Mississippi pastor Steve Fielder accused incumbent senator Thad Cochran of buying black votes to secure his run-off win in an interview published Monday.
Fielder alleged that Cochran's staff told him and other campaign workers to bring blacks to the polls and pay each voter $15. The voters were also allegedly told that Cochran's opponent was racist.
Mississippi attorney and Tea Party member Chris McDaniel narrowly beat Cochran in the June 3 primary, but lost in the June 24 Republican run-off election. Pastor Fielder said that the win was caused by black voters being recruited, and paid, to vote for Cochran.
"They figured they were going to need about 10,000 votes," Fielder told Got News blogger Charles C. Johnson. "That was the target."
He said that black people were specifically targeted by campaign workers like himself.
"They pretty much got all the white votes they were going to get, and they need some African-American votes that were going to turn the election."
Fielder said they went into housing projects and other impoverished areas with the message that McDaniel was racist, and that Cochran needed their vote. After being escorted to the polls, Fielder allegedly paid them $15. He said he brought "hundreds or even thousands," to vote for Cochran.
Slate reported this week that Cochran's voter turnout rose from 10,928 to 17,949 between the two elections. Cochran's margin of victory was also around 7,000.
In exchange for his work, Cochran's camp allegedly promised to pay the First Union Missionary Baptist Church pastor $16,000. Fielder produced text messages allegedly from Saleem Baird, a Cochran staffer, in which they discussed the owed funds.
"I'm heading back from Brookhaven to Jackson but I can tell them to release the funds to you," one text, allegedly from Baird, read.
"I'm wirking [sic] my way that way I'll get with you that's a guarantee," another text stated.
Fielder told Johnson that he realized he wasn't going to be paid, that McDaniel was not racist, and that he was part of a pay-for-votes scheme.
"Me and other people were misguided and misled," he claimed.
Johnson admitted that he paid Fielder for the exclusive interview.
Meanwhile, Cochran campaign spokesperson Jordan Russell vehemently denied the accusations.
"This [pastor] is obviously a guy who is a liar, who sold his story to a blogger who's openly proclaiming he will pay people to tell him a story," Russell told the Clarion-Ledger.
He also said that Fielder and others were to be paid $600 as campaign workers, but did not pay for votes.
McDaniel and his staff are investigating whether Democratic primary voters also cast a ballot for Cochran in last week's run-off election, which would be considered voter fraud. McDaniel's press aide, Noel Fritsch, said they are examining votes in counties with suspicious turnout rates.
"We're finished with Hinds County, and we're up to 1,500 [fradulent votes]," he told Fox News.
The Tea Party hopes their investigation will force another run-off.
"We don't have to prove that we have 7,000 [invalid] votes," Fritsch said. "All there needs to be is enough doubt about the election, and we're confident about that."
