Get ready. Confrontational Sen. Chris McDaniel, the perennial might run candidate, has announced he may announce his candidacy for Lt. Governor.

Mississippi Today wrote that McDaniel “is pondering” a race against incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. He won’t get to ponder long. The Legislature moved the qualifying date up to Feb. 1st.

Meanwhile as he ping pongs between running for re-election and taking on Hosemann, McDaniel captured headlines (his goal) by claiming Hosemann is “not one of us”, “not conservative enough” and “a Republican in name only” (RINO).

That rhetoric should sound familiar. He said virtually the same thing in the 2014 primary for U.S. Senate when fired salvos at long time Republican Sen. Thad Cochran. Indeed, RINO has become the appellation of choice for tea partiers and political wingnuts for lifelong Republicans who don’t fully align with them. Nowadays they don’t even see pragmatic conservatives like Ronald Reagan and Haley Barbour as conservative enough.

McDaniel made that clear saying Mississippi needs leaders “in the mold of (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis and in the mold of (former President Donald) Trump.”

Hosemann has been an active Republican since before McDaniel was born, ran for Congress as a Republican in 1998, was elected Secretary of State as a Republican in 2007 and 2011, and was elected Lt. Governor as a Republican in 2019. Unlike McDaniel, he seldom makes headlines with his rhetoric. His focus has been more on governing effectively than trumpeting far right slogans.

An interesting twist in this almost campaign appeared when McDaniel said he now counts Gov. Tate Reeves as a friend. He and Reeves clashed often when Reeves served as Lt. Governor. “Our differences were primarily at the time based on personalities,” he told the Clarion-Ledger.” However, back then McDaniel also claimed Reeves was not conservative enough. And Reeves demoted McDaniel in 2016 from chairman of the important Senate Elections Committee to chairman of the lightly regarded Senate Constitution Committee. Hosemann promoted him to chairman of the Senate Environmental Protection, Conservation and Water Resources Committee.

McDaniel also criticized Hosemann for naming 13 Democrats to committee chairmanships. As reported in Mississippi Today, that was the same number Reeves had his last four years as Lt. Governor. Reeves had 17 during his first term. McDaniel also claimed Hosemann has used his power to keep McDaniel’s bills from being passed. His bills didn’t fare well under Reeves either.

But Reeves, according to McDaniel, is now conservative enough while Hosemann is not.

Unless Reeves gets a last minute challenge for the Republican nomination for governor, a Hosemann vs. McDaniel primary would dominate headlines next year. That alone may entice McDaniel to run. That enticement may evaporate if Secretary of State Michael Watson decides to challenge Reeves. That rumor circulated recently.

What a dull (and welcome to many) political primary season we may have if neither McDaniel nor Watson take on strong incumbents.

“Fools are headstrong and do what they like” – Proverbs 12:15.

Crawford is a syndicated columnist from Jackson.