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U.S. senate candidate Mike Espy

Mike Espy, age 66, is vying to be the first African American elected by popular vote to the U.S. Senate from Mississippi.

In 1986, Espy, a Democrat, became the first Black Mississippian elected to the U.S. House since Reconstruction. He was re-elected by comfortable margins to the 2nd District post three additional times before he resigned to accept the appointment as U.S. secretary of agriculture in the President Bill Clinton administration. He was the nation’s first African American secretary of agriculture.

Espy later resigned after he was indicted on federal corruption charges, though he was acquitted on all counts. Since then, Espy has been practicing law in Mississippi.

In 2018, Espy reentered politics to run for the Senate seat left vacant after the retirement of long-time U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. Espy lost the special election to interim Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Espy garnered more than 46% of the vote in the special election.

Espy is a Yazoo City native. His family has been involved in the funeral home business for decades, and his grandfather is credited with starting the first African American hospital in the state in the 1920s to provide a medical option for Black Mississippians.

 

We asked all of the U.S. Senate candidates to share their stances on several issues. Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith chose not to respond. You can view Libertarian Jimmy Edwards’ answers here.

Here’s what Democrat Mike Espy said:

What role should Congress play in coronavirus response?

Mike Espy: Congress, along with the President, should be leading a cohesive, coherent, and coordinated national approach to addressing the pandemic and the economic crisis so we do not have this ad hoc approach that has left our states and local governments to fend for themselves.

Instead of minimizing the pandemic and denying during the critical early stages, our Congressional leaders should have come together as a body, sat down with our world-renowned medical experts and come up with a comprehensive approach to shut down parts of the United States.

Should safeguards be put in place to limit national debt?

Mike Espy: As a long-time deficit and debt hawk and former member of the U.S. House’s Budget Committee, I believe we must reduce the national debt. But gimmick safeguards would bring fiscal collapse to our country’s economy, especially during downturns like we are in now.

It will be my utmost priority in Congress to reduce our debt through careful, targeted cuts. By giving tax breaks to the drivers of our economy — the middle class and small businesses — instead of the wealthy, we can reap the benefits of a booming economy and reduce our debt.

Should a president have broad power to declare war or send troops to battle without congressional approval?

Mike Espy: No. As outlined in the Constitution, the President should have to seek approval in order to declare war. I do support the President maintaining authority to keep our country safe and execute tailored missions, such as those against the War on Terror.

My support for the brave men and women who have sacrificed everything for their country is non-negotiable. I am dedicated to Mississippi’s nearly 200,000 veterans and 12,000 active-duty service members and will speak out against any attempt to denigrate their service and their families’ commitment to this country.

What are your healthcare priorities?

Mike Espy: I know how important affordable health care is for all Mississippians, because it’s part of my family’s legacy. In 1924, my grandfather, Thomas J. Huddleston, started the first Black-owned hospital in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow. Like my grandfather, my number one priority will be guaranteeing all Mississippians access to quality and affordable health care. Too many Mississippians are getting crushed by the rising cost of premiums, copays, and prescription drugs.

I am committed to building upon the Affordable Care Act in order to lower health care costs for all Mississippians, including expanding Medicaid in Mississippi — a policy we are already paying for in other states as taxpayers. It’s high time Mississippi had the same benefits for their rural hospitals and lower costs that other Medicaid expansion states like Oklahoma and Missouri do.

What are your public education priorities?

Mike Espy: Every child in Mississippi deserves access to a quality education that will allow them to reach their full potential — no matter the school they attend, the color of their skin, or how much money their parents make.

I was fortunate enough to attend a local parochial school in Yazoo City until I integrated the all-white Yazoo City High School. I support all schools in our state. Public dollars should go toward our public schools. For years,our public schools have been underfunded by billions.

Decisions about education are best left to our educators, teachers, parents and school administrators and I will fight to get them the support and funding they need, including increasing teacher pay, adequately funding training programs and expanding federal loan forgiveness programs for teachers.

