MLB asks Hyde-Smith to return $5,000 donation ahead of runoff election
Major League Baseball is requesting the return of its $5,000 donation to Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s campaign, in the latest blow to the Mississippi Republican ahead of Tuesday’s runoff.
MLB spokesman Pat Courtney said in a statement that the donation “was made in connection with an event that MLB lobbyists were asked to attend” and that MLB has requested it be returned.
Melissa Scallan, a spokeswoman for HydeSmith’s campaign, said she could not comment on the matter. News of the donation was first reported Saturday by political newsletter Popular Information.
Hyde-Smith, who was appointed in the spring, faces Democrat Mike Espy in Tuesday’s runoff to fill the remaining two years of retired Republican Sen. Thad Cochran’s term.
Hyde-Smith’s victory in the runoff was once considered a lock, but her campaign has been roiled in recent weeks by revela- tions that she made a controversial statement that was thought by many to be an allusion to lynching and embraced Confederate history at several points throughout her career.
President Donald Trump has thrown his support behind HydeSmith and is making two stops in the state Monday to campaign on her behalf.
Earlier this month, a video posted to Twitter by journalist and blogger Lamar White Jr. showed Hyde-Smith saying of a supporter during a campaign stop, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”
Hyde-Smith first defended the statement as an “exaggerated expression of regard” for the supporter before offering a limited apology during a debate with Espy last week.
Days later, another video showed Hyde-Smith apparently joking about voter suppression, saying laws that “make it just a little more difficult” for some college students to vote are “a great idea.”
News of the comments prompted a backlash against Hyde-Smith from several corporate supporters, including Walmart, which asked for its donations to be returned and said in a tweet last week that the senator’s remarks “clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates.”
AT&T, Leidos, Union Pacific and Boston Scientific also have asked for their contributions to be refunded, CNBC reported.