McDaniel, then a federal judicial clerk at the age of 27, went to Jackson in 1999 to buy his father a Jeep Grand Cherokee. McDaniel drove alone on the return trip between Collins and Ellisville. He then turned left behind his father onto Highway 5.88. McDaniels had traveled the narrow, two-lane highway many times before. Even the most familiar country roads can be a surprise at 11 p.m. McDaniel replays the scene many times: McDaniel’s father’s headlights suddenly pierced by a white wall, and the darkness before them is suddenly brightened. McDaniel’s 18-wheeler, which had no lights, backed into a driveway that blocked the highway. The collision between the father’s SUV & the truck. McDaniel avoided hitting the truck’s SUV, then he swerved to avoid it. He then climbed out of the car and ran to the accident. McDaniel realized that his father was no more. McDaniel remembers the accident as a turning point in his life. He was terrified of losing his father Carlos, a local professor and basketball coach at Jones County Junior College. And what lies ahead. McDaniel recalls asking McDaniel what he thought after the accident. “More important, why was it that I was a part of it?” “I questioned God, my existence, and the need for pain. This night was the turning point in McDaniel’s life. It became a signature of his political philosophy. This is why McDaniel ran for the first time in public office, the 2007 state Senate. He uses cautionary metaphors on the campaign trail and invokes despair. He looked at his family, his wife Jill and his sons Chamberlain, Cambridge, from the podium seconds before he announced his 2018 U.S. Senate race. He warned them that their political struggles could even spill over into their personal lives. He has made incendiary remarks on radio and television, and pushed for ultra-conservative legislation throughout his tenure as a lawmaker. He has made it a point to convince his political enemies that he is not afraid of them. He reminds his supporters about the dangers ahead if their nationalistic political ideology does not prevail. “We fight for the survival and growth of our republic. McDaniel stated that although it may sound extreme, he feels strongly about this. “Because combat occurs on the Senate floor via debates, discourse, and debates, we must send the strongest people possible to convey a message. This is what I want to do and what I am capable of doing. These are pivotal points in our country’s past.” “It’s very frightening” On Wednesday, three men in sunglasses and T-shirts from the Citizens Militia of Mississippi walked uphill toward Jackson’s only abortion clinic. McDaniel was one of them, and he made his way to a podium that had been set up at a pro-life rally with about three dozen people outside the clinic. McDaniel will be holding at least one event per day as Election Day nears to highlight the imminent ruin if his latest bid for U.S. Senate fails. He is running in an official nonpartisan special election against Cindy Hyde Smith, a fellow Republican, and Democrats Mike Espy (an ex-congressman and Clinton cabinet member) and Tobey Barrtee, of Gautier. McDaniel, 47 years old, was the first to take the podium. McDaniel stated, “If we don’t value life from conception through natural death, then it is devaluing life.” McDaniel’s soaring rhetoric of imminent doom resonates with his base. After the rally’s abortion, Laura Van Overschelde (president of the Mississippi Tea Party) said, “It’s very frightening.” She was referring to America’s future. “If people don’t wake up, there is no hope of rebuilding this country to the greatness that President Trump wants and Mr. McDaniel intends. His opponents were willing to compromise to make things work. “We can’t allow them to continue.” McDaniel, and his supporters believe that his opponents represent the political ruling classes, which they believe is putting the country on the wrong track. At least, they were until Trump arrived. Recent polls show that many Mississippians also distrust the federal government. A NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll earlier this year showed that only 4 percent of Mississippians trust their state government to do the right thing. Two-thirds of respondents said they trust the state government most of time, while 31 percent said that they only trust it about half the time. McDaniel is advised by the writings of American conservatism architects to determine what the right thing to do. McDaniel often invokes early figures such as Edmund Burke and Thomas Jefferson, and boasts his adherence to their principles. He also gloats about the principles that helped to shape the modern Republican Party, including Barry Goldwater, William Buckley, and Ronald Reagan. McDaniel’s message is centered on McDaniel’s total loyalty to ideology purity. McDaniel stated to Mississippi Today that Republicans governing like Democrats don’t do us justice. They’re doing the same as the Democrats to move the country’s political spectrum. We are a people that are supposed to fight and fight for something. McDaniel’s comments directly relate to the hand-wringing among white Mississippians about losing their sense of heritage. McDaniel’s opposition to changing Mississippi’s state flag which features a Confederate emblem is evident, as well as his immigration policies and campaign literature. McDaniel held a press conference earlier this year to try to get Sen. Hyde Smith to support the building of a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border. He suggested that legal immigration be stopped, something Trump indicated this week he may explore via an executive order. McDaniel posted on Facebook, “We should not give birthright citizenship to illegal aliens,” McDaniel said after Trump’s comments. He cited the 14th Amendment, which Congress passed in 1868 to protect newly-freed African Americans. The important phrase “Subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is important. Children of illegal immigrants shouldn’t be considered citizens. These children, like their parents, are not subject to the jurisdiction of our country. They owe their first allegiances to a foreign power. McDaniel’s Rise McDaniel made his name in 2009, just two years after he was elected to the state Senate. Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican governor, had vetoed legislation restricting corporations’ ability to seize private land by eminent domain. Third-term state senator Cindy Hyde Smith, a Brookhaven Democrat, was the champion of the antiprivatization effort. She had previously worked with the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation on the legislation. McDaniel was one of Hyde Smith’s most staunch supporters. McDaniel characterized Barbour’s veto overreach as well and unsuccessfully attempted to override Hyde Smith. McDaniel stated to the Mississippi Business Journal that “I’m doing something which I never thought” in 2009. In the nine years that have passed, much has changed: McDaniel now regards Hyde-Smith as an enemy of true conservatives, and Barbour as an establishment bogeyman who allowed her appointment. McDaniel’s legislative career has been hampered by his refusal to follow the established. McDaniel’s career as a state senator is split by his 2014 campaign to defeat Cochran. McDaniel’s state senate career consisted of two phases. The first was when 36 of 200 bills McDaniel had authored were passed. This is a success rate that is well above the average of most of his co-authors. Many of McDaniel’s bills during this period reflect the campaign themes. In 2008, McDaniel’s first year in office, he wrote a bill that would require “an alien from a foreign country” (or any other person) to pay tuition at public universities. He also authored a 2009 bill to revoke Medicaid payments for recipients who failed a nicotine testing. Both bills were defeated in committee. After McDaniel was elected to a second term in 2012, McDaniel was made Lt. Governor. Tate Reeves named McDaniel chairman of the Elections Committee. He had a strong ally in his friend, the newly elected governor. Phil Bryant was the previous president of the Senate. McDaniel’s legislative success was at its peak during Bryant’s first two years in office as governor, 2012 and 2013. McDaniel’s legislative success peaked during Bryant’s first two years as governor in 2012 and 2013. All three of his bills were defeated in committee. In 2013, McDaniel also authored a failed bill to exempt children from having to be vaccinated in order to attend school. However, since 2014, McDaniel was criticized by the party establishment for his bitter primary contest against Cochran. Since then, McDaniel wrote 200 bills and resolutions. Only two of these were signed by the governor. One was a commendation to the 2014 Laurel High School football championship. The other commended Erin Morgan, Laurel native, who was crowned Miss Hospitality 2015. McDaniel pushed for conservative legislation. McDaniel authored two bills, one requiring recipients of public assistance complete mandatory community service. He wrote a bill in 2016 that would prevent state agencies from following any executive order by President Barack Obama. He sponsored a 2017 bill that would require public universities to fly state flags and withhold salaries for presidents of universities that do not. He also authored a bill that would replace Common Core curriculum with the English-Language-Arts standards that were in place before Common Core’s implementation in 2010. McDaniel was given a few bills when he was the Chair of the Elections Committee in his primary campaign against Cochran in 2014. McDaniel’s 2015 session was the last session of his term. McDaniel didn’t get a single bill assigned to his committee. After that, Reeves gave McDaniel a new assignment as the head of the Constitutional Committee. This term, McDaniel hasn’t passed any bills. McDaniel has taken a page from Trump’s playbook. With less money than his rivals and the desire to cover the state, McDaniel said he had to be creative. McDaniel arrived at Mississippi Today in September with his Boston Red Sox cap down to his eye level. McDaniel spoke about his strategy for defeating his enemies’ war chests after apologizing for his casual attire of jeans and a T shirt and ordering an IPA along with a plate of deviled egg. McDaniel’s strategy includes hosting town halls five to six times per week for the three months leading up to Election Day. He also posts several times per day on Facebook, Twitter, and puts a phone number online so that voters can reach him directly. McDaniel was a key supporter of Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign. He did so after Ted Cruz, the Republican U.S. Senator from Texas, quit the race. McDaniel spoke extensively about Trump’s manipulative strategy to manipulate media outlets, making inflamatory statements knowing that his words would be published across America by news organizations. McDaniel stated that Jeb Bush raised $100 million for his 2016 presidential campaign, and Trump didn’t raise much money, at least not at the beginning. This ignores the fact Trump, a multi-billionaire, didn’t have to raise large amounts of money from the start. McDaniel said that McDaniel found new ways to get among the people via Twitter, the press, or any