Hyde-Smith stated, “What we discovered today is Mississippi isn’t for sale,” referring to Espy’s out-raising and outspending her campaign at most 2-1. “The only thing that beats Mike Espy twice is beating him once,” Hyde Smith told Tuesday’s crowd at the state Agriculture Museum. Several of her supporters were there for a watch party. “It was protecting lives of unborn children… It was protecting our Second Amendment rights. Hyde-Smith said “… God’s so good.” “He has provided… It looks like President Trump’s in pretty good health tonight, too.” Republican Gov. Tate Reeves introduced Hyde Smith at her victory party, and also predicted other GOP wins on Tuesday night. Reeves stated that Mississippi is electing a conservative senator. “And we are electing someone back to Washington, and that’s critical.” Hyde Smith, 61, is a former state senator, former state agriculture commissioner, and cattle farmer. Before becoming a state commissioner for agriculture, she was a Democrat during much of her time in Congress. Espy, who is 66 years old, is an attorney, former U.S. secretary for agriculture under the Clinton administration, and former U.S. Representative from 1987-1993. Since Reconstruction, he was the first African American to be elected as Mississippi’s representative in Congress. It was a rematch. After Hyde Smith was temporarily appointed by Gov., Espy and Hyde Smith squared off in a special election for the Senate seat. After the resignation of late Senator Thad Cochran, Phil Bryant was elected to replace him. In a runoff Hyde-Smith won the race by 53.6% to Espy’s 46.4%. Although the 2018 special election saw a large turnout, it was still a non-presidential election with over 800,000 voters. However, the actual turnout was far lower than the estimated 1.3million who voted. The rematch this year was unlikely to be competitive with Mississippi being the reddest state in the country, Donald Trump leading the ticket, and Hyde Smith being one of his most loyal supporters in the Senate. Hyde-Smith, riding an apparent big lead, ran a low-key campaign with very few public appearances. Even though Espy was flooding the airwaves in ads and running a large, well-funded campaign field operation, she refused to debate him. Following strict COVID-19 guidelines the Espy campaign held a modest post-election event at Mississippi Two Museums Tuesday night. The mood became darker as Espy’s failure became clear, but the few remaining attendees stayed until the very end. After the race was called, Espy said that he thought he ran the best campaign possible. However, Hyde-Smith won Mississippi thanks to a strong showing from the president. Espy thanked his volunteers, staff and supporters and said that he thought they ran a good race. Espy acknowledged that I had not done enough to win the race… He congratulated Hyde Smith, but didn’t forget to reiterate a common theme of his campaign, which was that Hyde Smith was an ineffective senator. “She won tonight. He congratulated her. “She will do whatever she will do…I still believe she is holding Mississippi back. But that opinion didn’t prevail.” Espy, a Democratic candidate for Mississippi, stated that he left behind an infrastructure including data and other information that could be used to aid the struggling state Democratic Party. He said, “We built an infrastructure. He said, “We built a bridge.” “Even though it was impossible for me to cross the bridge, I know others will.” Campaign Manager Joe O’Hearn stated, “Even though Mike did not manage to cross the bridge, others after me can.” Espy gained momentum and the national Democratic Party apparatus gave him financial support. Espy’s campaign raised more than Hyde-Smith throughout the election cycle, which is unprecedented for a Mississippi Democrat facing an incumbent GOP senator. His final fundraising total is expected to be at least 2 in favor of Espy. Espy was buoyed in part by a national flood of cash to Democratic congressional candidate candidates. The campaign’s final finance reports before Tuesday revealed that Espy had raised almost $9.3 million as Oct. 14. Hyde-Smith had raised just over $3 million. To support this important work, you can make a regular donation to Hyde-Smith today.