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.
With Mr. Cochran ailing, Mr. McDaniel put off his long-anticipated challenge of Mr. Wicker and turned his sights to what multiple Mississippians said was his preference: receiving assurances from Gov. Phil Bryant, a Republican, that the appointment would be his once the senior senator stepped down.
But Mr. Bryant has firmly refused to offer any such guarantee, and when approached by a reporter at a meeting of the National Governors Association here this weekend, the governor smiled and said: “I think Senator Cochran is doing a great job.”
So with no promise of an appointment, no certainty Mr. Cochran will resign and a filing deadline looming, Mr. McDaniel has returned to his original plan of challenging Mr. Wicker, a mild-mannered and establishment-aligned lawmaker.
Mr. Wicker, 66, could prove difficult for Mr. McDaniel to defeat. President Trump, stung by the defeat of Roy S. Moore last year in Alabama, has already conveyed his support to Mr. Wicker and has little appetite to risk another Senate seat in the Deep South. In fact, Mr. Trump has wooed Mr. Bryant to appoint himself to Mr. Cochran’s Senate seat, should it come open, to block Mr. McDaniel and pre-empt a nasty intraparty feud.
But Mr. McDaniel is not without assets. He is well known among the state’s conservative activists thanks to his 2014 run, when he outpolled Mr. Cochran in the first Republican balloting, and already has a “super PAC” airing radio ads and lining up field staff to help his campaign.
“Mississippi deserves a constitutional conservative who holds the same values as Mississippians and is a consistent and strong voice for them in Washington, D.C.,” said Tommy Barnett, the treasurer of the Remember Mississippi super PAC. “We can’t wait to support a McDaniel run. Bring it on.”
The group had raised over $1 million as of late last month, winning support from a few major Republican donors including the Illinois industrialist Richard Uihlein.
To many veteran Mississippi Republicans, though, the specter of yet another bloody Republican primary, whether against Mr. Wicker or for Mr. Cochran’s seat, is stomach-turning.
Joe Nosef, who was the state party chairman during the 2014 race, is close to Mr. Wicker but related by marriage to Mr. McDaniel. Noting that he stepped down from his post this past fall, Mr. Nosef said, “When I think of the things I’m going to miss about being state chairman, this race, if it happens, isn’t going to rank at the top, middle or bottom of that list.”
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