The most heated state campaign for a party nomination in a long while was finally over Tuesday night as incumbent Republican Thad Cochran nudged out state Sen. Chris McDaniel’s tea party-backed bid to unseat the veteran U.S. senator.

With each vote counting pretty much everywhere in the state, both McDaniel and Cochran made multiple visits to Lincoln County over the past several months, and the state senator was even in Brookhaven on Election Day June 24 speaking to the Lions Club.

Despite McDaniel’s last-minute visit to town and a stepped-up radio blitz on local radio stations in the final days of the campaign, his Lincoln vote count only increased by 188 ballots, from 1,998 votes on June 3 to 2,186 on June 24.

Meanwhile, Cochran’s Lincoln County votes jumped by 593 ballots, from 2,428 June 3 to 3,021 June 24.

Since Mississippi has an open primary law, which allows voters who didn’t vote in the first primary to vote in either party’s runoff, it’s hard to tell how many who identify as Democrats went to the polls and voted for Cochran on Tuesday.

McDaniel’s supporters have lambasted Cochran for calling out the Democrats to come help him, but such is politics in the state of Mississippi and any other place in America that doesn’t have closed primaries. Even former President Ronald Reagan had a history of reaching across party lines for votes when push came to shove.

But putting the past months of frequently nasty campaigning behind us, I expect a spirited race coming up between Democrat nominee Travis Childers and Cochran between now and the general election Nov. 4.

From 2008 to 2001, Booneville native Childers was the congressman for the First Congressional District, which included my hometown of Columbus. I interviewed him back then when I was working at the newspaper in Lowndes County, and the man knows how to meet and greet and campaign.

So get ready for a lot more handshaking in Lincoln County and a lot more ads flooding the airways and newspaper pages between now and the first Tuesday in November, and I expect we’ll see both Senate candidates around town.

For the record, here’s a look at how the Republican numbers changed in other area counties between June 3 and June 24:

•  In Copiah County, McDaniel polled 1,296 votes June 3 compared to 1,419 June 24, while Cochran received 1,380 ballots June 3 compared to 1,760 June 24.
• ? In Franklin County McDaniel topped Cochran June 3 and again on June 24. There, McDaniel garnered 676 votes June 3 compared to 746 June 24, while Cochran got 510 votes June 3, increasing to 633 on June 24.
• In Lawrence County, McDaniel also won the first and second primaries. He received 852 Lawrence County votes June 3 and increased that tally to 940 June 24, while Cochran got 759 ballots June 3, managing to increase his vote count to 904 votes June 24.

Meanwhile, statewide, Cochran took the Republican nomination June 24 with 191,508 votes compared to McDaniel’s 184,815.

And so it went. Get ready for round three from now until November.

Rachel Eide is editor/general manager of The Daily Leader. Contact her at rachel.eide@dailyleader.com.