Democratic U.S. Senate challenger Mike Espy greets a supporter while canvassing the Valley North subdivision on Oct. 23 in Jackson.
VICKSBURG — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy, facing long odds in defeating incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, was recently reminded during a campaign stop in Warren County that he had overcome long political odds before.
During a weekend rally in the parking lot of the Greater Grove Missionary Baptist Church, Vicksburg Mayor George Flaggs recalled how a Jackson television station had first reported on election night in 1986 that Espy had been defeated in what was his history-making campaign to become the state’s first African American U.S. House member since Reconstruction.
“But Warren County had not been voted, had not been counted,” Flaggs said. “(The television reporter) had to apologize” after Espy received enough votes in Warren County to carry him to victory against three-term Republican incumbent Webb Franklin.
Of the reversal, Espy told the crowd assembled outside the church, “I’m not saying God is a Democrat or a Republican, but God is good.”
Flaggs intermittently led the crowd in chants of “Go vote,” before adding, “We can do this. Let nothing stop you on Nov. 3.”
While an African American has won the 2nd District U.S. House seat every election since Espy first won it, there was skepticism in 1986 about whether a Black Mississippian could win a seat in Congress. Time and again, past candidates had come up short. Espy faces the same skepticism as he attempts to become the first Black Mississippian elected to statewide office as a U.S. senator.
But on the cool and overcast day where light mist was still occasionally falling, a small but enthusiastic crowd of about 75 showed up in the church parking lot wearing masks and socially distancing to hear from Espy. They believe Espy can make history again.
“I love Mike Espy,” said Lily Fae Pierre of Hinds County, who came out for the rally and was a vocal cheerleader as Espy spoke. “It is time for Mississippi to prove it is not so backward.”
Espy will begin a bus tour of the state on Wednesday, starting at 9 a.m. at the auditorium of the Boys and Girls Club in his hometown of Yazoo City. It is scheduled to end Sunday afternoon. Hyde-Smith also reportedly plans a campaign bus tour of the state this week, but information on the event was not immediately available.
Before speaking to the crowd this past weekend in Vicksburg, Espy did a live segment on MSNBC from the church. His segment was cut short because of a rally by Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Espy was still able to appear briefly on the national cable news network between a speech by Biden’s wife, Jill, and Joe Biden. The short interview resulted in campaign contributions of more than $125,000 from across the nation before Biden left Vicksburg Saturday.
While Espy was campaigning over the weekend, incumbent Hyde-Smith was in Washington, D.C., as she and her Republican colleagues prepared to vote to confirm Amy Coney Barrett to a seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. Hyde-Smith, who returned to Mississippi after Monday’s vote to confirm Coney Barrett, is one of the few incumbent U.S. senators up for re-election this year who chose not to debate her opponent.
“That is not disrespecting me. It is disrespecting you,” Espy told the crowd.
While Hyde-Smith might not be debating Espy, she recently made sure Mississippians remembered that just as Espy has broken down racial barriers, she has done the same in terms of gender.
“First woman to be elected state senator in my district, first woman to chair the Mississippi Senate Ag Committee, first woman to be elected Mississippi Ag commissioner, first woman to be elected to Congress from Mississippi,” she recently tweeted. “I’ll never stop working to move Mississippi forward.”
Meanwhile in Vicksburg, Espy looked back on his bouts of asthma in the 1950s growing up in segregated Yazoo City with the death from an asthma attack in 2019 of Houston resident Shysteria “Shy” Sharder Shoemaker. She was transported first to the hospital in Houston to receive treatment only to learn that the emergency room had been closed. Shoemaker died before she received the treatment she needed in another northeast Mississippi town.
In the 1950s, Espy was rushed to the hospital for Black Mississippians in Yazoo County because of an asthma attack. He was near death because the hospital, started by his grandfather in the 1920s, was out of oxygen canisters. But his father rushed to the white hospital in town and successfully pleaded for an oxygen canister. Espy said that effort by his father saved his life.
Espy went on to tell the crowd that a Black child in Yazoo City had access to better emergency room care in the 1950s than many Mississippians — of all races — do today because of the closure of rural hospitals. He said expanding Medicaid to provide coverage to Mississippians who work in low paying jobs where health insurance is not provided would help to solve the problem by providing a source of revenue for rural hospitals.
