a Massachusetts Republican Mark Fisher sued the state’s GOP after losing the right to get his name on the primary ballot by just six votes. Party officials said he’s demanded $1 million to drop the suit, a sum which he later lowered to $650,000. Fisher refutes the claim, saying the party had offered that much. A judge eventually put Fisher on the ballot, with the party’s begrudging okay, but delayed the trial over the damages Fisher is seeking till after the election despite Fisher’s protests that that money was to fund his campaign.
4. Richard Nixon, a man who would go on to be president
Richard Nixon congratulated Gov. Edmund Brown when he lost the California gubernatorial race, but famously turned the screws on the press instead.