As Senator, I will work with any president and any legislator to deliver results for Mississippi’s schools — and I will demand answers for policies that hurt our teachers and families.

What is your take on the current debate over funding of police?

Mike Espy: I do not support “defunding” the police. But I have proposed a number of clear steps to reform policing so our law enforcement officers can better serve our communities.

First, we need to hire more officers of color, especially Black men and women. We can attract more applicants by offering competitive salaries and opportunities for continuing education.

Second, applicants and new hires should be subject to stringent background checks on past conduct and previous performance. That’s why we must create a national registry of police misconduct and disciplinary actions. State and local police departments should also be required to report use-of-force incidents to the Department of Justice.

Third, we must mandate bias and de-escalation training. I also want our police officers to receive training from our mental health counselors, social workers, child protection officers, and addiction specialists. On a daily basis, officers are confronted with situations involving these afflictions. I want our departments to work hand-in-hand with these experts so they can better understand these situations in order to better serve our communities.

We must create a new prevailing standard of conduct in which the unacceptable standard of “reasonable force” is replaced with “necessary force.” And fourth, chokeholds and other restraint positions should be abolished.

Finally, all officers should be required to wear body cameras at all times while on duty.

Do you believe criminal justice reform is needed? If so, what reforms would you support?

Mike Espy: In the last decade, improvements in technology, and better understanding of the impact of sentencing, the criminal justice system and the causes of crime, have forced us to reevaluate policies put into place in the 20th century. I think the FIRST STEP Act was an essential and much-needed bill.

In Mississippi, we have an incarceration problem. There are far too many people, most of whom are Black men, in prison for non-violent crimes and technical violations. It’s a drain on the families of the incarcerated, on our economy, and on our state budget.

Most incarcerated Americans are held in state and local jails. As your U.S. Senator, I would work on a “second step act” to address criminal justice issues at the state and local level and allocate federal funds for new programs to help reduce recidivism. By increasing the funding for and availability of addiction and psychological treatment in prisons, education and job training programs for individuals on the inside and when they are recently released, affordable housing, and private-public partnerships for reentry programs, we can help both incarcerated individuals and their families deal with the financial burden of incarceration and become contributing members of our economy.

The Mississippi Legislature recently voted to remove the state flag with its confederate emblem as opposed to putting that decision before voters. Do you agree or disagree with this and why?

Mike Espy: Agree. At 66 years old, I never thought I would see the flag come down it in my lifetime.

The confederate battle emblem flag was hurting our state’s economy. With the retirement of the old flag, Mississippi is finally ready to turn the page on that part of our state’s history and start the next decade as one of prosperity and promise.

As a Mississippian, do you think the old state flag should be placed on the ballot for a vote of the people?

Mike Espy: No. I believe it was the right decision for the legislature to choose to take down the flag. As a former Congressman and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, I know that sometimes leaders have to make tough decisions. The legislature made the right decision to take down the flag and put a new flag up for a vote. With this new flag, we can all move forward together.

What do you think of the removal of confederate monuments across the South and nation?

Mike Espy: I believe monuments erected in favor of confederate leaders and generals should no longer be displayed on official property. I do support putting these monuments in museums with context to educate the public on the history of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the South.

I do not believe that we should be glorifying a time when one human being was allowed to own another human being or the war that was fought for that very system.

Please express your thoughts on any issues we didn’t mention.

Mike Espy: As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, Mississippi is at a pivotal moment. We often come last in rankings and make do with less. Mississippi is home to the most generous and hospitable people I know. I am tired of our leaders not standing up for our state.

No matter your race, your gender, your age or your political views, you can always call on me as your U.S. Senator. I will be an independent voice for the health, safety, and economic security of Mississippi’s families. Together, we can move Mississippi forward.

The post Mike Espy Bio appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Charles A. Smith/University Communications

Deion Sanders showed off his JSU sports coat when he was introduced as the Tigers new coach.

