Chris McDaniel still appealing his defeat in Mississippi Senate race

(Image credit: Facebook.com/ChrisMcDanielForUSSenate)

last updated 8 January 2015

Nope, he's still not done. Chris McDaniel, the Tea Party-backed candidate who narrowly lost his Republican primary challenge against incumbent Sen. Thad Cochran, will appeal a judge's ruling that threw out his challenge of the election result, the Clarion-Ledger reports.

Last week, a judge in Mississippi dismissed McDaniel's challenge on the basis that he had missed a legally binding deadline to even file the lawsuit. McDaniel filed his challenge after 41 days, compared to a 20-day limit set in the state's legal precedents. Before that, McDaniel had previously requested that the state Republican Party executive committee simply declare him the winner by about 25,000 votes.

It should be noted that this time, McDaniel waited another week to even file a one-sentence notice of his intent to appeal up to the state Supreme Court — which is not even the same as a fully reasoned argument for the appeal itself. McDaniel posted a Facebook message on Thursday, explaining the delay in his announcement: "Today [Thursday] after 4:00 PM, Judge McGehee's order was signed and entered into the Jones County Circuit Clerk's office. It would not have been proper to issue a statement of intent about a potential appeal without the order having been entered."