When the Republican Party deviates from its limited-government talk, it’s almost always at the bidding of Big Business. And in these cases Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran almost always sides with Big Business.

Cochran, the six-term Mississippi senator, has suddenly become the underdog in his re-election. The Republican primary has gone to a runoff after Cochran and conservative challenger Chris McDaniel both finished with 49 percent of the vote. (McDaniel finished 1,386 votes ahead of Cochran.)