Democrat Mike Espy lost the Mississippi Senate runoff election to Cindy Hyde-Smith Tuesday night. But in reality, racism won as the state’s citizens cast ballots for a woman who has made no secret of her affinity for white supremacy.
The election was a direct referendum on the president, whose multiple rallies for Hyde-Smith, who has been embroiled in a series of racist exposes, probably helped push the Republican over the finish line.
See Also: How Racism Came To Dominate The Mississippi Senate Runoff Election
Hyde-Smith and Espy were the top vote-getters among several candidates in a special election to replace retiring GOP Sen. Thad Cochran. A runoff was necessary because none of the candidates won more than 50 percent of the votes on Election Day.
Espy was a clear underdog in the runoff election to unseat Hyde-Smith, who was appointed by the governor to complete Cochran’s term. A recent survey showed that Hyde-Smith had a 10-point lead.
However, fearful Republicans scrambled on Monday to prevent Hyde-Smith from losing the Senate seat, prompting President Donald Trump to hold rallies in the state for Hyde-Smith in the hope of turning out his base to vote for her.
The worry stemmed from an unguarded moment on her campaign trail when Hyde-Smith revealed her racist attitude toward African Americans. At a Nov. 2 campaign stop, she praised a longtime supporter. “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,” she was caught saying on a video posted to social media. In the following weeks, more revelations about her undying love for the Confederacy surfaced.
That created a possible opening for Espy. Black anger over Hyde-Smith’s remarks was expected to drive African-Americans to the polls to cast their ballots for Espy, a former congressman who also served as agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration.
With Blacks comprising about 38 percent of Mississippi’s population, some analysts believed Espy had a path to victory if Black voter turnout reached 40 percent of the electorate and white moderate Republicans flipped to his side on Tuesday.
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Mike Espy Loses To A Raging Racist As Mississippi Votes For White Supremacy Over Progress was originally published on newsone.com
