Gov. Phil Bryant to appoint Cindy Hyde-Smith to Senate seat, but some in GOP are worried

Gov. Phil Bryant at noon Wednesday is expected to announce he's picked Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to replace Sen. Thad Cochran.

The announcement will be at the Military Memorial Museum in Brookhaven, Hyde-Smith's hometown.

The move is likely to gain approval from President Donald Trump in lead-up to one of the most important midterm elections in the country, and the powerful Farm Bureau is expected to mobilize behind Hyde-Smith, a key factor in Bryant's decision, GOP sources said.

But some state Republicans are worried over the choice, fearing Hyde-Smith, a relatively recent convert to the Republican Party, would allow an anti-establishment GOP candidate or Democrat to take the seat.

Bryant by Monday had narrowed his short list down to Hyde-Smith and Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, sources close to the governor said. On Monday evening, at a reception for the Business and Industry Political Education Committee, Bryant and Hyde-Smith entered the reception together after meeting privately, some in attendance told the Clarion Ledger.

Hyde-Smith, 58, a beef cattle farmer from Brookhaven and former longtime state senator, would become the first female U.S. senator in Mississippi history. Assuming she would seek the post permanently, she would run in a special election Nov. 6. Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, and Democratic former U.S. Rep. Mike Espy, a former U.S. agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration, have announced they are also running for the seat.

Charlie Mitchell:John Grisham couldn’t invent the brewing Chris McDaniel intrigue

Democrat jumps in:Mike Espy looking to return to Washington

Some state GOP sources are questioning whether Hyde-Smith, who served in the state Senate for years as a Democrat, would be vulnerable to a far-right challenge from McDaniel. Others say that as a Democrat she had a conservative record and that she has been a leader in the state and national GOP as agriculture commissioner. Hyde-Smith, who switched to the Republican Party in 2010, has a strong base among rural conservatives and helped on Trump's transition team and with his agriculture policy.

Andy Taggart, a longtime Republican leader considered one of the patriarch's of the modern party in Mississippi, on social media has expressed hesitation over the appointment while stopping short of calling Hyde-Smith by name.

"In 1991, the entire GOP Establishment supported a recent party switcher and statewide office holder in the race for Governor. Instead, Kirk Fordice came roaring out of nowhere and won a three-way primary," Taggart tweeted Tuesday afternoon.

On Sunday, as talk was circulating Hyde-Smith might be Bryant's choice, Taggart tweeted that he had faith in the governor but was keeping all options open to prevent McDaniel from being elected, "including a run against him."

Taggart would not comment on the appointment when contacted.

Cochran Chief of Staff Brad White, a former state Republican Party chairman, said Mississippi GOP leaders should quit hand-wringing over Bryant choosing Hyde-Smith and get behind the governor's pick.

"I'm speaking as a former party chairman on this," White said. "Phil Bryant is the head of the party, and it falls to him to make this choice. He's made that choice, and now it's up to him and the party to see that she's elected.

"... All the debate (among Republicans is bull s--t at this point," White said. "He's the head of the party, and it's time to get to work to get his choice elected. I like Cindy, and there's not a negative word I can say about her as a person or as a public servant. I think she's a hard campaigner, and I think she will serve us well in the Senate."

Cochran announced earlier in March that he would leave the Senate April 1, before the end of his seventh term, which runs through January 2020. Bryant also considered Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, Hosemann, House Speaker Philip Gunn and others for the post. Sources close to Reeves, who is expected to make a run for governor in 2019, said he was not interested because of not wanting to move his young family to Washington and because of his gubernatorial aspirations.

Hyde-Smith served in the Mississippi Legislature from 2000 to 2012. As a Democrat, she was known to frequently vote with the GOP on many major issues. She served as chairwoman of the Senate Agriculture Committee for eight years.

Hyde-Smith was elected agriculture commissioner in 2011, the first woman to hold that position, and was re-elected in 2015.

McDaniel, who's already running a conservative and tea-party fueled campaign, is likely to try to make hay of Hyde-Smith being a Democrat until 2010. The race, which will be a free-for-all with no primaries, already also has a serious Democratic contender in Espy, raising concerns of splitting the Republican vote.

Lincoln County records show Hyde-Smith voted in the 2008 Democratic primary that Barack Obama won. State Republicans expect McDaniel's campaign to key on this, although McDaniel faced the same issue in his 2014 run against Cochran, when records showed he had voted in a 2003 Democratic primary in Jones County and had not voted in the 2008 presidential primary.

More:Why are Bryant, McDaniel splitsville?

More:'Tea party governor,' Trump square off against tea party darling Chris McDaniel in Mississippi

McDaniel and his supporters have been calling for Bryant to appoint McDaniel in the interim and "unite the GOP." But Bryant was emphatic last week that he would not appoint McDaniel, calling him "opportunistic" after McDaniel dropped out of the race against Sen. Roger Wicker to run for the Cochran seat.

Bryant, who also has strong support among more conservative and rural Republicans, last week said his eventual appointee will subsequently have his strong support in the special election and likely that of Bryant’s close ally, President Trump.

Hyde-Smith, with her agriculture and farming connections, also has a substantial rural base, something supporters hope would allow her to go toe-to-toe with McDaniel in rural Mississippi.

Hyde-Smith helped the Trump campaign in Mississippi and had been considered a candidate for Trump’s agriculture secretary or other post. She co-chaired the Trump campaign’s Agriculture Advisory Committee. Hyde-Smith has also participated in U.S. Department of Agriculture trade missions to China, working to open the market to American beef exports.

Hyde-Smith has been involved in White House meetings with Trump's U.S. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Purdue and Vice President Pence on agriculture issues and tax reform.