Espy cited past U.S. senators from Mississippi for their area of expertise. He said in the 1960s-70s, James Eastland was known for his influence of federal judicial appointments, while during the same time period John Stennis was known for his efforts to site Ingalls Shipbuilding on the Gulf Coast. Later, Thad Cochran was known for his efforts to improve agriculture in the state.
“I want to be the father of Medicaid expansion in Mississippi,” Espy told the crowd.
Our answers to frequently asked questions from our readers
By Mississippi Today Staff | Oct. 28, 2020
We want to make sure Mississippians have everything they need to be better informed at the polls. That’s why we created our 2020 Voter Guide. We also want to help answer any questions you have as Election Day nears. Below, find our Voting in Mississippi FAQ, which responds directly to questions from our readers. Still have a question? Ask us here. We’ll do our best to provide an answer before Election Day.
Will we be contacted if there is a problem with our absentee ballots?
Mississippians who vote by mail will be notified of problems with their ballots and given an opportunity to correct them. Voters must receive correspondence from election officials about problems with the signature verification on the absentee ballot, and the voter will have 10 days to correct it. The voter should be provided an “absentee cure form” to correct the problem. Read more about this rule here.
Is it safe to vote in person during the COVID-19 pandemic?
Voting in person can be done safely, according to numerous public health officials, though there is a slight risk. Most experts compare the risk to grocery shopping — tight, often-crowded spaces without a lot of airflow. Their assessment, though, factors in widespread masking. Learn more here.
How do I vote for or against medical marijuana?
Mississippi voters will be asked on Tuesday, Nov. 3, whether they want to legalize medical marijuana in the state. But voting on the issue will be complicated thanks to a legislative addition to an otherwise simple question on the ballot. Here’s how to vote for or against medical marijuana.
How can I track my absentee ballot?
The only thing early voters can do to ensure their ballot has been received is call their local circuit clerk. You can find your circuit clerk here.
Pivotal elections. Limited early voting. A pandemic entering a deadly new wave.
On Election Day, our reporters will be on the ground across Mississippi acting on tips from voters and reporting on any problems at the polls, be it long lines, public health concerns, voter suppression or intimidation and more. Your questions and tips are crucial to helping our team monitor the election process and inform our coverage of this election.
Mississippi voters are on the brink of an historic Election Day on Nov. 3, amid the century’s worst crisis yet. You’re the key to the balance of power in Washington. You’ll decide the fate of a medical marijuana initiative, a new state flag, and a Jim Crow era constitutional provision.
Voters are ready. But what about local election officials? Can the Magnolia State pull off an election of this magnitude without putting voters at risk of infection? What about ballot security? Will you feel secure enough to mask up, line up and make your vote count?
For Mississippi voters still planning to vote absentee or head to the polls in person on Election Day, Mississippi Today wants to make sure we provide the most up-to-date information and resources.
As Mississippi’s first nonprofit news organization, we’ve dedicated our efforts to reporting extensively on the issues most important to Mississippi.
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View our Election FAQ for answers to frequently asked questions from our readers. The FAQ is a living post and will continue to be updated.
You can also find a complete guide to voting in Mississippi, including polling locations, what’s on the ballot and where candidates stand on the issues, within our 2020 Voter Guide.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith arrives for the Senate Republican luncheon in Hart Building on June 4, 2020. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
WASHINGTON — After her closer-than-expected victory over Democrat Mike Espy in a 2018 special election runoff, Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s political advisors repeatedly recommended she embark on what would amount to an apology tour to publicly and privately rehab her image.
The idea, according to a source active in Mississippi Republican politicswho asked for anonymity in order to speak candidly about the campaign, was that she visit every major media market in the state and subject herself to a sit-down interview. Her advisors wanted her to clear the air about a jarring comment she made at a November 2018 campaign event in Tupelo, when she praised a local cattle rancher by saying, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”
The comment — made by an appointed U.S. senator who represented the Blackest state in the nation, a state where more people were lynched than any other in the nation — garnered national headlines and nearly tanked her campaign. High-profile donors fled from Hyde-Smith, and several international corporations publicly demanded she return previous contributions.
