In still incomplete returns, Roger Wicker, the state’s senior U.S. senator, likely will have garnered the votes of more Mississippians in his reelection campaign than did Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump.
That fact holds some significance since Wicker, a Tupelo Republican, was criticized by some Trump supporters for voting in his official capacity to certify the election results in 2020 when Democrat Joe Biden handily defeated Trump in his reelection effort. Trump and many of his ardent supporters, arguing false claims of election fraud, did not want Congress to certify the Biden victory.
Wicker was the only Republican member of the Mississippi congressional delegation — including junior Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith — to courageously follow the U.S. Constitution and certify the results.
For that effort, Wicker was the subject of scorn by many Trump supporters. That is why his election results, apparently outperforming Trump, is of note.
That said, Wicker’s refusal to adhere to the president’s wishes in 2021 and not vote to certify the election did not prevent the Mississippi senator from being an ardent supporter of Trump’s election campaign this year.
Wicker’s campaign messaging aligned him with Trump, and he touted that support for the Republican president just days before the Nov. 5 election at the annual Mississippi Economic Council’s Hobnob political speakings.
But there is a possibility that Wicker and the president will again butt heads during the next four years. Wicker has been one of the nation’s most forceful supporters of Ukraine as the country attempts to beat back Russian aggression.
Trump has at times argued that Ukraine was more at fault for the ongoing war than Russia. Russian leader Vladimir Putin did not attempt to hide the fact he supported Trump in his effort to win the election and return to the White House.
The president-elect has said he would quickly end the war. Many speculate the only way to quickly end the war is for the United States under Trump to cut off financial aid to Ukraine and force the country to secede a significant portion of its land to Russia.
It is hard to envision Wicker supporting such an effort by Trump and Putin.
Under the Trump administration and the newly Republican-controlled Senate, Wicker will be one of D.C.’s most powerful politicians as chair of the influential Armed Services Committee. He will carry incredible weight in matters of wartime spending and focus.
But in recent years, even Republican politicians who carry such weight often have yielded to the wishes and whims of Trump — often even against their personal beliefs and better judgment — because of his influence over the Republican electorate.
Wicker, who was first appointed to the Senate on New Year’s Eve in 2007 by then-Gov. Haley Barbour to fill an abrupt vacancy left by powerful U.S. Sen. Trent Lott, is in a unique position to provide guardrails to Trump when he believes it is necessary.
Wicker, age 73, is beginning a new six-year term and will still be in the Senate when Trump’s second and final term ends.
Trump, as he is wont to do, can call the senior senator from Mississippi bad names, but in reality he cannot do much to hurt him.
And Trump would probably never admit it, but Roger Wicker embraced him earlier in the 2016 cycle than many Republican politicians, at a time when many were still skeptical of the wild-tongued New York real estate developer’s candidacy.
In 2016, Wicker came to the political speakings at the Neshoba County Fair to voice support for Trump in his November election against Democrat Hillary Clinton. It is hard to believe now, but in that summer of 2016, many Republican politicians were staying at arms length from Trump after the combustible GOP primary where he ran a torched-earth campaign — among other things calling the wife of Republican opponent Ted Cruz ugly and saying Cruz’s father might have been involved in the assassination of John Kennedy.
At the Neshoba County Fair, Wicker explained why he was supporting Trump, saying: “I don’t think (Hillary Clinton) is trustworthy enough.”
Wicker was not on the ballot in 2016. He had come to the fair solely to tout Trump. Wicker made that trip to Neshoba County even though he was busy heading up the National Republican Senatorial Committee that was working to elect Republicans to the Senate. A few days before touting Trump at the fair, he had done the same at the Republican National Convention before a nationwide television audience.
Even in the summer of 2016, Trump’s cozy relationship with Putin already was being discussed. Wicker, who had written a commentary earlier that year that was carried by national publications proclaiming Russia was America’s greatest threat, was asked about Trump’s relationship with Putin and Russia.
He refused to answer, saying he was not going to address every issue surrounding Trump.
If Trump tries to force Ukraine to give up a portion of its country to Russia in the coming years, perhaps Wicker might want to discuss that issue this time.
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