According to an active Mississippi Republican politician, the idea was to visit all major media markets in Mississippi and conduct a sit-down interview. The advisors asked her to clarify a disturbing comment she made at a Tupelo campaign event in November 2018. She said, “If he invited us to a public hanging…I’d be on that front row.” This comment, made by an elected U.S senator representing the Blackest state in America, which is a state with more people being lynched than any other state in the country, garnered national attention and almost cost her her campaign. High-profile donors fled Hyde-Smith and many international corporations demanded that she return any previous contributions. A rehab tour was also planned. It involved some confidential work behind closed doors: Smoothing her relationships with major corporate financial supporter, such as Walmart, Leidos and Google — all of which asked for campaign donations totalling tens to thousands of dollars back. According to a source, her advisors’ recommendations, including refund requests from donors, were ignored. Two years later, these donors have not returned the senator’s money. This is despite her historically poor fundraising performance in 2020 U.S. Senate Rematch with Espy (a prominent and well-funded Democratic challenger). Defenders of Hyde Smith, whose campaign didn’t respond to multiple requests for comment, claim that her poor fundraising results mean little and that a Republican won’t lose in Mississippi with Donald Trump on the ballot. Others privately acknowledge that the race is closer than expected. It is because Hyde Smith has not put behind her national controversy about her comments about being front and centre at a “public hanging” in 2018. Stuart Stevens, a Mississippian who managed Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, is a senior advisor to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project and is supporting Espy. An incumbent senator can raise lots of money if she wants to. It’s just that she doesn’t want it and isn’t putting in the effort. It’s not complicated. I just don’t think that she’s putting the effort in.” Historically low fundraising. Whether Hyde-Smith’s lack of attention to donors or her ostracization by the Washington donor class is the cause, the numbers are clear: Hyde Smith is among the worst incumbent senatorial fundraisers. Hyde-Smith’s campaign raised less than $3million through October 1, which is less than any other sitting U.S senator who isn’t retiring. Only the Retired Sens are the senators with less money raised. Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), Pat Roberts (R-Kansas) and Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) are the only senators who raised less money. To find an incumbent senator in a competitive race that raised so little money in the 1990s, one would need to go back to the 1990s. In his six months of campaigning, he had raised approximately the same amount of money as Hyde Smith has raised through October this year. Although the companies that disapproved of Hyde-Smith in 2018 didn’t make the same public displays, their absence from Hyde Smith’s fundraising ledger is remarkable. According to a Mississippi Today analysis, Hyde-Smith’s campaign records, which were filed with the Federal Election Commission, the absence of key donors, who remained silent during the controversy, is also striking. These companies have not invested in other candidates, which is even more noticeable. Although none of those corporations that initially supported Hyde-Smith, but later publicly denigrated her in 2018, took the unusual step of supporting Espy over the sitting senator who remains the favorite, they continue to inject political money into the state from other sources. Walmart’s political committee donated $4,000 to Hyde Smith’s campaign in 2018. However, it has not given a single cent since Debra Messing’s tweet in which she said that Hyde Smith’s 2018 comments “donot reflect the values of the company and associates”. Meanwhile, several other candidates in Mississippi have been supported by the mega-corporation’s PAC. This includes $5,000 to Rep. Bennie Thompson, the only Democratic congressman in Mississippi; and $5,000 to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is not up to reelection before 2023. A few thousand were also given to Sen. Roger Wicker’s political action committee Responsibility and Freedom Work PAC or RFW PAC. Walmart, Mississippi’s largest private employer, donated more money to local candidates, starting with Lt. Governor. Delbert Hosemann, Attorney General Lynn Fitch, as well as several state senators, representatives, including Sen. Walter Michel (a Republican) and Democrats like Sen. Angela TurnerFord and Rep. Abe Marshall Hudson Jr. The same applies to scientific research company Leidos. It gave $10,000 to Hyde Smith in 2018 before calling Hyde Smith’s comments “offensive” and an affront. Wicker contributed $2,000 to the campaign committee he had designated for his 2024 primaries and $2,500 to his PAC. The company also gave $10,000 to Trent Kelly and Steven Palazzo, both GOP Reps., as well as Thompson. Palazzo’s Patriot Political Action Committee received $5,000. Union Pacific gave nothing to Hyde Smith in 2020, but maxxed out on Hyde Smith in 2018. Instead, they gave $10,000 to Wicker’s PAC. The railroad company also donated $5,000 to Thompson, and smaller amounts to Palazzo & Kelly. AT&T, the telecom giant, gave $5,000 to Hyde Smith last time but has remained silent during this campaign. They donated the maximum $10,000 to Wicker’s PAC and $5,000 to his campaign committee. The PAC that represents the global professional services company Ernst & Young made the largest donation to Hyde-Smith last year, but did not make any this year. They donated the maximum amount to Palazzo and to GOP Rep. Michael Guest. After giving $5,000 last year, Pfizer, the pharmaceutical giant, donated nothing this year to Hyde Smith. The same goes for Amgen, a biotechnology company that gave just a few thousand dollars last year. Both companies gave Thompson money this year but did not donate to any other candidates. In 2018, Facebook requested Hyde-Smith to return its $2,500 PAC donation. It has given Wicker’s campaign committee $2,500 this year. Last cycle, Hyde-Smith was $5,000 by Google’s PAC. It has donated only to Thompson and Wicker this year. Major League