Senate seat up for grabs in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. — National Democrats are focusing on Mississippi’s U.S. Senate runoff, a year after winning a longshot contest in another Deep South state dominated by Republicans.

Democrat Doug Jones defeated Roy Moore in Alabama last December after Moore was hit by accusations of sexual misconduct.

Now in Mississippi, Mike Espy is challenging Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. She faces sharp criticism for a video that surfaced Sunday of her praising a supporter at a Nov. 2 campaign event in Tupelo by saying: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”

Mississippi has a history of racially motivated lynchings. Hyde-Smith is white and Espy is black. Hyde-Smith Espy

Hyde-Smith said the hanging phrase was “an exaggerated expression of regard” for the person who invited her to speak. She also said it is “ridiculous” to think the phrase has a negative connotation.

Hyde-Smith was in her second term as Mississippi agriculture commissioner when Republican Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her to temporarily succeed longtime Sen. Thad Cochran, who retired amid health concerns in April. The winner of the Nov. 27 runoff will serve the final two years of the six-year term that Cochran started.

Hyde-Smith and Espy each received about 41 percent in a four-person race Nov. 6 to advance to the runoff.

The two candidates will hold their only debate of the campaign season Nov. 20, debate sponsors said Tuesday.

Espy in 1986 became the first African-American to win a U.S. House seat in Mississippi since Reconstruction. He served as U.S. agriculture secretary in 1993 and 1994 under Democratic President Bill Clinton.