According to unnamed "knowledgeable sources" who've spoken with the right-wing Washington Examiner newspaper, conservative radio host Laura Ingraham is reportedly considering a bid against Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine in Virginia next year, though she’s declined to comment. Ingraham is a major Trump booster and fits right in with the president-elect's "movement," as she's an extreme nativist reactionary on the topic of immigration. (She once said that Trump's proposal to ban Muslim immigration was "not broad enough.")
That could give her a path to the GOP nomination if Republican voters are looking to nominate someone on the "Trump track," though Trump himself only won a narrow 35-32 plurality over Marco Rubio in last year's primary. But that could also set Ingraham on a collision course with a political upstart whose career she's credited with launching: Rep. Dave Brat, the man who unseated Eric Cantor back in 2014. Aside from some ill-considered attack ads run by Cantor, Brat's penniless campaign received its greatest exposure on Ingraham's radio show. (Like Ingraham, Brat is virulently hostile to immigration, and even compared DREAMers who want to serve in the U.S. military to ISIS recruits.)
And Brat could also run for the Senate. Last year, when Virginia Republicans were preparing for a potential special election in the event that Kaine were to be elected vice president, Brat said he'd "consider" the race. That eventually of course did not come to pass, and since Election Day, Brat's been very elliptical about his interest. Amusingly, he claims he's "already won the election" over Kaine because he'd just use the same "outsider" message he rode to victory over Cantor, which demonstrates an apparent lack of understanding about the differences between running in a Republican primary in a conservative district versus a general election in a light blue state, but more power to him.
Be that as it may, there probably isn't room for both Brat and Ingraham in the same contest. And meanwhile, the GOP establishment is waiting to see whether Northern Virginia Rep. Barbara Comstock will make a go of it. She'd likely be the party's strongest candidate, but she'd face some difficulty winning the nomination if she faces someone advocating a purer form of hatred. After all, Rubio, whose "base" is pretty much the same NoVa suburbs that Comstock represents, couldn't even carry Virginia.