We knew months ago, even before the pandemic, this was going to be the one of the craziest, most anticipated football seasons in Mississippi history.

We just thought we knew. We didn’t know the half of it…

Last December, Ole Miss hired Lane Kiffin. A month later, Mississippi State hired Mike Leach. Not since 2014, when the Bulldogs and Rebels zoomed into the top three in the nation, had Mississippi college football received so much national attention. Some pundits even wondered: Is Mississippi even big enough for those two personalities?

Rick Cleveland

Then came the pandemic, which threatened – indeed, still threatens – whether we will have much football season at all. If you want to know how precarious this season is, look about 400 miles west to Houston, where the Houston Cougars have now had five – yes, FIVE! – season openers canceled because of COVID-19.

First, the Cougars were supposed to open against Rice, but Rice had too much COVID. (We still aren’t clear whether Rice will play at all this season.) Then the Cougars were to open against Washington State, but the Pac-12 cancelled its season. Then, it was presumed Houston would open against Memphis, but the Tigers experienced a spike in cases and had to bow out. So Houston worked out an agreement on short notice to play Baylor, but Baylor had to cancel that one just a day ahead of the scheduled kickoff. Baylor, which already had a game with Ole Miss canceled, didn’t have enough players available to play. So then Houston was supposed to open against North Texas, but the Mean Green can’t play either. As it stands now, Houston will open its season on Oct. 8 against Tulane. Maybe. Stay tuned…

Rice and North Texas both play in Conference USA, of which Southern Miss is a member. Old Dominion, also a member, has canceled its entire season. Rice might. Meanwhile, Southern Miss has had to change its schedule so many times it’s difficult to keep count. Somehow or another, the Golden Eagles have managed to play two home football games, and, man, this is where it really gets crazy.

Several USM players, including three of the very best, decided not to play this season. Then the Golden Eagles lost their opener to South Alabama. Shortly thereafter, Jay Hopson resigned as head coach and 30-year-old Scotty Walden became the youngest head coach in America. In Walden’s debut as head coach, Southern Miss built a 27-10 lead before losing 31-30 in the closing seconds.

It gets crazier…

One of USM’s many schedule changes came when the SWAC decided to delay the 2020 football season until the spring of 2021. Than meant that Jackson State would not be coming to Hattiesburg on Sept. 19. So maybe Jackson State isn’t playing this fall, but the Tigers surely have been busy. On August 31, head coach John Hendricks was dismissed. On Sept. 21, in national news, Jackson State hired Pro Football Hall of Famer Deion Sanders as its head coach. Sanders has vowed to go head-to-head with the nation’s football powerhouses in recruiting.

So, if Mississippi wasn’t big enough for Leach and Kiffin, how will it handle Leach, Kiffin and Deion “Prime Time” Sanders, who wants to be known as Coach Prime?

All this has happened before Leach and Kiffin coach their first games at the Mississippi schools. That presumably comes Saturday. Ole Miss plays host to the Florida Gators at 11 a.m. Mississippi State travels to defending national champion LSU for a 2:30 p.m. kickoff. I say presumably because all it takes to postpone or cancel are a few positive tests on either of the participating teams.

Rogelio V. Solis, AP

A familiar face will be on the sidelines at Vaught-Hemingway Stadium Saturday.

But let’s assume they play. Florida, 11-2 and Orange Bowl champions under former Mississippi State coach Dan Mullen, is a two-touchdown favorite. That seems about right, considering the Gators averaged 33.4 points per game after Kyle Trask took over at quarterback last year. He’s back. Florida did suffer some heavy losses on defense, but, as always, the Gators will have lots of speed and muscle on that side of the ball. One thing we learned during Mullen’s stay in Starkville: He rarely loses games he is supposed to win. As for Ole Miss, we don’t know what we don’t know, and that is a lot, which makes Saturday all the more intriguing.

