Mississippi politics got a lot more interesting this week. November was already shaping up to be heated politically in the Magnolia State with rogue Republican Chris McDaniel of Ellisville announcing he will seek the U.S. Senate seat against incumbent Republican Roger Wicker, who is seeking re-election to a second full term after being appointed in 2007 to fulfill the seat vacated by Trent Lott.

Six Democrats, including two state lawmakers, have qualified to challenge for Wicker’s seat.

Now Thad Cochran, currently the longest serving member of Congress, has decided his health issues are too much for him to continue serving in the U.S. Senate, throwing both of Mississippi’s seats up for grabs and both on the November ballot.

Gov. Phil Bryant, who is tasked with finding a replacement for Cochran, had the option of putting himself in Cochran’s seat, which will be vacated April 1. Bryant, however, announced he doesn’t want to go to Washington D.C. to finish the term that ends in January 2021 and plans to finish out his second term.

Bryant has made it clear that whoever he appoints to the seat will also be a candidate in the special election in an effort to firmly hold onto the seat for decades. McDaniel, who ran unsuccessfully against Cochran in 2014, has hinted he may change his mind and run in the special election for Cochran’s seat.

Many of the pundits believe that appointee will either be Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves or Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann, a Vicksburg native.

A generation of Mississippians have only known Wicker and Cochran in the U.S. Senate and now at least one of them — and possibly both — will no longer be representing Mississippi.

This November could prove to be a watershed moment in politics for Mississippi and will definitely be historical. It could also mean control of the U.S. Senate if one or both seats sway to Democrats. Mississippians have not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since John C. Stennis in the 1980s.

Republicans hold a slim 51-49 margin in the U.S. Senate and Mississippi is about to play a major role in the power struggle.

All of this has certainly scrambled Mississippi politics in D.C. and in Jackson, especially if Reeves is appointed to the senate seat. Rumors around the state capitol have been swirling for months that Reeves will run for governor when Bryant leaves office in 2020. That has caused some to believe Hosemann or Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs Jr., would run for lieutenant governor. If Hosemann is appointed to the senate seat, that certainly opens the door for Reeves to run for governor and Flaggs, who announced this week he will leave the Democratic Party and become an Independent, to seek the lieutenant governor post.

Who Bryant decides to appoint to the U.S. Senate after Easter Sunday will go a long way to determining the future of politics in Mississippi and possibly D.C.

Rob Sigler is editor of The Vicksburg Post. Readers are invited to submit their opinions for publication.