other means. We’re using Trump’s model to be among the people, to meet the people and to let them pass the message to their communities. McDaniel appeared to have put his plan into action less than 12 hours after his interview at the bar. (Disclosure: Mississippi Today sponsored a fundraising event in which Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough were featured speakers. A panelist from Mississippi and Princeton, Eddie Glaude asked McDaniel about his plans to represent African Americans in Mississippi. They make up 38% of the state’s total population. McDaniel replied that he was going to ask them where they are today after 100 years of big government saving them. McDaniel said that he would represent Mississippi’s African Americans after 100 years of asking for federal government money. This soundbit made national headlines and was sharply criticized by top Republicans like Gov. Phil Bryant. The McDaniel camp told Mississippi Today that the moment was a blessing. “We’ve received countless phone calls, texts, and Facebook messages from Mississippians across the state, expressing doubts about their vote for this race. But after Chris took a stand for Mississippians, and told the truth, they’re now 100 percent on board with Chris McDaniel,” Tanner Watson (McDaniel’s communications director) said to Mississippi Today. McDaniel’s episode showed that he is not the reckless gaffe machine some have accused him of being. He carefully plans his words and actions. He knows that conservative Mississippians prefer bluntness to scripts, even when it is perceived as offensive to others. He knows that exploiting grievances about “political correctness” can sometimes fire up his base and even grow it. He is able to present himself as the champion for conservatives who feel threatened or marginalized. It doesn’t matter what the media says. It doesn’t matter what politicians and mobs have to say. It doesn’t matter what the entire country thinks. McDaniel wrote last year on Facebook that the nation was founded on one principle. It is the requirement that all citizens stand up for their beliefs, regardless of the consequences.” McDaniel has a clear focus on his supporters and is now meeting them where they are. Vince Thornton, a McDaniel fan from Collins, said that he is very afraid for the future. “Chris McDaniel says he agrees with that sentiment. But he is able to convince my belief that he is telling the truth when he promises to stop going back to the old ways. It’s true. Fear factor. Although there was no primary race, most political observers believe that Election Day will determine which Republican — Hyde Smith or McDaniel – will advance to the runoff with Espy. This has led to an intraparty war. In anticipation of this, Hyde-Smith hired experienced strategists who had fought against McDaniel in the past. Jordan Russell, Hyde Smith’s current campaign manager was also a spokesperson for U.S. Senator Thad Cochran in 2014, which McDaniel challenged at the Repubblica.
lican primary and almost beat. Cochran was not available to the media so Russell became Cochran’s voice and sharp McDaniel critic. Russell said to The Clarion-Ledger that “you can pretty much see he’s lying whenever his mouth moves.” The moment McDaniel’s 2018 Senate campaign was the most memorable, according to Russell. His campaign released a secretly-recorded video of Hyde Smith explaining to constituents why McDaniel would not be up for debate. Hyde-Smith repeated the remarks of her campaign manager from four years ago in the video. Hyde-Smith: Debate against McDaniel is’more beneficial’ than a bus tour Hyde-Smith stated in the video that if his lips move, he’s lying. The video clip was broadcast throughout the state, and some Washington, D.C. outlets carried it. It gave the McDaniel campaign ammunition to sharpen their criticisms of Hyde Smith, who has repeatedly ignored McDaniel’s numerous calls for debate. After Hyde-Smith refused, Espy, a Democrat, cancelled a McDaniel debate. Melissa Scallan, Hyde Smith spokeswoman, said that Hyde Smith is not afraid to debate McDaniel. She doesn’t fear to debate. Chris McDaniel has run out of time and money, and is trying to get free publicity. We won’t give him a platform for spreading lies about Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith.” The Hyde Smith campaign also brought in Justin Brasell, a McDaniel expert who’s also running Sen. Roger Wicker’s campaign. Brasell is currently facing Democratic state Rep. David Baria from Bay St. Louis. McDaniel flirted publicly with Wicker’s primary challenge for more than a decade before the February 2018 deadline to file federal election elections. Brasell, a veteran Republican operative who ran campaigns for Republican U.S. Senators, was chosen. Mitch McConnell and John Thune had spent months prepping Wicker for McDaniel’s primary challenge. Even McDaniel’s closest legislative allies were unable to speak out about the potentially explosive effects of Hyde-Smith’s divisive race. McDaniel believes the fact that party mainstreamers are deploying their most skilled foot soldiers against him proves that they fear him. McDaniel insists that he is not afraid. McDaniel stated that he has seen “the worst thing a son could see” in reference to the 1999 car accident which killed his father. “You think Mitch McConnell scares you?” Do you think Haley Barbour scares you? They could do the worst things. I have seen it. They are not my fear. They don’t have anything I want. Between 2014 and now, they’ve spent millions defaming, attacking, and undermining the credibility of me. They owe me nothing and I don’t fear them. They fear me because of that.”