Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel is trying to rally conservative support for his U.S. Senate campaign, but Gov. Phil Bryant is standing in his way.
After announcing a run for the seat Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., will soon vacate instead of a primary challenge against Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., McDaniel has found himself in a contentious back-and-forth with Bryant, the state’s conservative governor. Bryant bashed McDaniel as an opportunist only two weeks after the state senator announced he would be a Senate candidate this year.
Since then McDaniel’s campaign is pushing to shore up support among conservatives, particularly before Bryant appoints a temporary Cochran replacement, who would likely run against McDaniel in a special election.
“They should get in now,” said a source close to McDaniel’s campaign about conservatives and affiliated groups holding off support for the time being. “This is a sure thing. We have a conservative running in Mississippi … I don’t know what the wait is.”
“The race will come down to a conservative and a Democrat, and there won’t be room for anyone else,” the source said. “We intend to be the conservative.”
Since the announcement, the only top conservative group to back McDaniel is FreedomWorks, which has been vocal in the state and called on Bryant to appoint him to Cochran’s seat. Bryant has made it clear that will not happen and said Thursday he hopes to name a replacement “sooner rather than later.”
Multiple influential conservative groups have held off supporting McDaniel, including the Club for Growth and the Senate Conservatives Fund, despite eagerly supporting his insurgent bid against Cochran in 2014, which fell short in the primary runoff. Still bitter about the loss, McDaniel never backed Cochran and refused to concede the race.
David McIntosh, the president of the Club for Growth, said recently that his organization is holding off on supporting the conservative firebrand to see who Bryant appoints. If Bryant picks a conservative, it will be harder to justify McDaniel’s campaign.
“I think there are good conservatives [Bryant] could pick for that, and at that point, Chris McDaniel — it would sort of look opportunistic, if it was another conservative running and you don’t see the real contrast,” McIntosh said.
The Senate Conservatives Fund has endorsed six candidates for Senate in the 2018 cycle, including Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley, but have held off on McDaniel. A spokesperson for group declined to comment on the group’s plans in Mississippi.
Another top supporter of McDaniel in 2014, former Sen. Rick Santorum, went so far as to back Wicker a week before McDaniel announced he was mounting a primary challenge against the incumbent. Now that McDaniel has shifted focus, Santorum has decided to remain on the sidelines and wait on Bryant to appoint Cochran’s replacement, going so far as to wonder why McDaniel would even challenge Wicker in the first place and leave the door open to backing McDaniel’s opponent.
“I didn’t see any reason, candidly, why Chris would run against Roger, and, in fact, was very disappointed that he decided to do so,” Santorum said.
“I’m going to have to wait and see who he appoints. I have a lot of friends in Mississippi … There’s a tremendous amount of respect for Phil Bryant,” Santorum said. “I will give, certainly, that candidate every opportunity to prove him or herself worthy of support. In all likelihood, if Phil doesn’t appoint himself and he appoints somebody else, at least for the time being, I would probably just stay out of the race.”
Conservatives on Capitol Hill have also been slow to back McDaniel. According to two House Freedom Caucus sources, there has not been chatter among their three-dozen members about supporting McDaniel’s campaign.
Additionally, McDaniel has not had contact with key conservative senators — such as Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah — since announcing his move to run for the Cochran seat. Both have endorsed Senate candidates in open primary contests before, but have not done so for McDaniel. A spokesperson for Cruz, another key conservative, declined to comment.
One issue standing in the way of the Senate conservative troika from backing McDaniel is incumbency and the strong possibility that whoever Bryant appoints will run to serve out the term in November, just like former Sen. Luther Strange did last year in Alabama. Senate Republicans are encouraged to not support a challenge to a sitting member of the caucus.