The proposed rehab tour also meant doing some discreet behind-closed-doors clean-up work: Smoothing over her relationships with major corporate financial supporters, like Walmart, Pfizer, Leidos, Google, and Facebook — all companies that asked for tens of thousands of dollars combined in campaign donations back.
The recommendations from her advisors, like the refund requests from her donors, went ignored, the source said. Now two years later, those donors have not returned to the senator, who in turn has posted a historically poor fundraising performance in a 2020 U.S. Senate rematch with Espy, a high-profile and well-funded Democratic challenger.
Defenders of Hyde-Smith, whose campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment for this article, say her atrocious fundraising means little, and that a Republican will never lose in Mississippi, especially with President Donald Trump on the ballot.
Yet others acknowledge privately that the race is much closer than it should be, and it is precisely because Hyde-Smith has not put behind her the national controversy that erupted after her 2018 comments about being front and center at a “public hanging.”
“She is sort of sleepwalking through this campaign,” said Stuart Stevens, a Mississippi native who managed Republican Mitt Romney’s 2012 presidential campaign, is a senior adviser to the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, and is supporting Espy. “An incumbent senator can raise a lot of money if they want to. This is just a case where she doesn’t want to and isn’t investing the time to do it. I don’t think it’s complicated, I just don’t think she’s putting in the work.”
Historically low fundraising
Vickie D. King/Mississippi Today
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith speaks to supporters during an Oct. 7 event hosted by the Madison County Republican Women, the Rankin County Republican Women and the Hinds County Republican Women.
Whether the reason is inattentiveness to her donors or ostracization from the Washington donor class, the numbers themselves are indisputable: Hyde-Smith is one of the worst incumbent senatorial fundraisers in modern history.
Hyde-Smith’s campaign has raised less than $3 million through the beginning of October, which amounts to less money raised during the 2020 campaign cycle than any sitting U.S. senator who isn’t retiring. The only senators who raised less have one foot out the door: Retiring Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, Mike Enzi, R-Wyoming, Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, and Tom Udall, D-New Mexico.
One would have to travel back to the 1990s to find an incumbent senator who was in an even semi-competitive race who raised such a small amount of money, with the possible exception of Sen. John Walsh, D-Montana, who was appointed to the Senate in February 2014 but dropped out of that race after the Army War College revoked his Master’s degree following a plagiarism controversy. He had raised about as much money in his six months of campaigning as Hyde-Smith has raised through October of this year.
Though the companies that rebuked Hyde-Smith in 2018 have not made the same public displays of their disdain for her this year, their absence from her fundraising ledger is striking. So is the absence of key donors who kept quiet during the controversy, but have spoken out about racial justice since, particularly after the killing of George Floyd, according to a Mississippi Today analysis of Hyde-Smith’s campaign fundraising records filed with the Federal Election Commission.
The lack of investment from those companies is made even more conspicuous by the fact that they have hardly turned off the cash spigot to other candidates. Though none of the corporations who initially supported but then publicly denounced Hyde-Smith in 2018 took the extraordinary step of backing Espy over the sitting senator who is still considered the favorite, they have continued to infuse the state with political money elsewhere.
For instance, Walmart’s political action committee gave $4,000 to Hyde-Smith’s campaign in 2018, but hasn’t given a cent to her since the company replied to a tweet by actress Debra Messing that Hyde-Smith’s 2018 comments “do not reflect the values of our company and associates.”
Meanwhile, the mega-corporation’s PAC has donated to several other candidates in Mississippi this cycle. That includes $5,000 to the only Democratic congressman in the state, Rep. Bennie Thompson; $5,000 to Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, who is not up for reelection until 2023; and, even though he’s not up for reelection until 2024, a few thousand to Sen. Roger Wicker’s political action committee, Responsibility and Freedom Work PAC, or RFW PAC.
Walmart, the largest private employer in Mississippi, gave more money to a slew of local candidates ranging from Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Attorney General Lynn Fitch to several state senators and representatives including Sen. Walter Michel, a Republican, and Democrats such as Sen. Angela Turner-Ford and Rep. Abe Marshall Hudson Jr.
