Sen. Thad Cochran’s tea party challenger State Sen. Chris McDaniel is getting personal in the final hours before their hotly contested run-off.
McDaniel's campaign posted a meme about Cochran's daughter on his Facebook page Sunday night.
"Thad Cochran's daughter had the audacity to write this, in an attempt to criticize me," McDaniel's account writes "And you know what? She's exactly right!"
"#Who'sYaDaddy?" asks the meme, which features a picture of the incumbent’s daughter, Kate Cochran and an excerpt of one of her public Facebook notes. (The hashtag has failed to take off on Twitter, as the apostrophe breaks its link.)
The excerpted text comes from a note Kate Cochran posted on Facebook, in which she argues that Mississippi voters are "swayed" by McDaniel's lack of experience, compared to her father.
"I think this is the reason that so many seem swayed by my father’s opponent: he is valued for his lack. Lack of experience (he is not a “career politician.”) Lack of wisdom (he relies solely on Jesus, the Constitution, and common sense*—combined in the veneer of “goodness”)," the original note reads. (She later added the asterix, writing, "I meant this person's version of common sense, which is not sensical at all ... his version of "common sense" flies in the face of not only basic arithmetic, but also the lessons learned in any high school civics class.")
Despite posting it on their official Facebook page, the McDaniel campaign stressed to msnbc that they did not create the meme. They declined to discuss it further.
"That's absurd on its face," spokesman Jordan Russell told msnbc of the McDaniel campaign's explanation.
“The nursing home break in, screaming at elderly constituents, and now launching a personal attack at Sen. Cochran's daughter on social media show that Chris McDaniel doesn't have the stability, temperament, or judgment required of a United States Senator,” the campaign added in a statement. “You would think somebody running on Christian family values would not stoop to attacking family, especially after all Kate has been through dealing with the crimes committed against her mother by McDaniel campaign team members."
In April, a McDaniel supporter and blogger Clayton Kelly broke into a nursing home where Cochran's wife receives care for severe dementia. Kelly filmed her and posted the video online; he was later arrested. McDaniel denied any involvement in the break-in, but an interview he gave on the break-in left many questioning his story.