You’ve probably heard that there will be a run-off between Sen. Thad Cochran and challenger Chris McDaniel. From the NY Times:
Some say the differences between the supporters of Mr. Cochran, a senator since 1978, who is the face of the party establishment, and those of Mr. McDaniel, a former host of a conservative radio show, go beyond the issues in the race.
“There’s a divide between the ‘country club’ Republicans and what I call the ‘deer camp’ Republicans,” said Jon C. Lewis, a Hinds County constable, who, as a McDaniel supporter, puts himself in the latter camp. “Their problem is that there’s more of us than there is of them.”
This is a political divide that goes back at least as far as the old Civil War aphorism, “Rich man’s war, poor man’s fight,” that was the mantra of Confederate soldiers when discussing the plantation aristocracy that the grunts saw has having led them into the cannons at Gettysburg. That divide never truly closed.
Pierce goes on to describe a filibuster of the Armed Ships Bill in 1917 (lead up to WWI) as an example of how the divide played out in Mississippi politics a century ago. Worth reading.