The same goes for scientific research company Leidos, which gave the maximum donation of $10,000 to Hyde-Smith in 2018, before calling Hyde-Smith’s comments “offensive and an affront to everything we stand for as a company.” Leidos, which has a major research and development hub on the Gulf Coast, has not given to her this year, however it has given thousands of dollars through its PAC to every other Mississippian in Congress this election cycle. Wicker took in $2,000 to his campaign committee designated for his 2024 primary and another $2,500 for his PAC. The company gave $10,000 to GOP Reps. Steven Palazzo and Trent Kelly as well as Thompson, and another $5,000 to Palazzo’s Patriot Political Action Committee.
Union Pacific also maxxed out to Hyde-Smith in 2018, but gave zilch for her 2020 reelection race. They gave $10,000 to Wicker’s PAC instead. The railroad company also gave $5,000 to Thompson and smaller amounts to Palazzo and Kelly.
Telecommunications giant AT&T gave $5,000 to Hyde-Smith last time, but has sat on the sidelines during this race. They gave the maximum $10,000 donation to Wicker’s PAC this year, and another $5,000 to his campaign committee.
The PAC representing the global professional services firm Ernst & Young gave the maximum donation to Hyde-Smith in 2018, but nothing this year. They gave the maximum to Palazzo this year and also donated to GOP Rep. Michael Guest and Thompson.
The pharmaceutical giant Pfizer also donated nothing to Hyde-Smith this year after having given $5,000 last time. Same goes for biotechnology company Amgen, which gave a few thousand last year. Both companies donated to Thompson this year, but have not donated to any other candidates in the state.
Facebook asked for its $2,500 PAC donation back from Hyde-Smith in 2018. This year it has only given $2,500 to Wicker’s campaign committee. Google’s PAC gave Hyde-Smith $5,000 last cycle. This year it has only donated to Wicker and Thompson. Major League Baseball’s PAC gave $5,000 to Hyde-Smith in 2018 and the manufacturer Boston Scientific gave $2,500. This year, neither company has donated to any candidates in Mississippi.
Individual donors also stopped giving
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/Report For America
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, center, and other politicians gather in the state Capitol in Jackson, Miss., for the late Sen. Thad Cochran’s funeral service on June 3, 2019.
Marvin P. King, Jr., a political science professor at the University of Mississippi, agreed that her 2018 comment is still casting a long shadow — along with another controversy surrounding a photo she posted on Facebook in 2014 wearing a Confederate soldier’s hat and calling the Biloxi-based Jefferson Davis Home and Presidential Library, “Mississippi history at its best!”
Donations to Hyde-Smith may seem out of step with companies’ public statements in support of ending racial inequality in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. That killing reverberated so widely that it lent momentum in Mississippi to a push to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the state flag. Some of those companies were instrumental in pushing the state Legislature to finally make a change, like Walmart, which announced it would stop selling Mississippi-flag branded merchandise under pressure from their consumers and stockholders.
The companies “might be trying to make a point, and I’m sure she will receive that point loud and clear,” King said. “They asked for their money back, she didn’t give the money back. But then this time around, some of those big companies are like, ‘All right, money that we would have given to Cindy Hyde-Smith, we’re going to give to another campaign this year.’”
Other high-profile individual donors who emptied their pockets to Hyde-Smith in 2018 have not given again this year, despite not having disavowed Hyde-Smith for her comments at the time, but having later expressed support for the movement to end racial inequality.
That includes John Hairston, the President and CEO of Gulfport-based Hancock Whitney bank, who has been a vocal proponent of changing the state flag. He gave the maximum allowable personal donation to Hyde-Smith in 2018, but has given nothing this year. He declined a request for comment through a spokesman.
The list also includes GOP mega-donor Steve Schwarzman, CEO of the Manhattan private equity firm, the Blackstone Group. He donated to Hyde-Smith in 2018, including a donation made just days after the “public hanging” comments became public.
But despite giving millions of dollars this cycle to other Republican candidates and political action committees, he has not donated to Hyde-Smith. In June, after the Floyd killing, Scwarzman put out a statement noting “zero tolerance for racism of any kind” at his firm. He did not respond to a request for comment through a company spokesman.
