After a loss in Mississippi, the New York Times reports Tea Party members in Tennessee “were making a bold — even defiant — proclamation: They will win the Senate seat in Tennessee.”

“The activists hope a little-known state representative, Joe Carr, a self-described underdog who has attacked efforts to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, can oust the Republican incumbent, Lamar Alexander, 73, the former governor and two-time presidential candidate who began working on Capitol Hill in the late 1960s.”

Black voters played a huge role in helping Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) fend off tea party challenger Chris McDaniel (R) in a runoff election Tuesday, and now the state NAACP is asking the six-term senator to return the favor, the Huffington Post reports.

Derrick Johnson, president of the Mississippi NAACP, “said that Cochran could thank black voters by supporting efforts to re-establish protections in the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court struck down last year.”

New York Times: “As a practical matter, that could mean pushing Mississippi officials for expanded black voting rights or more access to affordable health care, black leaders here said.”

“Republicans are in the strongest position to win back the Senate since losing it eight years ago,” The Hill reports.

“Over several months, the party has expanded its range of targeted seats, and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has helped defeat insurgents it didn’t want representing the GOP in the midterm elections. This sober realization came to Democrats on Wednesday, as Tuesday night’s primary results showed they cannot count on Tea Party candidates upsetting more-electable incumbents.”

The Upshot forecast gives Republicans a 58% chance of taking control of the Senate.

Wonk Wire: How a Republican Senate could tinker with Obamacare

“National Republican leaders are toasting primary season as a smashing success over activist conservatives that has put the hard right on the ropes and given the Washington GOP the slate of candidates it wanted for 2014,” Politico reports.

“Those victories, however, have come at a staggering cost — and Republicans are painfully aware of the price of putting down an intraparty insurrection. Establishment-aligned groups have already spent some $23 million on independent expenditures propping up favored House and Senate candidates in contentious primaries… By comparison, Republican nominees raised and spent that amount in the 2012 North Dakota, Indiana and Nevada Senate races combined — three of the most competitive campaigns fought that year.”

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) “announced her support for same-sex marriage for the first time Wednesday, hours after the nation’s largest gay-rights group endorsed her for re-election this year over Shenna Bellows (D), a longtime advocate of gay couples’ right to marry,” the Portland Press Herald reports.

“Collins had previously declined to reveal where she stood personally, saying the issue was best handled at the state level.”

A new Survey USA poll in Kansas finds Paul Davis (D) leading Gov. Sam Brownback (R) in the race for governor, 47% to 41%, with Liberarian Keen Umbehr at 5%.

Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder’s (R) re-election campaign “has parted ways with an intern who tried to volunteer for Democratic challenger Mark Schauer in an apparent attempt to infiltrate the rival campaign,” MLive reports.

“I’m going to do everything I can for you, buddy. Even if that means I don’t come around.”

— Tom Tancredo (R), quoted by the Denver Post, conceding the GOP gubernatorial primary to Bob Beauprez (R).