The Republicans' Election Scare

The party loses a once-safe Mississippi congressional seat, the third loss of three that could be a bad omen for '08

C. Todd Sherman / The Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal / AP

Mississippi Democrat Travis Childers greets supporters at Northeast Community College in Booneville, Mississippi.

There was no sugar coating this one — the Republican Party got beat, and it got beat soundly. In any other year, Mississippi's 1st Congressional district would not have been a question. President Bush won the northeast corner of the state with two-thirds of the vote in 2004, the same margin that elected the last Republican congressman there in 2006. But Tuesday night, in a special election to replace the Representative who had moved on to take over Trent Lott's Senate seat, the results came in ugly. Travis Childers, a pro-life Democrat who supports gun rights, swept the district with 54%...

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