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Race and Mississippi History Form Backdrop to Senate Debate Mississippi Senator, in Debate, Expresses Regrets for Remarks on ‘Public Hanging’
(about 9 hours later)
JACKSON, Miss. — The last debate (we promise!) of the 2018 midterm campaign is taking place Tuesday night in Jackson, Miss., as Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican, meets the Democrat Mike Espy in what will be the only joint forum between the two candidates before next Tuesday’s runoff election. JACKSON, Miss. — Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi used a debate Tuesday to express regret for making a cavalier reference to “a public hanging,” in an attempt to steady her campaign just over a week after she imperiled her prospects against the former congressman Mike Espy in a state scarred by racial violence.
The hourlong debate is set for 8 p.m. Eastern and will be streamed online by a local affiliate, WLBT, and will air at 10:15 on C-Span. The runoff became necessary when neither candidate received at least 50 percent of the vote on Nov. 6. Insisting that her comments, which were captured on video and immediately ricocheted across the internet, reflected “no ill will,” Ms. Hyde-Smith, a Republican, said, “For anyone that was offended by my comments, I certainly apologize.”
A Democrat has not won a Senate seat in Mississippi since 1982, and few in either party believed this special election would break that streak. But last week, a video emerged of Ms. Hyde-Smith, who was appointed earlier this year to fill the unexpired term of former Senator Thad Cochran, telling an ally that if he invited her “to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.” But in what will be the only joint appearance before next week’s Senate runoff election, she immediately accused Mr. Espy, a Democrat, of weaponizing her misstep, complaining that her words were being twisted.
Her polling advantage dwindled, companies withdrew their contributions from her and liberal money flooded in for Mr. Espy. Republicans, meanwhile, scrambled to find new lines of attack against the Democrat, a former member of Congress and agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton. “No one twisted your comments,” Mr. Espy shot back, adding: “It came out of your mouth. I don’t know what’s in your heart, but we all know what came out of your mouth.”
Ms. Hyde-Smith has largely retreated from public view since the video was released by a liberal blogger, making tonight’s forum pivotal. The first African-American in Mississippi elected to Congress since Reconstruction, Mr. Espy said Ms. Hyde-Smith’s remark had “given our state another black eye.”
Ms. Hyde-Smith is planning to use the debate to address her comments, which have angered and embarrassed black and white voters alike in a state with a history of discrimination and racial violence. But it is not clear what precisely she will say, according to Republican officials familiar with her preparations. As late as Monday, she was still deliberating over whether to raise the matter in her opening statement or wait for the inevitable question from the moderators. And he attempted to harness the mix of anger and embarrassment some voters in Mississippi have felt in the days since a liberal blogger released footage of the senator praising a supporter by stating that if he invited her “to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”
Beyond issuing a written statement in the immediate aftermath of the video, Ms. Hyde-Smith has yet to offer an apology or explanation for her comments. Some in her party think she should simply express regret and move on, but the senator is said to be resentful of how her remarks have been received. And many Republicans are equally irritated, raising the possibility that she could risk depressing turnout from core supporters if she is excessively contrite. The comment, Mr. Espy said, “just rejuvenated old stereotypes that we don’t need anymore.”
So Ms. Hyde-Smith must find a balance, offering sufficient regret so as not to inflame the issue further and imperil her campaign, while not giving her conservative skeptics reason to stay home next week. (Keep in mind that she fended off a challenge from Chris McDaniel, a hard-right state senator, in the first round of voting earlier this month.) But the former lawmaker, who had been out of public life for 25 years until he entered this race, did not fully revisit the issue, which has upended a contest in which Ms. Hyde-Smith had been the heavy favorite, until his closing statement.
As revealing as how Ms. Hyde-Smith addresses her gaffes — she was also caught on tape joking about voter suppression — will be what Mr. Espy says about her comments. The first African-American elected to Congress since Reconstruction in the state, Mr. Espy prided himself on the biracial coalition he forged as a lawmaker, and he has run as a moderate this year. To win, he must maximize black turnout in a state that’s about 37 percent African-American but also capture around a quarter of the white vote. Ms. Hyde-Smith used much of the hourlong debate to embrace President Trump and assail Mr. Espy as too liberal for Mississippi, reciting a series of attack lines and arguing that “conservative values are on the ballot.”
That means handling matters of race with perhaps more delicacy than his most fervent supporters would prefer. Mr. Espy, his advisers say, is therefore less likely to harshly confront Ms. Hyde-Smith over her comments than he is to use them as an opening to remind voters of the need to move past the state’s ugly history — and to make the case that his election would demonstrate how far Mississippi has come. Ms. Hyde-Smith and Mr. Espy met a week before the runoff that will be the final election of the 2018 midterm season. And even before they took the stage at the Farm Bureau’s headquarters in this state capital, the stakes of the race, and of the debate, were made clear well beyond Mississippi’s borders.
The question, however, is which candidate can remain on the offensive. With Ms. Hyde-Smith needing to change the subject, she is expected to swiftly pivot from her own vulnerability to one of Mr. Espy’s: his earnings in the decades since he left public office, namely the six-figure sums he accepted representing a former Ivory Coast dictator. President Trump, who will return to the state on Monday for a pair of rallies aimed at saving Ms. Hyde-Smith’s candidacy, used an impromptu Q. and A. session with reporters at the White House to defend her and minimized her comments.
What’s not in doubt is that this Southern swan song of 2018 is unlikely to enter the pantheon of great American oratory. Mr. Espy has been largely out of public life since leaving the Clinton administration a quarter century ago, and Ms. Hyde-Smith, as the last week has proved, has struggled with a level of scrutiny far more intense than it was in her days as a state legislator and Mississippi’s agricultural commissioner. “It was just sort of said in jest,” Mr. Trump said. “She’s a tremendous woman, and it’s a shame that she has to go through this.”
But the fallout from Ms. Hyde-Smith’s misstep has shown no signs of abating: On Tuesday, Walmart, the country’s largest retailer, asked that she return the $2,000 contribution its political action committee had made toward her campaign, a request Mr. Espy invoked at the debate.
“Sen. Hyde-Smith’s recent comments clearly do not reflect the values of our company and associates,” a spokesman for Walmart said in a statement. Walmart was the third company to withdraw its support of the senator.
While the results next week won’t affect the balance of power in the Senate, if Mr. Espy were to pull off the upset, it would limit Senate Republican gains to just a single seat this year.
That both parties are even competing here is extraordinary. A Democrat has not won a Senate seat in Mississippi since 1982, and few in either party believed this special election would break that streak. But last week, the video emerged of Ms. Hyde-Smith, who was appointed this year to fill the unexpired term of former Senator Thad Cochran, telling an ally that if he invited her “to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”
Until Tuesday, she had refused to address her comments in the video, which was released by a liberal blogger. And in a news conference about a different matter immediately after the comments surfaced, she only pointed to a written statement her campaign had released — repeating a variation of “I put out a statement” eight separate times.
Her polling advantage dwindled, companies withdrew their contributions to her and liberal money flooded in for Mr. Espy. Republicans moved to dispatch Mr. Trump in Mississippi again, scheduling election eve rallies in Tupelo and Biloxi.
For her part, Ms. Hyde-Smith has largely retreated from public view in the aftermath of the “public hanging” video and another one in which she was captured joking about voter suppression, making Tuesday night’s forum particularly pivotal for her candidacy.