JACKSON, Miss. – Mississippi voters will head to the polls in the final midterm race of the election season.
History will be made either way: Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, 59, would be the first woman ever elected to Congress from Mississippi, and Democrat Mike Espy, 64, would be the state’s first African-American U.S. senator since Reconstruction.
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Last US Senate race of midterms up for vote in Mississippi
Mississippi voters are deciding the last U.S. Senate race of the midterms, choosing between a white Republican Senate appointee backed by President Donald Trump and a black Democrat who was agriculture secretary when Bill Clinton was in the White House.
History will be made either way: Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, 59, would be the first woman ever elected to Congress from Mississippi, and Democrat Mike Espy, 64, would be the state’s first African-American U.S. senator since Reconstruction.
Voter Elizabeth Gallinghouse, 84, said Tuesday she wanted to be a part of that history by helping to elect the state’s first woman to Capitol Hill.
“We need more women in Congress, and I think we’re slowly getting there,” she said.
Mississippi’s past of racist violence became a dominant theme after a video showed Hyde-Smith praising a supporter in early November by saying, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” She said it was “an exaggerated expression of regard.” More than a week after the video’s release, she said she apologized to “anyone that was offended by my comments,” but also said the remark was used as a “weapon” against her.
Trump rallies Hyde-Smith voters as Espy pushes turnout
President Donald Trump rallied voters Monday for Republican Senate appointee Cindy Hyde-Smith who has found herself in a closer-than-expected runoff contest after comments she made about attending a public hanging drew condemnation.
As Trump praised Hyde-Smith at two high-profile rallies in different parts of the state, her opponent, Democrat Mike Espy spoke at a predominantly African-American church and described his campaign as an effort to reach across the “chasm of racial division.”
The runoff election Tuesday will decide who serves the final two years of a term begun by Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who resigned in April amid health concerns.
The historic contest features Hyde-Smith, who would be the first woman elected to Congress from Mississippi, against Espy, who’s vying to become the state’s first black senator since Reconstruction.
It’s a contest that has been buffeted by racial tensions after Hyde-Smith’s public hanging comments. And the tensions continued right up until Election Day with the discovery of seven nooses and six handwritten signs on Capitol grounds Monday morning.