At Baton Rouge, LSU is a whopping 16.5-point favorite over Leach and his first  Bulldogs. That surely does seem like a lot, when you consider the Tigers lost the best player in the history of LSU, quarterback Joe Burrow, and 13 other NFL draft picks. I mean, I know LSU is deep in talent but can the Tigers replace 14 draft picks, including five first rounders, not to mention defensive coordinator Dave Aranda and innovative passing game coordinator Joe Brady?

We shall see.

Meanwhile, Southern Miss continues its quest for a first victory with still another home game against long-time rival Tulane. The Green Wave is a 3.5-point favorite for this 1:30 p.m kickoff. Two interesting angles: Tulane’s starting quarterback is Southern Miss transfer Keon Howard, who is from Laurel. Will Hall, the offensive coordinator at Tulane, is the son of long-time Mississippi high school coach Bobby Hall. He has been mentioned prominently as a possible replacement for Hopson at Southern Miss. If Hall’s a candidate, this seems quite the audition.

The post Welcome to the craziest college football season in Mississippi history appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Democratic Senate candidate Mike Espy has raised $1M since Justice Ginsburg’s death.

The post Marshall Ramsey: Cash Tsunami appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann wants to know how the state is spending $350 million a year in workforce development funds.

Mississippi spends roughly $350 million in state and federal funds on workforce development and training each year, a new budget report drafted for the first time this year revealed.

But for all the celebration of the state’s advancement in the workforce over the last few years, newly elected leaders are finding little more than smoke and mirrors. They’re questioning what the state has really accomplished with the money as its workforce participation rate remains among the worst in the nation.

“We didn’t have the structure to start with,” Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann told Mississippi Today. “Like, how are we training? Are we doing it in schools? How is that going? Are the community colleges meeting the needs? Where are they not meeting the needs? Is everything running as smoothly as it should?”

Training programs are crucial in ensuring not only that Mississippians have access to jobs that pay enough to support their families, workforce specialist say, but also that employers have a pool of skilled applicants to choose from, supporting industry across the state.

Workforce development generally refers to training or classes that help adults receive a certificate or otherwise prepare for a job, but don’t necessarily correspond with college credits.

Mississippi, often listed as the poorest state in the nation, also purportedly relies on these programs to lift adults out of poverty, in many cases requiring public assistance recipients to participate in them in order to maintain their benefits.

Just under 54% of working-age Mississippians were either working or looking for work in July, the third lowest rate in the nation, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But Mississippi also bottomed the list at 56% in February before the pandemic, compared to the national rate of 64%.

Hosemann said state economic experts estimate about 40,000 Mississippians who lost employment during the pandemic will not return to the jobs they had before.

“We have an immediacy to act here,” Hosemann said.

There is no true repository of information on all workforce training efforts happening in the state and their efficacy, several officials told Mississippi Today, despite the creation of the State Workforce Investment Board years ago to serve that purpose. Board members and other officials have complained that the 45-member board of economic leaders mandated by federal statute was too large to meet meaningful goals.

So this year, the Legislature passed a bill to shrink the board to 31 members and create a smaller Mississippi Office of Workforce Development, which will consist of a director, the state’s workforce czar, who has not yet been named, and staff of professionals. The legislation also requires more accountability and reporting from each entity that receives and spends state or federal money for workforce development.

Hosemann said that when the workforce czar is in place, the Legislature intends to allocate enough resources to make serious advances to workforce training efforts. Through this restructuring, Hosemann said he has lofty goals of raising Mississippi’s workforce participation rate 1% each year.

“It solves economic issues. It solves health care issues. It helps with crime issues,” he said. “Whatever — you pick the topic, but if we could get our labor participation rate up anywhere close to 60%, somewhere in the 58, 59, 60% range, we will solve a myriad of both social and economic issues.”

In preparing the bill, lawmakers asked their budget analysts to compile a list of all state and federal funds used for workforce development. It was a tall task in part because “workforce development” — which longtime Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory said he considers a buzzword — can be hard to define.

