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Mississippi Firebrand Appears Set to Challenge Republican Senator From Right
Source: New York Times
Mississippi Firebrand Appears Set to Challenge Republican Senator From Right
By JONATHAN MARTIN FEB. 26, 2018
WASHINGTON — State Senator Chris McDaniel, who nearly beat an incumbent senator in 2014, is expected to announce this week that he will challenge Mississippi’s junior United States senator, Roger Wicker, testing the potency of an anti-establishment message in the Trump era.
After months of speculation about his intentions, Mr. McDaniel said in a Facebook video Monday night that he would reveal his decision at a hometown rally in Ellisville, Miss., on Wednesday, the day before the filing period to run in 2018 comes to an end.
“We’re looking for a fight, and I can’t wait for you to be on my team again,” he said in the video.
Yet even as Republicans familiar with his planning said that Mr. McDaniel would take on Mr. Wicker, there is still uncertainty about which of the two Mississippi Senate seats Mr. McDaniel will ultimately attempt to claim.
Mr. McDaniel, 45, a hard-line conservative, nearly unseated Mississippi’s senior senator, Thad Cochran, four years ago in an extraordinarily bitter, racially tinged primary that exposed the depth of hostilities between the party’s Tea Party and establishment wings. Mr. Cochran, now 80, has suffered health challenges, creating expectations in Republican circles that he would resign and leave the state’s other seat up for grabs.
-snip-
By JONATHAN MARTIN FEB. 26, 2018
WASHINGTON — State Senator Chris McDaniel, who nearly beat an incumbent senator in 2014, is expected to announce this week that he will challenge Mississippi’s junior United States senator, Roger Wicker, testing the potency of an anti-establishment message in the Trump era.
After months of speculation about his intentions, Mr. McDaniel said in a Facebook video Monday night that he would reveal his decision at a hometown rally in Ellisville, Miss., on Wednesday, the day before the filing period to run in 2018 comes to an end.
“We’re looking for a fight, and I can’t wait for you to be on my team again,” he said in the video.
Yet even as Republicans familiar with his planning said that Mr. McDaniel would take on Mr. Wicker, there is still uncertainty about which of the two Mississippi Senate seats Mr. McDaniel will ultimately attempt to claim.
Mr. McDaniel, 45, a hard-line conservative, nearly unseated Mississippi’s senior senator, Thad Cochran, four years ago in an extraordinarily bitter, racially tinged primary that exposed the depth of hostilities between the party’s Tea Party and establishment wings. Mr. Cochran, now 80, has suffered health challenges, creating expectations in Republican circles that he would resign and leave the state’s other seat up for grabs.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/26/us/politics/mississippi-mcdaniel-wicker-primary-fight.html