NRO is hearing that Nevada Republican senator Dean Heller has the inside track to beat Mississippi senator Roger Wicker in the race for the chairmanship of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which oversees much of the financing of Republican Senate campaigns.

Heller is running against Mississippi senator Roger Wicker, but has put together a solid whip operation and promised to make outgoing Senate majority leader Harry Reid himself the NRSC’s top target in 2016. Arizona senator Jeff Flake is among the lawmakers whipping votes for Heller, according to sources familiar with the contest.

There’s some appetite in the conference for one of the incoming freshmen to make a bid, but it’s probably too late for that, according to a Senate Republican aide.

“A party that skews older would do well to put forward a young, charismatic, smart candidate who just came off a successful campaign,” the aide says. “Whether that’s Tom Cotton or Joni Ernst doesn’t matter, but competition in these races is a good thing.”

Kansas senator Jerry Moran chaired the NRSC during the last election cycle.