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U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, right, and Democrat Mike Espy shake hands following their televised Senate debate on Nov. 20, 2018. Hyde-Smith has not accepted debate invitations in 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is one of just nine incumbent U.S. senators running for re-election this year who has not agreed to debate their opponent.

Hyde-Smith, who faces a challenge from former Democratic congressman Mike Espy, is among 31 incumbents running for re-election in 2020. Espy has accepted two debate invitations and has publicly chastised Hyde-Smith for not doing the same.

Hyde-Smith’s campaign has said she has been busy doing her job as senator and hasn’t had time to schedule a debate and said Espy is trying to make political hay.

The Hyde-Smith campaign did not respond to a request for comment for this article.

“Corrupt Mike Espy is desperate to attract any attention he can get for his failing campaign,” the Hyde-Smith campaign said to WJTV in September. “He was too corrupt for the Clinton Administration and is too liberal for Mississippi. Voters in our state know we have a bright future with Cindy Hyde-Smith and have no desire to revisit Mike Espy’s past scandals.”

Mississippi politicos have surmised that Hyde-Smith — prone to gaffes on the public campaign trail — believes she has a substantial lead in the race, can ride President Donald Trump’s coattails with voters, and is otherwise laying low and trying not to give Espy’s campaign any platform.

Most of the eight other incumbent U.S. senators who have not agreed to debate face little-known, little-financed, or third party challengers. For example, Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas faces just one challenger, a libertarian. Democratic Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island faces a Republican challenger whose own state party rescinded its endorsement after reports emerged that he allegedly had been involved in a domestic disturbance in 2019.

In 2018, Hyde-Smith and Espy debated when they were vying in a special election to replace longtime Sen. Thad Cochran, who resigned for health reasons. Hyde-Smith was appointed by then-Gov. Phil Bryant to replace Cochran in the interim before the special election. She is now vying for a full six-year term, and Espy, who captured more than 46% of the vote in 2018, is challenging her again.

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

Gov. Tate Reeves

A Hinds County Chancery Court judge has ruled that Gov. Tate Reeves’ partial veto of a COVID-19 relief bill was unconstitutional, siding with House Speaker Philip Gunn and Speaker Pro Tem Jason White, who sued over the veto in August.

Reeves said he vetoed “questionable spending” earmarks by the Legislature in the bill and said it was an attempt to “funnel money to friends with zero accountability,” and a power grab by the Legislature. Gunn said Reeves was overstepping his constitutional authority and that the Legislature has authority over spending, not the governor.

Reeves said the case will be appealed to the state Supreme Court.

“One Hinds County judge was never going to decide this,” said Parker Briden, a spokesman for Reeves. “The Supreme Court will have to decide the central question of whether spending millions on pet projects is an appropriation or a ‘condition’ on an appropriation.

“The Constitution provides a check on their (legislators’) ability to dole out money to special projects. We hope the Supreme Court will recognize that check is necessary, guaranteed by the Constitution, and should not be eliminated. We continue to maintain that someone has to hold the speaker and his crew accountable if they attempt to wrongly funnel money to favored entities.”

Hinds County Chancellor Tiffany Grove in her decision filed Monday said, “… according to the Mississippi Constitution of 1890 and almost years of case law interpreting our state Constitution, Gov. Reeves’ partial veto was unconstitutional.”

Reeves vetoed $2 million lawmakers directed to the shuttered North Oak Regional Medical Center in Senatobia and $6 million earmarked to the MAGnet Community Health Center to study and try to address health disparities, such as combating the high impact COVID-19 has inflicted on the African American community. The spending was part of a $130 million bill directing Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act money to Mississippi health care and hospitals.

Grove said based on other Supreme Court decisions, the partial veto authority granted to the governor by the state Constitution only could be used to veto a a total sum of money within an appropriations bill and not the conditions on how the money was being spent.

The Legislature appropriated $91.9 million to the Mississippi Department of Health to provide funds to hospitals and other health care providers for their COVID-19 relief efforts. Reeves, the chancellor concluded, did not have the authority to veto the appropriation to some of those health care providers while concurring in providing funds to the other health care providers. She said the governor was trying to veto the conditions of how the money was being spent and multiple past rulings made it clear the governor could not veto conditions of appropriations bills.

Grove’s ruling said the bill should now be considered passed in its entirety, though it is not clear whether the health care providers that were the subjects of the partial vetoes would have time to spend the money appropriated by the Legislature. Federal law mandates states spend the money they received from the CARES Act by the end of December. And it is not clear whether the spending authority would be postponed by an appeal to the Supreme Court.

Senate Public Health Chair Hob Bryan, D-Amory, said the legislation that was approved in July had a provision that allowed the Tate County hospital in Senatobia to receive the funds only if there was an agreement before Oct 1 to reopen the hospital. Bryan said the fact that Reeves vetoed the appropriation to the Tate County hospital might have made it more difficult to craft that agreement to reopen the hospital.

