Cindy Hyde-Smith wins Mississippi Senate Runoff Election

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Mississippi remans Red Racist.
Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith defeated Democratic challenger Mike Espy in Mississippi’s Senate runoff election on Tuesday, a heated race that put a spotlight on the state’s history of racist violence.

Mississippi hasn’t elected an African-American to the Senate since Reconstruction. Its voters also haven’t picked a Democrat to represent them in the Senate in 36 years. But a series of offensive comments from Hyde-Smith ― as well as new revelations about her embrace of Confederate history ― gave Democrats hope that they might flip a Senate seat in the deep red South.

Hyde-Smith was appointed earlier this year by Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) to fill the seat vacated by veteran Sen. Thad Cochran (R), who stepped down for health reasons. She became the first woman to represent Mississippi in the Senate. She had previously served as the state’s commissioner of agriculture and as a member of the Mississippi State Senate.

Espy was both the first African-American and the first person from the Deep South to hold the position of U.S. secretary of agriculture, during Bill Clinton’s administration. He had previously served as a representative in the U.S. House from 1987 to 1993.

In this year’s Senate race, Hyde-Smith appeared to create an opening for Espy when she made a joke about attending a hypothetical “public hanging” on the campaign trail in early November. The remark drew heavy criticism in a state with an ugly history of terrorizing black people with lynchings. Though she later apologized, the controversy only grew as major organizations like Walmart, Google, AT&T, Leidos, Union Pacific and Major League Baseball asked her campaign to return their donations.

The comment did enough damage to Hyde-Smith’s chances to draw a presidential pardon of sorts.

“I know where her heart is and her heart is good. That’s not what she was meaning when she said that,” President Donald Trump said Monday evening at a campaign stop in Mississippi.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/ci ... 230fa7307c
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