/New poll shows Hyde-Smith up 8 points on Espy in Mississippi Senate race

New poll shows Hyde-Smith up 8 points on Espy in Mississippi Senate race

This poll shows President Donald Trump beating Vice President Joe Biden 55% to 41% in the same poll. FiveThirtyEight, a respected pollster rating national pollsters, gave the pollster a B/C rating. It sampled 507 Mississippians online from a national sample. In a poll conducted by the Tyson Group in September, Hyde Smith had a narrow lead of 1 point against Espy. However, an earlier poll by Mississippi Today released by the Espy campaign showed that he was down 5 points. Several other polls showed Hyde Smith, who is running for her first six-year term, having larger leads. Nationally, she is considered a strong favorite for the race. Espy won just 47% of votes in the 2018 special election to succeed long-time Senator Thad Cochran. Hyde-Smith became Mississippi’s first female representative to Congress. According to Tuesday’s poll, Espy is leading Biden among those who voted early in Mississippi. Espy is leading 55-44 in early votes, while Biden is leading 55-45. Mississippi doesn’t allow early voting. However, according to the Office of Secretary of State Michael Watson data, a record 146,000 Mississippians have already voted using excuses permitted by state law to vote absentee. It is estimated that well over one million people will turn out. The poll’s respondents were split into 62% whites and 36% African Americans. Espy, who is trying to become Mississippi’s first elected Black senator has stated that he needs to see more than 35% of the African American vote to be able to win. However, Hyde Smith is gaining 12% of the African American vote based on poll results. Many question her ability to do the same with Black voters. Espy also stated that he requires 22% of white voters — primarily college-educated women. The poll shows that Espy is winning 51% of female votes to Hyde-Smith’s 46%, but only 19% of white votes overall. Also, the poll shows that the citizen-sponsored initiative to legalize marijuana was not voted on due to the complexity of how the proposal is presented. Voters have the option to either adopt the citizen-sponsored proposal, a legislative alternative, or both. 34% and 49% of respondents view Governor Tate Reeves as positive, while 49% regard him negatively. Roger Wicker (the state’s most senior U.S. senator), is favorably viewed by 36% while 39% view him negatively. Civiqs, a poll commissioned by left-leaning Daily Kos, has a margin for error of 5.3%. Civiqs released results from Pennsylvania and Georgia on Tuesday. By narrow margins, Biden led in both those states.