Bryan said the veto was “a 100% spiteful action” by the governor.

Gunn and other members of the House leadership could not be immediately reached for comment.

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Sergio Garcia holds the Sanderson Farms Championship trophy after winning the PGA golf tournament in Jackson, Miss., Sunday, Oct. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

With the sun beginning to set over the clubhouse at Country Club of Jackson Sunday, Sergio Garcia closed his eyes. You should know he did not close his eyes to make a wish. No, he closed his eyes to make a 30-inch putt — a million dollar putt, a winning putt on the 72^nd hole of the 53^rd Sanderson Farms Championship.

And, with eyes closed, he made it. Garcia, a 40-year-old Spaniard, thus becomes the most accomplished winner in the history of Mississippi’s tournament on the PGA Tour. This wasn’t a first-time winner. This wasn’t somebody you wouldn’t recognize without reading his name on his golf bag. This was Sergio Garcia, El Nino himself, winner of The Masters in 2017, winner of 35 other professional tournaments around the globe and many times a Ryder Cup hero.

Widely considered one of the best ball strikers in the game, Garcia regularly booms his seemingly sky-high drives 330 yards or more. He is also one of golf’s most accurate iron players. No telling how many major tournaments he would have won by now if not for his Achilles’ heel, his putter.

Rick Cleveland

Garcia has tried to putt conventionally. He has tried to putt cross-handed. He has tried looking at the hole instead of the ball. He has tried the claw grip and just about every make and model of putter that exists.

Lately — and here at his first visit to Jackson — he has simply closed his eyes. He’d take a few practice strokes with his eyes open. He’d then take his stance, stare at the hole and presumably his putting line a couple seconds, then close his eyes and make his stroke. He did it on long putts and short putts.

“Every putt,” he said.

As soon as putter struck ball, he opened his eyes — and often watched the ball go into the cup. It went there often enough for him to close with a final round of five-under-par 67, and a 72 hole total of 19-under 269, one shot better than 2015 Sanderson Farms winner Peter Malnati, who closed with a spectacular 63, his best career round.

This is not to say Garcia had a spectacular day or tournament on the pristine greens at CCJ. He missed some make-able putts, three-putted once, missed some short ones. This is to say that Garcia doesn’t have to putt all that well to win because he hits the ball so phenomenally well.

“When I’m feeling it, I don’t feel like I have to putt well to have a chance to win,” Garcia said. “I feel like I can win with an average or just above average putting week.”

To see it is to believe it. You should have seen the soaring 340-yard drive he hit over tall pine and oak trees to the center of the fairway on the par-4 sixth hole. You should have seen the the 260-yard 5-wood second shot he hit to within three feet of the hole on the par-5 14^th hole. That shot resulted in an eagle-3 that brought him even with Malnati.

With pars on the next three holes, Garcia came to the 18^th hole, a monster of a 486-yard par-4. That’s when El Nino showed ball-striking at its finest. First he clubbed a 314-yard drive against the breeze to the left side of the fairway. Then, he hit a 172-yard 8-iron that looked for all the world like it might land in the hole. It almost did, leaving him a 30-inch putt for the victory.

On a normal Sunday in the fourth round of a PGA Tournament, such a shot would have brought roars from the gallery. Not this time. There was a smattering of applause from volunteers for what was surely one of the greatest pressure shots in the history of the tournament.

Because of COVID-19, there were no luxury suites surrounding the 18^th green, no bleachers, no fans — this despite perfect weather for four straight days. And that seemed such a shame for a tournament that has has battled weather of all types: storms, floods, hurricanes, tornados, stifling heat and you name it for much of its history. Here Sunday, we had the best players in tournament history playing in the best weather in tournament history, and fans could not watch.

Garcia, better than most, understands why such precautions were taken. Afterward, his eyes moistening, Garcia dedicated the victory — his first in more than a year — to his father and his family.

“Unfortunately, my father has a lot of family in Madrid,” Garcia said. “He is one of nine siblings, and unfortunately we lost two of his brothers to COVID, one at the beginning, Uncle Paco, and one just last Saturday, Uncle Angel.

“You know, it’s sad, it’s sad. And I know a lot of families have lost a lot more people, but you never want to lose anyone like that, and I wanted to win this for them.”

And that he did. Now, he’s just a month away from The Masters. We’d be fools to count him out.

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Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today, Report For America

President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at BancorpSouth Arena in Tupelo, Miss., Friday, November 1, 2019.

Lawmakers were stunned to recently learn from Mississippi Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell that the state has the highest homicide rate in the nation.

Included in the information Tindell presented to legislative leaders last week as part of his budget request for the upcoming fiscal year were statistics detailing that the state’s homicide rate had increased 41% during the past five years and was currently the highest rate in the nation.

