JACKSON, Miss. — Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has won Mississippi’s Senate runoff, defeating Democrat Mike Espy after drawing intense scrutiny for comments during the four-week runoff campaign.
Hyde-Smith had 54 percent of the vote to Espy’s 46 percent with 95 percent of precincts reporting after the Associated Press called the race. The result means Republicans will hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate next year, and it makes Hyde-Smith the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in the Senate. She will have to run for reelection to a full term in 2020, after being appointed to fill Thad Cochran's seat earlier this year.
Hyde-Smith faced an unusually energetic special election challenge from Espy, a former congressman and Clinton-era agriculture secretary who inspired slim Democratic hopes of repeating the party’s miraculous Senate victory in Alabama last year, as Hyde-Smith faced a storm of controversy over a recent remark about attending a “public hanging.”
Hyde-Smith had 54 percent of the vote to Espy’s 46 percent with 95 percent of precincts reporting after the Associated Press called the race. The result means Republicans will hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate next year, and it makes Hyde-Smith the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in the Senate. She will have to run for reelection to a full term in 2020, after being appointed to fill Thad Cochran's seat earlier this year.
Hyde-Smith's win brought sighs of relief from Republicans, who see Mississippi as a practically automatic state for their party and feared any unusual circumstance upsetting the race, which took place just days after the Thanksgiving holiday. Republicans in Washington had been cautiously optimistic about a Hyde-Smith victory, but the party took no chances, sending more than 100 operatives to the state to run a massive program to turn out the vote and spending $3 million on TV bashing Espy and boosting their candidate.
“Cindy Hyde-Smith has been a strong conservative voice since joining the Senate, so it should come as no surprise that she was elected by Mississippians to represent them in Washington,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which spent more than $1 million on TV ads during the runoff.
It was clear Tuesday night that Hyde-Smith was lagging typical Republican performance in the state — but not nearly to the degree necessary for a stunning upset defeat.
Hyde-Smith, in her victory speech, called it an “unbelievable campaign.” She thanked President Donald Trump for his two rallies in the state Monday, which helped ensure strong Republican turnout, and also thanked Gov. Phil Bryant for appointing her to the seat and supporting her campaign.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/11/27/mississippi-senate-runoff-espy-hyde-smith-1021285
