Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith defeats Democrat Mike Espy a 2nd time in US Senate race
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has won the race for her first full, six-year term in office, defeating Democratic challenger Mike Espy a second time.
Unofficial returns show Hyde-Smith won the race with 631,041 votes, or 56.1%, over Espy, who received 473,524 votes, or 42.1% — a higher margin of victory than polls forecast for the incumbent senator. Libertarian Jimmy Edwards trailed with 21,179 or 1.9%
Hyde-Smith, who is from Brookhaven, in 2018 became the first woman from Mississippi elected to the U.S. Senate in 2018, when she defeated Espy in a runoff.
Had he been elected, Espy would have been the first Black person to serve Mississippi in the Senate since Reconstruction. Espy already held that distinction in the U.S. House, where he served from 1987 to 1993, when he became the nation’s first Black secretary of agriculture, serving during the Clinton administration.
Hyde-Smith refused to debate Espy before the election. She instead relied on advertising and campaign appearances to accentuate her conservative values and support for President Trump. She campaigned on her opposition to abortion, “illegal immigration” and gun control.
Espy emphasized his support for the Affordable Care Act and Medicaid expansion in Mississippi, job creation and funding for public schools. His campaign also worked to maximize Black voter turnout and attract moderate white voters.
He referred to Hyde-Smith as “Confederate Cindy” because she had posted a picture of herself in a Confederate soldier’s cap during a visit to Beauvoir in Biloxi, the last home of Jefferson Davis.
In polls, Espy trailed Hyde-Smith throughout the race in a state where 38% of the population is Black. Political pundits who monitored races for Congress nationwide did not consider Hyde-Smith’s Senate seat at risk.
Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate in 2018 by then-Gov. Phil Bryant after longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran resigned for health reasons. She captured 54% of the vote in the runoff against Espy, an attorney who is originally from Yazoo City.
Hyde-Smith had previously served as the state’s first elected female commissioner of agriculture after spending 12 years in the state senate.
This story was originally published November 3, 2020 at 10:39 PM.
