was not initially believed to pose a serious threat to Cochran, he proved a formidable challenger. Polling showed the lead swinging between the two and it eventually became a "50%-50% race". McDaniel was vocal about his intention to repeal Obamacare and to work to lower the national debt. The primary was considered a marquee establishment-versus-Tea Party fight. Cochran's seniority and appropriating skills contrasted with the junior status of the rest of the state's congressional delegation. The primary was called "nasty" and full of "bizarre" twists. In May 2014, a scandal emerged when a McDaniel supporter allegedly entered a nursing home where Cochran's bedridden wife was living and took pictures of her. The images were posted to a blog, intending to advance the rumor that Cochran was having affairs while his wife was receiving care. Four people were arrested in connection with the incident. The connection to the McDaniel campaign was disputed. One of the arrested included McDaniel ally Mark Mayfield, who was vice chairman of the state's Tea Party. In response, McDaniel said, "the violation of the privacy of Mrs. Cochran [was] out of bounds for politics and reprehensible." Neither candidate won a majority in the primary election; McDaniel won 49.46% of the vote to Cochran's 49.02%. A runoff election was held on June 24. Despite trailing in most of the polls, Cochran won with 51.01% of the vote to McDaniel's 48.99%. In the aftermath of the election, the McDaniel campaign claimed there were signs of voter fraud. The campaign asserted that about 3,300 Democrats had voted for Cochran in the runoff. The campaign said it was investigating whether the crossover voting violated Mississippi law. A day after the state party certified the election results, Senator Ted Cruz and some Tea Party groups backed an investigation of alleged voter fraud in the runoff. Cruz also told reporters that groups aligned with Cochran's campaign had run racially charged ads designed to persuade black voters to vote against McDaniel. Of the ads, McDaniel said that the GOP is "a party that does not need to play the race card to win." In July 2014, the Mississippi State Supreme Court rejected McDaniel's request for access to poll books without voters' birthdates blacked out, which his attorneys argued were needed to identify fraudulent votes. In August, a Mississippi judge dismissed McDaniel's challenge. In October, the Mississippi Supreme Court affirmed the lower court's dismissal in