“It is expected that there will be over 500 homicides in the state for 2020,” the DPS document read.

“What in the world is going on?” asked House Ways and Means Chair Rep. Trey Lamar, R-Senatobia.

No doubt, such information conflicts with much of the current political rhetoric from Republicans and President Donald Trump’s constant refrain that most of the crime in the nation is occurring in blue states and cities.

“The places we have trouble were in Democratic-run cities and states,” Trump said during last week’s contentious presidential debate. “I think it is a party issue,” Trump later said, referring to what is a rising crime rate in some areas, though it should be pointed out that the crime rate is still much lower than its peak in the 1990s.

Even Gov. Tate Reeves, who, based on these statistics, governs the most dangerous state in America, is fond of parroting the president on this issue.

In mid-August, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot cited what she said was a steady supply of guns coming from Mississippi, where gun laws are lax. Reeves shot back on social media, saying, “It’s a pathetic excuse for the failure of left-wing experiments in undermining police and letting criminals run free.”

No doubt, Chicago has a crime problem. It is discussed just about every day by the president and his supporters. But Mississippi also has a crime problem and has had one for years.

According to 2018 data from the National Center for Health Statistics, Mississippi led the nation in terms of the number of homicides per 100,000 residents at 13.4. Seven of the top 10 states in 2018 in terms of highest homicide rates were — sorry to President Trump and Gov. Reeves — red states. The top five were Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri and New Mexico. New Mexico would be considered the only blue state in that group.

Illinois, home of the notoriously violent Chicago, came in at number 10. Among the 10 with the lowest murder rates, based on the 2018 numbers, are four red states. Oregon, home of Portland, another city often criticized by the president, had the 10th-lowest rate, and New York had the 15th-lowest rate.

Granted, most crime is committed in urban areas where there are denser populations. And most large American cities, though not all, are run by Democrats.

But is it fair to place all the blame for crime on local officials — Democrats or Republicans? Most experts on crime cite poverty, lack of opportunity and various other environmental and social factors for crime problems. Most of those issues require help from the state and federal government to solve.

And according to the National Center for Health Statistics, Mississippi also led the nation in 2018 in the number of gun deaths, and most of the other states at the top of that list were Southern states that generally have the most lax gun laws.

When legislative leaders asked Tindell about the high homicide rate in Mississippi, he cited the breakdown in the family where people “are coming up in a world where the taking of a human live does not mean anything to them.”

Sen. John Horhn, D-Jackson, asked Tindell if he would ensure that the Department of Public Safety, which includes the state Bureau of Narcotics and Bureau of Investigations, would work with Jackson and Hinds County in an effort to reduce the murder rate and to reduce other violent crimes in the capital city area.

Tindell said his agency would try to expand those efforts.

Jackson, no doubt, the state’s largest city, is responsible for much of that Mississippi murder rate and it is run by Democratic officials. Horhn, who serves on a state Department of Health task force dealing with the issue of violent deaths, said Hinds County is the “epicenter” in the state for murders, while Harrison County on the Coast is the epicenter for suicides.

He argued murder, like suicide, should be considered in many instances a mental health issue.

“It is very difficult,” Horhn said. “There are socioeconomic issues, a lack of opportunity, a lack of resources” that contribute to crime.

Solving the issue might require a little less political rhetoric and more working together across the aisle on the local, state and federal levels.

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National Democratic leaders and outside groups are perking up to the possibility of a Mike Espy win and a Senate seat flip in one of the reddest states. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

As the national Democratic Party apparatus pumped manpower and money into U.S. Senate races across the country earlier this cycle, Mississippi candidate Mike Espy lamented his campaign was overlooked and neglected, even as he appeared to gain momentum in his challenge of incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Espy likened his campaign to Mississippi being the unnamed “land mass” in national media hurricane coverage, and said, “They don’t think a Black man in Mississippi can win.”

But all that changed dramatically the past two weeks, as record amounts of money pour into Espy’s campaign in the final stretch before Nov. 3, and the scant polling of the race shows him closing the gap with Hyde-Smith, including a recent one that showed him within just 1 point of the Republican incumbent.

National party leaders and outside groups are perking up to the possibility of a Senate seat flip in one of the reddest states.

“Now the help is coming, and the difference now is, it’s coming in time,” Espy told Mississippi Today this week. “They see it now. Mississippi is just now getting on the radar.”

Espy keeps smashing campaign fundraising records for Democratic statewide candidates. On Thursday alone, he raised more than $700,000. In just the first 48 hours of October, Espy raised $1.35 million, according to a source close to the campaign. For reference, that two-day collection is more than Hyde-Smith had in the bank at the end of June, the most recent report.

James Carville, the veteran Democratic strategist to President Bill Clinton, told Mississippi Today that when he told people earlier this cycle that Espy has a shot at winning, “people’s eyes kind of glazed over.”

