Corker possible target of Bannon anti-incumbent campaign

President Donald Trump’s closest allies are planning a slate of primary challenges against Republican senators, reports Politico, and Tennessee U.S. Sen. Bob Corker is one of the potential targets.

The effort is being led by Steve Bannon, Trump’s bomb-throwing former chief strategist, who is launching an all-out war against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and the Republican establishment. Bannon has begun holding private meetings with insurgent challengers, vowing his support. He’s coordinating with conservative mega-donor Robert Mercer, who is prepared to pour millions of dollars into attacks on GOP incumbents. Bannon has also installed a confidant at an outside group that is expected to target Republican lawmakers and push the Trump agenda.

Bannon met Thursday with Danny Tarkanian, an attorney who is challenging Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nevada), the article says, and Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake, an outspoken critic of the president who recently published a book lamenting the rise of Trump, is “leading the target list.”

The anti-incumbent effort could dramatically reshape the 2018 primary landscape if it materializes. It would pit a group of pro-Trump primary challengers against sitting lawmakers who are perceived as more mainstream.

Two other senators could come under attack. Behind the scenes, Bannon has proposed the possibility of targeting Tennessee Sen. Bob Corker, and those close to the former Trump chief strategist are talking about the prospect of a challenge to Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker.

Corker had long been considered a Trump ally and had been in the mix to become secretary of state, but has since angered the president’s supporters with recent comments in which he questioned Trump’s competence. Shortly after Bannon left the White House and returned to Breitbart last month, the site published a story promoting a potential Corker challenger, state Sen. Mark Green. The site has also hyped the possibility that state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a tea party favorite, will take on Wicker.

Bannon is firing his opening shot in the Alabama Senate special election, squaring off against McConnell in a race the Senate leader and his allies have spent millions of dollars to win.

While Bannon is behind controversial former state Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, McConnell has gone all in for Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed early this year to temporarily fill the seat after Jeff Sessions became attorney general.