Mississippi State Sen. Chris McDaniel is, ahem, not a subtle campaigner

Fresh off Republicans throwing away a Senate seat by nominating radical child-molesting theocrat Roy Moore as their actual, real-life candidate in Alabama, the battle between the Mitch McConnell wing of the party and the radical child-molesting wing, led by Steve Bannon and associates, now turns to Mississippi.

The Republican professional class is quite happy with current seat-warmer Sen. Roger Wicker. Wicker faces re-election next year, however, and Bannonites have set their sights on toppling him, and are encouraging the worst person in Mississippi to throw his hat in that ring: state Sen. Chris McDaniel.

A Wicker-McDaniel battle before the June GOP primary could reprise many of the internecine attacks that played out in Alabama, where conservative former judge Roy Moore defeated Sen. Luther Strange, only to lose the general election to Democrat Doug Jones. And it would force national Republicans to contend with yet another fraught party fight as the 2018 congressional election season ramps up.

You likely remember the far-right McDaniel from his campaign against fellow Republican Thad Cochran, a spite-filled affair that featured McDaniel supporters sneaking into a nursing home to take pictures of Cochran's bedridden wife. Like Roy Moore, McDaniel refused afterwards to concede that he lost; like Roy Moore, McDaniel's own post-election fit was based around the "evidence" of too many black Americans showing up to vote against him. He's Mississippi's own personal garbage fire, which is apparently the prerequisite for the Republican base taking notice of you.

McDaniel hasn't come to a final decision on whether he'll be challenging Wicker, but he's being pushed by, as we said, the Bannon wing of the party. This sets up a dynamic very similar to the one that just played out in Alabama: McConnell and Trump are backing Wicker, while the far-right is pushing the far less electable McDaniel, and party functionaries are fretting that an internecine war will burn through party cash and credibility whether or not McDaniel succeeds. If McDaniel does topple Wicker, having a ultra-right ticket-topper has the potential to boost Democratic turnout while depressing Republican votes.

McDaniel is also not, ahem, a very disciplined campaigner, and the possibility of the race blowing up into a nationwide embarrassment to the party is also nontrivial. The odds of this quadruple once the Steve Bannon brigade is dispatched to the scene with their faux-reporters and disheveled rally screamers—and all of this will be happening during midterm elections that already look to be historically dire for the party.

So, ya know, let's keep an eye on that one.