BGR Group, the lobbying and communications firm founded by former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, gave more than $7,000 through its PAC to Hyde-Smith last election. This year, the PAC has not donated to her, although Barbour himself has donated individually, as have several members of his politically active family.
But Barbour, in an interview, said that had nothing to do with her comments.
“It’s more because we haven’t been asked,” Barbour said. “I just don’t think they have pushed as hard to raise money.”
Will fundraising even matter?
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith smiles as she is congratulated by supporters after winning the Senate runoff election against Mike Espy on Nov. 27, 2018.
Ultimately it may be that simple: Perhaps Hyde-Smith’s team believes she’ll win the race no matter what, so fundraising isn’t a priority. Although Barbour acknowledged Espy is running an admirable race, he said he still thinks Hyde-Smith is a shoo-in because no amount of money could convince conservative Mississippi to elect a Democrat statewide.
That hasn’t stopped Espy from trying. He has outspent Hyde-Smith 5-to-1 in the state, outraised her 3-to-1 overall, and outraised her a stunning 45-to-1 during the final stretch, when he raised almost $4 million to her less than $85,000 over the first two weeks of October. At the end of the last FEC filing period, Hyde-Smith had less than $400,000 in the bank, while Espy had nearly $4 million.
Still, some of the fundraising shortfall might owe to the fact that national Republicans are playing defense in many more states than they were in 2018, when Hyde-Smith first beat Espy in a 2018 special election and then a runoff after she was appointed to the seat earlier that year following the retirement of longtime Sen. Thad Cochran. Put short, there is just less money to go around for the GOP.
In the Southeast alone, the party is trying to win back a seat in Alabama and is defending two competitive seats in Georgia, another in South Carolina and one more in North Carolina. That’s not to speak of the nailbiter races incumbent Republican senators are in danger of losing from Arizona to Maine.
On the other hand, the party just might not think Mississippi is a state it will ever lose. Hyde-Smith’s top funder in 2018 was the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which gave her close to $50,000 and spent upwards of $2 million in independent expenditures either supporting Hyde-Smith or slamming Espy. This year, the national party has not given her anything, and has only spent less than $3,000 on her behalf.
And Hyde-Smith has deliberately forgone events that could typically line a candidate’s pocket, like a debate, town halls or other campaign soirees. Although Trump endorsed her, he’s too busy campaigning in other must-win states to set foot in GOP-friendly Mississippi. Still, there are some signs Hyde-Smith is watching her back: The campaign has gone on the offensive over the last few weeks of the campaign, dropping advertisements tying Espy to national Democratic Party leaders.
Hyde-Smith also had the support of a well-funded Super PAC last year, not just defending her against Espy but attacking the other Republican, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, who ran in the four-way jungle primary that preceded the runoff.
The Mississippi Victory Fund alone raised close to half as much as Hyde-Smith has raised this cycle. Big donors included casino magnate and GOP mega-donor Steve Wynn, Boston Celtics part owner Rob Hale, Home Depot founder Bernard Marcus, and Facebook founder Sean Parker, who gave $250,000 alone. But this year, only a single donor who gave more than $25,000 to the Super PAC in 2018 has given any money to Hyde-Smith’s 2020 campaign: John Nau, CEO of the beer merchandiser, Silver Eagle Distributors.
Henry Barbour, Haley Barbour’s nephew and the Republican National Committee representative from Mississippi, helped manage the Super PAC. Though he personally donated to Hyde-Smith’s campaign this cycle, he said he decided there wasn’t much need for his fundraising services this time around. As for all the donors giving to Espy, he’s happy they’re taking a diversion in the South.
“I just really figured there’s no reason to even set up a Super PAC this time, you know. She should be fine,” he said. “I hate to tell all those liberal donors, but you know, they just wasted their money. They’re gonna lose. But I mean, I’d rather they spend it in Mississippi than Wisconsin or North Carolina or Pennsylvania.”
Daniel Newhauser is a freelance journalist based in Washington, D.C. His work has appeared in The Atlantic, The Daily Beast, National Journal, Politico, Roll Call, VICE News and several other publications. He can be found on Twitter @dnewhauser.
