On the Ballot: Voters Decide Tuesday Between Hyde-Smith, Espy

By Talbert Toole
Lifestyles Editor
talbert.toole@hottytoddy.com

Democrat Mike Espy (left), who polled 43 percent of Tuesday’s vote during the special election, and Cindy Hyde-Smith (right), who had been serving temporarily in the seat vacated by the retirement of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran, will advance to a runoff election held Nov. 27 to vie for the Senate seat.

The highly-contested race between Interim U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and her Democrat opponent and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Espy, will come to an end Tuesday as Mississippi voters head to the polls for the special runoff election.

Neither Mike Espy, who polled 43 percent of Election Day’s vote, nor Cindy Hyde-Smith, who has been serving temporarily in the seat vacated by the retirement of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and earned about 40 percent of the vote, received more than 50 percent of votes cast on Election Day.

The selection will be monumental either way, as Mississippi will be represented by the first woman or the first African American senator in state history. 

Hyde-Smith and Espy have both faced severe criticism in the past few weeks.

Hyde-Smith recently faced backlash after a video surfaced of her statement, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,” in regards to acknowledging Tupelo cattle rancher Colin Hutchinson’s support for the appointed senator.

During a televised debate last week, Hyde-Smith apologized for her comment.

“For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize,” she said. “There was no ill will, no intent whatsoever in my statements.”

Hyde-Smith came under further backlash when a new video surfaced of her speaking to students in Starkville where she said suppressing liberal votes would be a “great idea.”

“There’s a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who that maybe we don’t want to vote. Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. So, I think that’s a great idea,” Hyde-Smith said in the video clip.

President Donald J. Trump will be in Tupelo Monday at the Tupelo Regional Airport to cast his support for Hyde-Smith. Trump will then travel to Biloxi later in the evening to complete his Mississippi tour.

While Hyde-Smith suffered from criticism of her comments made on two separate videos, Espy went under fire after accepting full payment of a lobbying contract from Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo in 2011, who refused to step down even after losing the 2010  election and is now on trial in international court for crimes against humanity.

Espy said he halted the business contract and only received a partial payment of the contract in 2011.

However, Fox News reported two weeks ago that according to U.S. Department of Justice Foreign Agents Registration Act documents, Espy’s Jackson-based agricultural consulting firm AE Agritrade received the first payment of $400,000 from Gbagbo in January 2011, which would have been the partial payment.

The document shows that Espy’s firm also received the second payment of $350,000 on March 1, 2011, according to the Clarion Ledger’s report.