The third try wasn’t the charm for State Sen. Chris McDaniel. Mississippi Republicans decided to stick with what they’ve got in last week’s primaries.

McDaniel fell over 20,000 votes short of Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in a race with relatively high turnout.

The only excitement during the Tuesday night vote tally came from watching to see if political newcomer Tiffany Longino could grab enough votes to force a runoff. She did not. She got just over 5% of the vote while Hosemann won with 52%. He cleared the runoff threshold by nearly 7,000 votes.

This was McDaniel’s third statewide defeat. He lost to Sen. Thad Cochran in 2014 and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in 2018. Notably, after those two defeats he still held on to his state senate seat. This time he lost that too, giving up his safe seat to run against Hosemann.

The results did seem to confirm the notion that McDaniel has a strong but limited core vote, at least in a first primary. In the first primary against Sen. Cochran in 2014 he got 157,733 votes. In the first open primary of the special election for U.S. Senate in 2018 he got 154,878 votes. Unofficial returns from last Tuesday’s first primary showed McDaniel with 157,278 votes. In contrast, he got 187,279 in his runoff loss to Cochran in 2014.

McDaniel did carry 25 of Mississippi’s 82 counties in this race. Most were smaller, rural counties, but of note was his win in DeSoto County, one of the large Republican strongholds. Sixteen of the counties were in southeast Mississippi, including his home county of Jones.

The only other statewide Republican officials with primaries were Gov. Tate Reeves and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney. The Governor cruised to victory over two generally unknown challengers, John Witcher and David Hardigee. Likewise, Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney clobbered challenger Mitch Young. Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Secretary of State Michael Watson, State Treasurer David McRae, Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, and State Auditor Shad White were unopposed.

All Republican incumbents will have opponents in November.

The other significant position in state politics is Speaker of the House. Reigning Speaker Philip Gunn did not seek re-election. State Rep. Jason White, the heir apparent, handily won his primary and is unopposed in November.

In other key races, Nelson Wayne Carr upset incumbent Dane Maxwell for Public Service Commissioner for the Southern District. Republican State Rep. Chris Brown won the Northern District post vacated by gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley. Neither will have opposition in the General Election.

Most legislators won their primaries. One new face, though, will be Rodney Hall of Southaven. He will become the first Black Republican state representative since 1873.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.