Mississippi Senate race now has four main candidates #mssen

Today, State Senator Chris McDaniel kicked off his announcement of his campaign for US Senate.  Full video below.

https://www.facebook.com/WLOXTV/videos/10160182413870615/

The speech McDaniel delivered was not unlike the speech he previewed on his announcement 48 hours before.  Probably the most interesting news from McDaniel’s announcement came when he confirmed that he might consider dropping out of the Wicker race to pursue Mississippi’s other US Senate seat were it to become open.  In the MS Today article he stated, “You can’t foreclose any possibility in politics. It’s absolutely possible.”

.@SenatorWicker of Mississippi has been a great supporter and incredible help in getting our massive Tax Cut Bill done and approved. Also big help on cutting regs. I am with him in his re-election all the way!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 27, 2018

McDaniel is definitely being forced to walk the line on the Trump endorsement of his opponent, US Senator Roger Wicker.  If he goes too far in denigrating it, he runs the risk of alienating his base.

The 2014 fight was generally characterized as McDaniel taking the fight to Senator Thad Cochran.  However, the Wicker campaign has clearly chosen a more offensive posture with McDaniel.  On the day of his announcement, the Wicker team had a “Real Chris McDaniel” contrast website teed up and ready to go.

A few hours later, State Senator David Baria signed up to run as a Democrat.  He had been rumored for some number of weeks to be the Democrats’ establishment choice to execute the “Doug Jones” maneuver hoping that Republicans self-destruct and to essentially be there to be the palatable alternative should McDaniel beat Wicker in the primary.  Presumably, Baria would enjoy the “insiders” path in the Democrat party and there was some feeling that the field would essentially be cleared for him.

I’m in! #MSSEN pic.twitter.com/paFTiuLrj2

— David Baria (@dbaria) February 28, 2018

But then later this afternoon, a lightning bolt struck.  The husband of actress Sela Ward, Howard Sherman, signed on to also run as a Democrat.  From the Clarion Ledger article . . .

Sherman, an entrepreneur and venture capitalist, is a newcomer to politics. He and Ward, who have two children, founded Hope Village for Children. Sherman has an economics degree from Claremont McKenna College, where he studied under Peter Drucker, and an MBA in New Venture Management from Harvard Business School. He is CEO of Inventure Holdings, LLC.

Not much is known about him, but the clear implication is that he can “self-fund”.  There could easily be $10 million spent in 2018 on campaigns for US Senate and $15 million is not out of the question.

There will be loads to unpack in the coming days on both races.  It’s going to be a wild 97 days until June 5.  We will be covering it all for you with the most complete and accurate coverage on the US Senate and all other 2018 election races.