Mississippi Special Election Tests Tolerance for Racism

FEATURING CAROL BLACKMON – The very last Senate seat of the midterm elections will be decided on Tuesday in a special election in Mississippi. Cindy Hyde-Smith, the former state agriculture and commerce commissioner has held the seat since March after being appointed in the wake of Senator Thad Cochran’s retirement. She faces off against Democrat Mike Espy, former President Bill Clinton’s secretary of agriculture and a former six-year congressman from Mississippi.

Hyde-Smith, who is white, has come under fire for expressing her allegiance to a supporter by declaring she would attend a “public hanging” at his request. Mississippi has a sordid history of lynchings. Espy, who is black, has a fighting chance to flip a seat that has been Republican for many decades. Ahead of Tuesday’s special election photos have emerged of Hyde-Smith posing with confederate artifacts. President Donald Trump has scheduled two rallies in Mississippi to stump for her.

For more information visit www.blackvotersmatterfund.org.

Carol Blackmon, Mississippi Black Voters Matter Fund Coordinator.