Senator Cochran will resign April 1st

Today, Mississippi Republican Senator Thad Cochran announced he will resign from his seat in the U.S. Senate on April 1st.
News 25’s Veronica Bayona spoke to Howie Morgan, a local political consultant, who tells us more about what this decision means for the state of Mississippi.
“He was the first ever Republican elected state wide in Mississippi and that was 40 years ago.” Senator Thad Cochran was elected to the United States Senate in 1978 and now, four decades later, he is resigning after citing poor health. Election Impact Group President Howie Morgan said, “He was chairman of appropriations. He was a titan here in the U.S. government, allowing us to get a lot of money for Katrina because he was in the head of appropriations.”
Cochran, now 80-years-old, has been suffering from health problems in recent months, causing him to miss several weeks in the Senate last fall while recuperating from a urinary tract infection. “It’s been imminent. We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later.”
Morgan says the timing of the resignation is more tactical than it seems. “I had heard about this back in the fall because of the Wicker vs. McDaniel battle was he going to resign earlier, allowing McDaniel to take that seat? That didn’t happen, so there has been a lot of intrigue behind the scenes over the past six months.”
Now, Governor Phil Bryant must appoint an interim senator to take over Cochran’s seat. “The governor has some time after the official resignation to appoint a caretaker to fulfill the rest of this term then that of course will depend on how the governor wants to play that. Is politics going to get involved? All of a sudden he wants to give someone a boost as he did with Roger Wicker years ago. It’ll be exciting to see who is actually going to be appointed to that position.”
A special election will be held in November to fill the rest of the term through January 2021. As of right now, Mike Espy has announced his interest in running for the seat. “It’s going to be a huge political year here in Mississippi. We already have a congressional race that’s wide open. We have an exciting Republican primary between Roger Wicker and Chris McDaniel and now anybody can run for this new seat state wide.”
Lt. Governor Tate Reeves released a statement today: “Senator Cochran’s service to our nation has made the lives of Mississippians better and his support of our military has made America safer. He fought relentlessly for Mississippi from helping our farmers get their crops to market to fighting our citizens after Hurricane Katrina devastated much of the state. He earned and maintained the respect of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle even though he never shied away from a battle to protect his beloved state.”
Governor Phil Bryant will now begin the process of appointing a replacement for Senator Cochran.