GOP Sen. Thad Cochran has been in poor health for a while, and there have been rumors that he might resign in the near future. However, it was still a surprise when the Washington Post reported on Thursday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell not only spoke to Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant about whom he might appoint to the seat if Cochran doesn't complete his term, but asked him to consider appointing himself. The Post also wrote that Donald Trump would support that plan. However, sources close to Bryant soon told The Clarion Ledger that Bryant was not interested in going to D.C., and they said that Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves would be the leading candidate for an appointment.

Cochran's term ends after the 2020 elections, but if his seat opened up this year, there would be a special election in November. Mississippi is a very red state, so Team Red would be favored to keep the seat under almost any set of circumstances. However, state Sen. Chris McDaniel could end up making life very miserable for McConnell and the rest of the GOP if he ran in a special election. Four years ago, McDaniel harnessed anti-establishment energy on the right and challenged Cochran in the primary, a race he only narrowly lost. If McDaniel did end up in the Senate, he'd be a massive pain for the leadership. McDaniel may also be flawed enough to give Democrats an opening in a race against him.

McDaniel has been talking about challenging Sen. Roger Wicker in this year's regularly scheduled primary, but he hasn't jumped in yet. McDaniel may be waiting as long as possible before the March 1 filing deadline to see if there will be a special election for Cochran's seat, a race that would probably be much easier for him to win than a campaign against Wicker. McDaniel himself acknowledged to the Post that he had delayed his decision "because of the multiple options."

McDaniel would be the clear underdog in a race against Wicker, but a special election would be another story. In Mississippi special elections, all the candidates run on one officially non-partisan ballot, and if no one takes a majority, the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general. If McDaniel could harness enough anti-establishment Republicans, he'd have a good chance to blow past McConnell's chosen candidate and take on a Democrat. After what happened in December's Senate race in neighboring Alabama, that's a scenario that gives D.C. Republicans some very nasty déjà vu, so it makes sense that McConnell would want to ensure that Bryant appoints someone strong enough to fend off McDaniel.

And McDaniel may indeed be extreme enough to give Democrats a shot in a state where there haven't had much luck in a long time. McDaniel has long ties to neo-Confederate groups, and the former radio host has a long history of misogynistic language. (One gem: "It's so interesting to see this woman basically using her boobies to—I shouldn't have said that—using her breasts to run for office.") McDaniel also was recently a fellow guest on a conservative radio show with conspiracy theorist Ian Trottier, who speculated during that program that the September 11 attacks were carried out by the "World Zionist Organization.”