Mississippi state Sen. Chris McDaniel is preparing to challenge Sen. Roger Wicker in this year’s Republican primary, two GOP sources confirm.
McDaniel is the conservative who nearly ousted Sen. Thad Cochran in a 2014 primary. He is holding a Facebook Live event Monday night that is intended to drive people to a rally in his hometown of Ellisville, Mississippi, on Wednesday.
“I have some important information to share about our political future,” McDaniel says in the Facebook Live event invitation, adding that this week “should be interesting.”
Politico’s Alex Isenstadt first reported Monday that McDaniel will challenge Wicker.
Some Mississippi Republicans expected that with the downfall of Steve Bannon, who’d encouraged McDaniel to challenge Wicker, and the expectation that Sen. Thad Cochran could soon step down, he would wait to run for Cochran’s seat. But McDaniel was running out of time to decide: Thursday is Mississippi’s filing deadline.
A Wicker campaign spokesman said Wicker’s camp will wait until McDaniel announces his entrance into the race to comment.