“People say workforce development, workforce development, workforce development,” Bryan said, “but I question whether anyone looks carefully at what specifically is going on under the title of workforce development. If what we’re talking about doing is training our citizens, that’s called education. And learning to think critically is as important as learning how to make a widget.”

Analysts from the Legislative Budget Office found 14 state entities conducting dozens of programs that they considered workforce development — the largest among them the Mississippi Department of Education, Community and Junior Colleges, Mississippi Department of Rehabilitation Services, Mississippi Department of Employment Security and Mississippi Department of Human Services.

Officials say they do not have a good grasp on where all of those dollars are spent and an even worse understanding of the outcomes of the programs they fund.

“Part of the problem is that workforce development has been way too ambiguous,” said Patrick Sullivan, president of the Mississippi Energy Institute and chairman of the State Workforce Investment Board. “Basically our workforce strategy has been: ‘Workforce development is important.’ Well that’s great … but what does it mean? What does success look like and what are the targets?”

Mississippi Today has chronicled some workforce development programs in the state, such as the federally-funded services delivered by Mississippi Department of Employment Services through the WIN Job Centers and the work program through the Mississippi Department of Human Services’ federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families block grant — the subject of a massive ongoing embezzlement case.

State-funded workforce development efforts include the $50 million Mississippi Works training fund, just one-tenth of which has been spent since it was established and housed at the Mississippi Development Authority in 2016, Mississippi Today reported.

Mississippi makes its biggest state investment in workforce development each year by transferring about $20 million — called Workforce Enhancement Training, or “WET” funds — from its unemployment trust fund to the community colleges.

Both of these funds — Mississippi Works and WET — are spent based on requests from employers, so they would not necessarily pay for an individual’s desired training unless a company had already requested it to train their existing employees.

“For people who don’t have a job, the options at the community college would be career and technical programs,” said Mississippi Community College Board Director Andrea Mayfield. “I would love for us to have state-appropriated workforce training dollars, but the fact is, we don’t. We don’t. The state doesn’t appropriate workforce training dollars to conduct the actual training. The actual training is from WET dollars and the priority has to be on incumbent workers.”

In 2019, Mississippi’s community colleges reportedly used $23.2 million in WET funds on 255,295 trainees, according to reports Mississippi Community College Board supplied Mississippi Today. A fourth of those represent people receiving Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) training, knowledge required on many worksites, and which employers would typically have to provide, but which does not necessarily equate to a new skill.

The next most utilized programs were medical and health care training, serving 50,269 trainees, furniture manufacturing (18,575), industrial production (17,286), and welding and soldering (13,804).

The most expensive per-person training offered was marketing ($3,731.41), instrumentation (3,422.50), adult education ($2,386.54) and a program called train-the-trainer ($1,298.97).

The unemployment trust fund, which has historically provided most of the dollars for the state’s own workforce development efforts, is quickly becoming depleted after unprecedented job loss as a result of the pandemic.

“The catch-22 is, you have more people who need workforce training. Because you have more people who are unemployed and need training, you have lower tax revenue collections and now you have a possibility for WET fund reductions,” Mayfield told Mississippi Today back in May before the Legislature appropriated the CARES Act dollars.

When they did, lawmakers set aside $55 million for a workforce development initiative called ReSkill MS, which is being administered by the Mississippi Department of Employment Security and four planning and development districts across the state. The community colleges were able to request funding for their needs, and they expect to use most of the money on equipment and technology purchases and less than $5 million on training tuition vouchers for jobless Mississippians, Mississippi Today reported. Lawmakers also provided that any relief money not spent by the end-of-the-year deadline would be transferred to the state’s unemployment trust fund instead of returning it to the federal government.

Historically, some of the state’s workforce programs have reported meager results: one nonprofit engaged by Human Services in part to “increase employability” among the lowest-income residents received $30 million in welfare funds and reported helping 94 people complete a resume and 72 people fill out job applications in the same time frame. Employment security reported serving 1,297 people with job training through its partners, mostly community colleges, in its 2018 annual report — a significant reduction from previous years. It stopped reporting the metric in newer reports.