“But I think there is increasing interest in the Mississippi Senate race,” said Carville, who spends a good deal of time in Mississippi and has a home in Bay St. Louis. “I think the signals traffic has increased … Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Tennessee — of all those hard-red states, Mississippi is one of the best chances of turning one blue. People are starting to wake up to it.”

Espy said he had a lengthy phone call with Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez on Wednesday, and within a couple of hours, “they had me on a national DNC fundraiser conference call, where I spoke to 1,000 people. It was the only race they focused on with the call.”

Espy has financially benefitted from a galvanized Democratic base since the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Sept. 18. He said this week that his campaign, since Ginsburg’s death, has been averaging about $156,000 a day in donations. That effort was bolstered after Espy’s candidacy was added to a fundraising website entitled Get Mitch or Die Trying, which is run by hosts of Pod Save America, a popular liberal podcast hosted by former Obama administration staffers.

Espy said the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee still hasn’t given his race the support it has others, but it appears to be coming around, providing some field, polling and organizational help and giving the maximum direct donation to the campaign of $49,000. Last week, the DSCC organized a phone bank for the campaign.

“The momentum is with Mike’s campaign because Mississippians want an independent leader who will stand up for them, and voters see the clear choice between his leadership and Sen. Hyde-Smith’s failed record,” said DSCC spokeswoman Helen Kalla. “We were proud to be on Team Mike early, and are excited for it to continue to grow.”

U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a powerful veteran congressman and Mississippi’s lone Democrat in Washington, said he has pushed for national party help for Espy.

“Just as I did two years ago, I have shared my support with Sen. (Minority Leader) Schumer and others for Mike Espy’s candidacy,” Thompson said. “I made sure that the (Congressional Black Caucus PAC) endorsed him. I think it is just a matter of time, given what the recent polls are saying, that the DSCC will also be more financially supportive than they’ve already been.”

Also last week, Espy received an endorsement from Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. And The Lincoln Project, a super PAC formed by Republicans opposed to President Trump, pledged to make a large ad buy in Mississippi to help Espy and oppose Hyde-Smith.

Espy said he’s happy for the recent support, but he hasn’t been waiting on it. He said he’s continued to build his campaign and messaging to voters since his unsuccessful challenge to Hyde-Smith in a 2018 special election. In lieu of the national party helping build a Democratic infrastructure in Mississippi, Espy said, his campaign has.

Espy said the national Democratic Party’s lack of interest in Mississippi in recent years has been self-fulfilling prophecy.

“They’ve been doing it so long because they’ve been doing it so long,” Espy said. “There is less polling here because there is less polling. You’re ignored here until you prove your own viability, but it’s hard to prove your viability if you’re ignored … In Mississippi we have a legacy of disinvestment. If the national party, the DSCC, had been putting in $5 million, or $10 million in off years, we’d have a competitive party now — the best data, an army of door knockers. But the Mike Espy campaign has built it since 2018 because we had no choice.”

Espy said that fundraising for a Democratic campaign in Mississippi without national help is difficult because many of the people the party seeks to represent have little means.

In his 2018 challenge of Hyde-Smith, Espy’s campaign saw an influx of national cash and help, but it came late, during a runoff after Hyde-Smith made comments about a public hanging and voter suppression that garnered national criticism. Espy had raised about $2 million prior, then about $4 million “gushed like water out of a fire hose,” Espy said, and the campaign had to pump it into television advertising “when it should have been put in the field.”

“Now we are getting an influx of money, and we know where to put it, know where it goes down to which precincts and where to knock doors,” Espy said. “We have the knowledge and data we’ve built since the last race.” Espy said his campaign infrastructure was able to help several Democratic Mississippi legislative candidates win last year.

Carville said, “In politics, a week is a year — five weeks is like five years,” and that Espy should have time to put increased money and support to work. “This race might have been on the back-burner nationally, but Mike has been moving forward.”

Newly elected state Democratic Party Chairman Tyree Irving said that from ground level in Mississippi, “Espy has been picking up steam based on the calls I’ve gotten here at party headquarters.” Irving said that anecdotally, he’s seeing growing support for Espy, and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, among women.

“Primarily from white females,” Irving said, “who have an anxiousness about themselves. Trump has spooked a lot of people, and made a lot of folks start asking us what they can do to help.”

Of growing support from women voters, Espy said “it’s more than anecdotal” and his campaign’s internal polling has shown it. He said his platform on improving healthcare, education and economic opportunity is resonating.

Irving said he’s told national Democratic leaders, “Look, there’s an energy here. Mississippi Democrats want to be part of the process, and we hear an urgency in people’s voices … There are a lot of people who believe Trump is still likely to win the state, but firmly believe it is possible to snatch the Senate race away from Republicans.

“There is an energy out there for him. There really is.”

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