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It's official: Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran is the latest GOP incumbent to get a primary challenge from the right.

State Sen. Chris McDaniel announced Thursday he'll try to unseat the six-term veteran in 2014, the day after Cochran voted for the compromise to end the government shutdown and avert a debt default.

McDaniel's move wasn't completely unexpected. What's interesting, however, is the firepower behind it — influential national conservative groups such as the Senate Conservative Fund, the Club for Growth and the Madison Project are all supporting the Tea Party-aligned challenger's candidacy.

"I respect him. I grew up admiring him," McDaniel said at his announcement event.

But he criticized Cochran's vote for the deal to reopen the government after being shutdown for 16 days. Cochran was one of the senators to vote 81-18 to temporarily lift the nation's borrowing limit through early February and keep the federal government funded until January 15.

"I've got 17 trillion reasons not to compromise," McDaniel said.

Cochran, who will turn 76 later this year, has held the seat since 1978. He's the top Republican on the Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry committee and sits on the powerful Appropriations committee. He's not tipped his hand as to whether he'll seek re-election.

"Senator Cochran has indicated that he will determine his plans regarding the 2014 election cycle later this year," said Cochran Communications Director Chris Gallegos.

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Cochran had $773,953 cash-on-hand through the end of June — one of the lowest amounts of any senator who's up for re-election in 2014.

The Mississippi seat is considered safely Republican, so the winner of the June 2014 primary will be a heavy favorite in the general election.

Part 5 of the TED Radio Hour episode Haves And Have-Nots.

About Jacqueline Novogratz's TEDTalk

Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund, shares stories of how "patient capitalism" can bring sustainable jobs, goods, services and dignity to the world's poor.

About Jacqueline Novogratz

Jacqueline Novogratz is redefining the way problems of poverty can be solved around the world.

She is a leading proponent of financing enterprises that can bring affordable clean water, housing and health care to poor people so that they no longer depend on traditional charity and aid.

The Acumen Fund, which she founded in 2001, has an ambitious plan: to create a blueprint for alleviating poverty using market-oriented approaches.

Rather than handing out grants, Acumen invests in fledgling companies and organizations that bring products and services to the world's poor.

Novogratz places a great deal of importance on identifying solutions from within communities rather than imposing them from the outside.

In her book, The Blue Sweater, she tells stories which emphasize sustainable bottom-up solutions over traditional top-down aid.

Part 5 of the TED Radio Hour episode Haves And Have-Nots.

About Jacqueline Novogratz's TEDTalk

Jacqueline Novogratz, CEO of Acumen Fund, shares stories of how "patient capitalism" can bring sustainable jobs, goods, services and dignity to the world's poor.

About Jacqueline Novogratz

Jacqueline Novogratz is redefining the way problems of poverty can be solved around the world.

She is a leading proponent of financing enterprises that can bring affordable clean water, housing and health care to poor people so that they no longer depend on traditional charity and aid.

The Acumen Fund, which she founded in 2001, has an ambitious plan: to create a blueprint for alleviating poverty using market-oriented approaches.

Rather than handing out grants, Acumen invests in fledgling companies and organizations that bring products and services to the world's poor.

Novogratz places a great deal of importance on identifying solutions from within communities rather than imposing them from the outside.

In her book, The Blue Sweater, she tells stories which emphasize sustainable bottom-up solutions over traditional top-down aid.

Now that the government has reopened, attention turns to the next phase of the spending fight, a battle that is far from over.

The bill that President Obama signed early Thursday provides only a temporary respite to the partisan tussles that have perennially plagued budget process. The government stays open through Jan. 15 and the federal borrowing authority is safe until Feb. 7. After that, all bets are off.

As NPR's David Welna reports on Morning Edition, even before then, another deadline looms for producing a compromise budget: Dec. 13 (a Friday).

So far, he says, there have been some encouraging bipartisan noises.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Paul Ryan announced that the 29 House and Senate members appointed this week to a conference committee were determined to end the budget impasse.

"We're going back to regular order," he says. "This is the budget process, the House passes a budget, the Senate passes a budget, you come together to try and reconcile the differences. That's the way we're supposed to do things."

Meanwhile, Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Senate Budget Committee, is in agreement.

"Chairman Ryan knows I'm not going to vote for his budget, I know that he's not going to vote for mine," she says. "We're going to find the common ground between our two budgets that we both can vote on, and that's our goal."

The Washington Post lists the members of the "bipartisan, bicameral group" here.

However, some odds makers are expressing doubt.

CBS Marketwatch says "the committee ... is a disparate group that has some pundits proclaiming low expectations."

"Pantheon's Ian Shepherdson isn't optimistic about getting a long-term budget deal by Dec. 13.

'We think the chance of reaching a long-term budget deal by December 13 is very slim,' he said in a note. 'Congress has been down this road before; indeed, the sequester was triggered by the failure of the bipartisan budget committee to reach agreement in the fall of 2011. If anything, the positions of the parties have become more entrenched since then.'"