(CNN) -- Black voters allowed themselves to be used by Sen. Thad Cochran to win the Republican primary runoff for Mississippi's U.S. Senate seat. Cochran beat state Sen. Chris McDaniel by targeting black Democrats and getting them to vote for him in a tight race. It was a brilliant political strategy in a state that allows open primaries, where voters can cross party lines to vote. It also showed blacks -- and the Republican Party that ignores them -- that black voters can wield political influence. Cochran won the runoff by a little over 6,000 votes. The runoff was triggered because no candidate garnered 50% of the vote in the first primary, which Cochran lost to McDaniel by some 1,000 votes.
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Crystal Wright looks at how black voters in Mississippi were used to win the Senate primary
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Thad Cochran appealed to black Democratic voters out of desperation, she argues
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The Democrat-dominated Congressional Black Caucus applauds his use of blacks
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Cochran's victory wasn't a watershed moment and didn't mean what many think, she says
This Mississippi primary race is a harbinger of what can happen to the GOP in future national elections if @placeholder continue to ignore the black vote.