Baseball’s PAC donated $5,000 to Hyde-Smith and Boston Scientific gave $2,500. Neither company donated this year to Mississippi candidates. Individual donors stopped giving Marvin P. King, Jr., an University of Mississippi political science professor, in 2018. This is in addition to another controversy around a 2014 photo that she posted on Facebook wearing a Confederate soldier hat and calling the Biloxi Jefferson Davis Home, Presidential Library, “Mississippi History at its Best!” Hyde-Smith donations may seem out of line with companies’ public statements supporting ending racial inequalities in the wake of George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis. The killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis reverberated throughout the country, triggering a movement to remove the Confederate battle symbol from the Mississippi state flag. Some of these companies played a key role in convincing the Mississippi Legislature to make changes, such as Walmart, who announced that it would cease selling Mississippi-flag-branded merchandise after receiving pressure from its stockholders and consumers. King stated that the companies might be trying to prove a point and she will hear it loud and clear. King said that the companies asked for their money back and she refused to give it back. “But then this time around some of those large companies are like, “All right, money we would have given Cindy Hyde Smith in 2018, we’re going be giving to another campaign this season.” Other high-profile donors who gave to Hyde Smith in 2018 have not donated again this year despite having not disowned Hyde Smith’s comments at the time but later supporting the movement to end racial injustice. John Hairston, President and CEO at Gulfport’s Hancock Whitney bank, is one of those who have been vocal supporters of changing the state flag. In 2018, he gave Hyde-Smith the maximum personal donation allowed, but he has not given anything this year. A request for comment was not made by him through a spokesperson. This list also includes Steve Schwarzman (CEO of the Manhattan-based private equity firm, The Blackstone Group), who is a GOP mega-donor. In 2018, he donated to Hyde Smith, including a donation just days after the “public hanging” comments were made public. He has yet to donate to Hyde Smith despite having donated millions of dollars to Republican candidates and political action groups this cycle. After Floyd’s death, Scwarzman issued a statement in June stating that his company had “zero tolerance” for racism. A request for comment from a company spokesperson was not answered by Scwarzman. BGR Group, a lobbying and communications company founded by the former Mississippi Governor. Last election, Haley Barbour donated more than $7,000 to Hyde Smith’s PAC. Despite Barbour donating individually and several family members who are politically active, this year the PAC has not donated any money to her. Barbour said in an interview that this had nothing to do her comments. Barbour stated, “It’s more since we haven’t asked.” Barbour stated, “I don’t believe they have worked as hard to raise funds.” Does fundraising still matter? It may end up being that Hyde-Smith’s team thinks she will win, so fundraising is not a priority. Barbour acknowledged Espy’s admirable race but said he still believes Hyde-Smith is a shoo in because no amount money can convince conservative Mississippians to elect a Democrat statewide. Espy hasn’t given up on trying. Espy has outspent Hyde Smith 5-to-1 in the state and outraised them 3-to-1 overall. He also outraised Hyde Smith a remarkable 45-to-1 during her final stretch when he raised nearly $4 million to her less that $85,000 for the first two weeks. Hyde-Smith’s bank balance was less than $400,000 at the end of the FEC filing period. Espy had almost $4 million. Some of the fundraising gap could be attributed to national Republicans playing defense in more states than in 2018. In 2018, Hyde-Smith beat Espy in a special election. Then, she won a second round after being elected to the seat. The GOP has less money than it used to have. The party is currently trying to win back an Alabama seat and is also defending two seats in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The Republican senators in the most critical races from Arizona to Maine are at risk of losing. The party might not believe Mississippi will be a state it ever loses, on the other hand. The National Republican Senatorial Committee was Hyde Smith’s biggest funder in 2018. It gave her nearly $50,000 and spent more than $2 million on independent expenditures supporting Hyde Smith or criticizing Espy. The national party has spent less than $3,000 for her this year and has not given Hyde-Smith anything. Hyde-Smith deliberately omitted events that would normally be a source of income for candidates, such as debates, town halls, or other campaign parties. Trump supported her, but he is too busy in his campaigning in other must win states to visit GOP-friendly Mississippi. There are signs Hyde Smith is watching her back. The campaign has taken the offensive in the last few weeks, dropping ads tying Espy with national Democratic Party leaders. Hyde-Smith had the support and funding of a Super PAC last year. This aided her in defending Espy against Espy as well as attacking Chris McDaniel (the Republican who ran in the four way jungle primary that preceded this runoff). The Mississippi Victory Fund raised nearly half of the amount Hyde-Smith raised this cycle. The casino magnate and GOP megadonor Steve Wynn, Boston Celtics owner Rob Hale, Bernard Marcus, Home Depot founder, and Sean Parker, founder of Facebook, were all major donors. Only one donor, John Nau (CEO of Silver Eagle Distributors, a beer merchandiser), gave more than $25,000 to Super PAC this year. The Super PAC was managed by Henry Barbour, Haley Barbour’s nephew and Mississippi Republican National Committee representative. Although he donated personally to Hyde Smith’s campaign, he stated that he didn’t feel the need for his fundraising services again. He is happy that Espy has received donations from all of them. “I just really figured it’s not necessary to set up a Super PAC at this point, you know. He said that she should be fine. I hate to tell liberal donors but they have just wasted their money. They are going to lose. They’re going to lose. You can find him on Twitter @dnewhauser.