WASHINGTON — Citing ill health, Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, announced Monday that he will resign his Senate seat, effective April 1.
The early departure clears the way for Gov. Phil Bryant, a fellow Republican, to appoint an interim successor — perhaps Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves — and sets up a special election on Nov. 6.
“I intend to fulfill my responsibilities and commitments to the people of Mississippi and the Senate through the completion of the 2018 appropriations cycle, after which I will formally retire from the U.S. Senate,” Cochran said in a statement released by his office.
Top Republican officials in Washington, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have tried to persuade Bryant to appoint himself — or technically, to step down in a deal to have Reeves appoint him — but people close to the governor say he’s not interested in the job.
Asked last week whether he’d given up on getting Bryant to take the job, McConnell told NBC News “There’s no retirement yet to respond to, so we’ll just keep an eye on what goes on.”
The announcement means that there will be two Senate elections in Mississippi this year. The state’s junior senator, Republican Roger Wicker, has drawn a primary challenge from Chris McDaniel, a state senator who narrowly lost to Cochran in a primary runoff in 2014.
McDaniel just beat a March 1 deadline to declare his candidacy after weighing whether to do that or wait to see if Cochran retired. But Cochran held off long enough to force McDaniel’s hand.
Cochran was elected to the Senate in 1978 after a three-term stint in the House.