Sloppy and non-standardized reporting may be to blame for some of the obscurity surrounding workforce development outcomes across the state — despite the fact that the state has spent millions creating and maintaining a system called the Statewide Longitudinal Database System housed at the National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center (NSPARC) at Mississippi State University to track just that.

The Mississippi Department of Employment Security — whose slogan is “Helping Mississippians Get Jobs” — spends about $27 million each year in federal workforce development funds in conjunction with its Workforce Opportunity and Investment Act plan to the U.S. Department of Labor, which requires quarterly performance reporting. But it cannot quantify how many people actually got a job with their help.

Department leaders told Mississippi Today last year that as technology has advanced — such as the Mississippi Works phone app, the mobile version of a job search engine that has existed for years — the agency stopped capturing data to show the total number of people it placed into employment. Annual reports show the number has only dropped — from 36,000 people in 2013 before the app launched to 23,000 in 2018. After Mississippi Today’s inquiry, it stopped reporting the metric in its annual reports.

The maze of workforce development services in Mississippi is so cumbersome, even to the state’s top specialists, that advocates question how vulnerable workers are supposed to navigate the system.

“In one way, it sounds like we have this plethora of educational and training opportunities for people,” said Carol Burnett, director of the Mississippi Low Income Child Care Initiative and Moore Community House, which operates the Women In Construction Program on the coast. “And on the other hand, it’s so daunting and confusing and your average person doesn’t know what’s out there, or what the entry points are, or what the various eligibility requirements are. It just seems like it’s incredibly confusing.”

The post What is Mississippi getting for $350 million a year in workforce development? Leaders vow to find out. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Mike Espy, a Democrat running for U.S. Senate this November, has raised $1 million since Friday.

Democrat Mike Espy, who is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in November, said Tuesday morning his campaign has raised $1 million since Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death on Friday.

“Since Friday, September 18, Mike Espy has raised five times more than Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith did during the entire second quarter,” Espy’s campaign said in a press release. “Last quarter, Espy for Senate outraised Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith three-to-one.”

Democratic donors nationwide have been pouring money into Senate races since Ginsburg’s death and ensuing debate over whether Republican President Donald Trump should quickly name a replacement for the iconic liberal judge or wait until after the presidential election.

Both Hyde-Smith and Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi have sided with Trump, saying a replacement for Ginsburg should be nominated post-haste and ratified by the Senate before the election.

READ MORE: Wicker, Hyde-Smith want to consider Trump’s Supreme Court nominee in 2020

Mississippi’s Senate race this year has not been considered competitive by most pundits, with Republican incumbent Hyde-Smith expected to easily win reelection in one of the reddest states in the country.

But one poll released this week showed Hyde-Smith with only a one-point lead and the Espy campaign said it has “momentum,” as evidenced by its historic fundraising levels and other polls showing he is closing the gap with Hyde-Smith. The campaign said that over 23,000 first-time donors to the campaign since Friday made an average donation of $23.

READ MORE: Democrat Mike Espy within 1% of GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, new poll shows

While a fundraising advantage doesn’t translate to votes, an influx of cash 42 days from Election Day could loom large for Espy, who has acknowledged his need to reach more Mississippi voters during the COVID-19 pandemic and has largely been ignored by national Democrats.

Hyde-Smith, meanwhile, has struggled raising cash this cycle. Among incumbent senators, Hyde-Smith has raised less than 96 incumbent senators, including Mississippi Sen. Roger Wicker, who doesn’t face another election until 2024. The three Senate incumbents who raised less than Hyde-Smith have announced they will not seek re-election.

“It’s more clear than ever that people are tired of Senator Hyde-Smith’s record of hurting this state and holding it back,” Espy’s campaign manager Joe O’Hern said. “Mississippians are looking for an independent leader who is standing up for them — not a Senator who has hidden from them during a pandemic and the crushing economic crisis.”

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