Jonathan Allen and Keri Geiger write for NBC News that Breitbart News Executive Chairman Stephen K. Bannon, in his efforts to help President Trump drain the swamp in Washington, D.C., has his sites set on both Senate seats in the state of Mississippi.

From NBC News:

One Senate seat here may not be enough for Steve Bannon. If the former White House strategist gets his way, Mississippi’s two long-serving establishment Republican senators won’t be in office by the start of the next Congress.

In regular phone calls over the past several months, Bannon has urged state Sen. Chris McDaniel to challenge Sen. Roger Wicker in a primary next year, and he also wants Gov. Phil Bryant to send himself to Washington if Sen. Thad Cochran, who is 79 and in poor health, retires before his term ends in 2020, according to people familiar with Bannon’s plans.

. . .

The prospect of both Senate seats changing hands — and moving from establishment side of the GOP to the Tea Party column — makes Mississippi a key battlefield in the intensifying Republican civil war.

For Bannon, who is recruiting a small army of “populist nationalist” congressional candidates, it’s a chance to strike one or two blows against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and the Republican elites in Washington, whom he sees as an impediment to President Donald Trump’s agenda.