McCain takes Missouri in close race Tuesday
Feb. 8, 2008
Rep. Jason Brown, R-Platte City, watches poll updates on MSNBC and talks with senior D'Anthony White at a watch party for presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Tuesday at Hotel DeVille in Jefferson City. McCain won the Republican nomination in Missouri on Tuesday with 33 percent of the votes.
(Click graphic to enlarge)
In the shadow of the state Capitol, where state employees smoked and socialized after work, state Rep. Jason Brown, R-Platte City, taped a sheet of poster board to the wall in the Hotel Deville’s lounge. With a marker, he listed each Super Tuesday state on one side and left a blank space next to each one.
Brown is the vice chairman of U.S. Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., Missouri campaign.
Brown couldn’t add “McCain” next to Missouri on the board until after 11 p.m., but by then the senator had won eight other states, and collected 544 delegates. By the end, Missouri gave 58 more, making the total 602 delegates, according to CNN.
McCain beat former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, 33.5 percent to 33 percent. Brown met the candidate after being injured in Iraq, where Brown served a tour in the U.S. Army Reserve.
“I think that the voters made their decision based off a litany of things,” Brown said moments after MSNBC declared McCain’s Missouri win. “Experience, maturity, leadership and the message, it resonated with the Missouri voters.”
Two days later, many Republicans have accepted McCain as the front-runner for the party, prompting chief rival, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, to drop out on Thursday.
Romney announced the end of his campaign at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in Washington, D.C. He said he disagrees with McCain on many issues, but that he must “step aside” for the party’s sake.
“This is not an easy decision for me,” Romney said. “I hate to lose. My family, my friends and our supporters — many of you right here in this room — have given a great deal to get me where I have a shot at becoming president.”
McCain was also at CPAC. He addressed his conservative audience amid cheers and boos. He said he knows he has to work to unite the party in order to defeat Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., or Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., one of whom likely will be his Democratic rival.
“Many of you have disagreed strongly with some positions I have taken in recent years,” McCain said. “I understand that. I might not agree with it, but I respect it for the principled position it is.”
McCain’s field organizers and supporters are gathering strength for this weekend’s Kansas Republican caucus, and what is shaping up to be the campaign trail toward November’s general election.
Despite near-record turnout for the Democratic Party primaries, McCain could draft votes from students. Senior Lucinda Housley, student coordinator for McCain’s Missouri campaign, said students would vote for McCain because of his integrity and honesty.
“He’s someone who can attract moderates and people who are on the fence, and of course the conservative base,” Housley said.
Housley has served as student coordinator since Jan. 30. She said part of her plan is to help organize metropolitan areas for McCain, where she says he is likely to do better.
She said she’s also waiting for directions from supporters attending CPAC, which ends on Saturday.
Brown said that with the success of Super Tuesday and the elimination of Romney, the campaign is expanding its infrastructure, including to campuses, and that could help McCain garner support the national election.
“We want a presence in student organizations,” he said.
Brown said he’ll attend Lincoln Days, a meeting for Missouri Federation of Young Republicans members, in Springfield, Mo.
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