Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant announced on Wednesday that he was appointing state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to the Senate, and so far, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is holding off on backing her. The Washington Post writes that McConnell and his allies don't really know what to make of Hyde-Smith, and while they're giving Bryant the benefit of the doubt, they're not ready to throw their support behind her. NRSC chair Cory Gardner also left his options open on Hyde-Smith, and he refused to say if he thought she'd be a good candidate or not.
The White House reportedly was outright opposed to the pick and tried to deter Bryant by saying that Trump didn't plan to endorse Hyde-Smith. Politico writes that the administration told the governor that they feared Hyde-Smith would be weak against state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a tea partier whom leadership loathes. They specifically flagged that Hyde-Smith only joined the GOP in 2010 after a decade in the legislature as a Democrat, something McDaniel has wasted no time attacking her for. It doesn't help that Hyde-Smith voted in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary, a contest where the two candidates were Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Both Politico and the Post write that, before Hyde-Smith was selected, the White House and other senior Republicans saw polls showing McDaniel and a Democrat advancing through the November nonpartisan primary to a likely runoff three weeks later, while she was in third place. However, while national GOP elites are lukewarm at best to the soon-to-be senator, she does have her support. Sen. Roger Wicker and the state's three GOP House members are all behind her.
And while McConnell and Trump may not be happy with Hyde-Smith, they may not have any choice but to back her if they want to stop McDaniel. If they get behind another Republican (no other major candidates are running right now), they could end up splitting the vote enough to send McDaniel to the runoff with a Democrat, an outcome they very much want to prevent. And if they stay neutral, they could make it much easier for McDaniel to get the jump on her. There's also the absolute nightmare scenario where the GOP vote is so divided that two Democrats take the most votes in the first round and flip the seat by default.