Mike Espy, a former congressman and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, knows that black voters must turn out in record numbers if he is to defeat Republican U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde Smith in November. Espy will be supporting Joe Biden on Sunday afternoon. Biden is a former vice president under President Barack Obama, who has won all of the Southern states primary elections in the 2020 Democratic primary for the presidency. He beat U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. Espy spoke to Mississippi Today Sunday morning, saying that although it’s cliché to say “We know Joe”, he really does know him and knows him to be a man with high competence and integrity. “I don’t believe socialism should be the governing principle in the United States. Sanders would be uncomfortable with me because I would have to disengage myself from many of his principles. I also don’t believe those principles are very popular in the state. Biden will be visiting Jackson this Sunday, ahead of the Tuesday primary. Biden, who was the vice president at one time, has won every Southern primary so far and has secured endorsements from prominent African American politicians in the South including Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thomson. Biden will be visiting New Hope Baptist Church in Jackson, where Espy is a member. He will also host a rally at Tougaloo College near Jackson, which is historically black college. Espy stated that he would endorse Biden at the Tougaloo rally Sunday afternoon. Sanders instead chose to campaign in Michigan, which has a greater number of delegate, and cancelled his Mississippi visit. Sanders’ Friday visit to Mississippi would have marked his first since 2018, when he rallied alongside Nissan workers in advance of a union vote. Espy stated that a Sanders nomination would not benefit people on the down ticket like him. Espy stated that it was against the conventional wisdom to endorse any candidate for office, but he believes he can win this year by two things: increase black turnout from 2018, and continue to influence suburban, educated voters, who have been moving toward Democrats in recent decades. Because of its racial undertones, Espy’s 2018 campaign against Hyde Smith made national headlines. Millions of dollars were poured into Espy’s war fund after video of Hyde Smith declaring she would attend a public hanging was released. Espy claimed that the cash infusion, which occurred at the start of a three week special election runoff, was too late. Espy declared his 2020 Senate candidacy in a video that highlighted the life of Thomas Jefferson Huddleston (the son of slaves) who launched an African American newspaper, an insurance company and built more than 30 funeral homes. He also established the first African American hospital in Mississippi. On the day Espy officially launched his campaign, Espy stated that a national research organization had conducted an analysis of 2018 results and found that the black percent was 32.5 percent. He received approximately 95 percent of that vote. According to the analysis, he received 18% of the white vote. Hyde-Smith’s fundraising has been difficult so far this year. Espy raised more than Hyde-Smith in the campaign finance reporting period. In the last quarter of 2019, Hyde Smith had raised less money than 96 other U.S. senators. Last year, the three senators with less support than Hyde-Smith announced that they would not be running for reelection in 2020.