Mississippi State Senator Chris McDaniel (pictured) is known for challenging Republican incumbents. In 2014, for example, he made national news when he unsuccessfully challenged longtime incumbent U.S. Senator Thad Cochran. In 2018, he unsuccessfully ran for the same seat after Cochran resigned, losing to now-Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Now McDaniel is challenging incumbent Mississippi Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, who upset many Republicans when he appointed Democrats to committee chairmanships and vice-chairmanships. Mary Jo Perry, president of Mississippi Patriots for Vaccine Rights & Medical Freedom, confirms that.
"I think there are a lot of conservatives who are very upset about that," she tells AFN. "He ran as a Republican – but he empowered Democrats by appointing 13 of the 16 Democrats who are in the Senate to chairmanships of powerful committees and even more as vice chairs."
Perry's group was affected directly by Hosemann's appointments. "It was one of his vice-chairs who killed our bill for religious exemptions to childhood vaccines this year in the Senate," she points out. "So, he's got to go."
Perry describes the qualifications for a replacement.
"We need to get somebody in office who will be on the offense and fight for the people; somebody … who's not sold out to the pharmaceutical lobbies or the medical lobbies and will fight for the people," she argues. "And we believe that's Chris McDaniel."
Mississippi's GOP primary is on tap for August 8.