Co-organizers Maisie Brown (left), Calvert White (center) and Taylor Turnage (right) march during the Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Jackson, Miss., Saturday, June 6, 2020.
The place I call home
Mississippi is voting on a new state flag on Nov. 3. The previous flag, which flew for 126 years, contained the Confederate battle emblem.
A young activist who co-organized Jackson’s historic Black Lives Matter protest in June discusses, in her own words, what the possibility of change means to her.
These are all words describing the feelings of a beautiful Black girl growing up in Mississippi. As a state in the “land of the free and the home of the brave,” why is it that so many people, just like that beautiful Black girl, feel hostage in our own “home?” Why did a bright-eyed 5-year-old have to ask her why the white kids wouldn’t play with her in class? Why did an optimistic 11-year-old have to be sent home from school because her Bantu knots were too “distracting” for the other students in class? Why did she have to publicly be shamed for trying to feel some sort of connection to her native land? A native land that is more foreign to her than the soil that she now walks upon was to Christopher Columbus when he stumbled upon it in 1492? Why did a brilliant 16-year-old girl have to be more afraid than excited when receiving her driver’s license? Why did a resilient 23-year-old woman have to fear for her life on June 6, 2020, simply for standing up against more than 400 years of murder, rape, torture, lies, deceit, and “heritage” in a place that she is supposed to be able to call home?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the definition of home is “the social unit formed by a familyliving together.” Every day, I would wake up feeling refreshed and happy to smell the fresh Mississippi air that has a certain twang to it that I just can’t find anywhere else. I would think to myself, “Boy, am I proud to call this place home.”
Then, just as quickly as the sense of joy came, it vanished, being replaced by a feeling of disappointment. Disappointment because I had to remember that the same air that I had enjoyed, just moments ago, was the same air that was keeping a symbol of hate, prejudice, torture, and worst of all “heritage” alive. How can a place that made me into who I am as a young, unapologetic Black woman support and be represented by something that historically and currently goes against and despises everything that I am?
Passion. Purpose. Vision.
Passion and purpose. These two words are what drove me to want to push for change. Many people ask me how and why I got involved with planning the protest in June, and the truth is, I didn’t really have an answer until the night before it happened. As I sat down to write my speech for the following day, I could not find words to put on the paper. So what did I do? I closed my computer. I turned off everything and sat with myself for a moment. With the hustle and bustle of the week, I hadn’t had the time to sit down and reflect on the why. So after about twenty minutes, I opened up my computer and let my soul type. After about thirty minutes of typing I completed my speech. Although the words that were on that paper were written by me, when I read them I teared up because you never really know what is inside of you and what drives you until you sit back, let go, and let your soul do the speaking. This is where passion, purpose, and vision came from.
“Passion is what keeps you up at night, what gets you out of bed in the morning, and what brought you here today.”
These are words from my speech given at the protest. To me, my passion in this instance was the state flag. The anger that a symbol of hate represented this beautiful state is what kept me up at night. The drive to change the flag is what woke me up in the morning. The hope that we, the youth, had the power to bring it down is what brought me to that protest that day. For a long time I had been struggling to find my purpose in life, but embarking on this journey showed me that purpose is not an individual aspect. For me, my passion for social justice and civil rights is what helped me find my purpose, and finding my purpose is what gave me the vision to find ways to change and better the world that I live in.
Hope. Faith. Light. Love. Optimism. Change.
If you would have told me last year, or even two days before it happened, that the Mississippi state flag would be removed, I would have argued why I believed that it could come down, but it most likely wouldn’t. Even after speaking to a crowd of more than 3,000 of my peers about how change was coming for Mississippi, I must admit that I still had my doubts deep down inside. I didn’t think that it would happen in my lifetime, let alone this year. Sometimes, I’m still so surprised by the fact that it’s gone that I get in my car and drive downtown to the state Capitol building just to stare at that empty flag pole. If the new flag is approved by the people of Mississippi on Nov. 3, 2020, I may finally be able to feel a glimmer of hope that the true meaning of home can be felt by Mississippians for centuries to come. One day, we will all be able to come together to create change for a better Mississippi.
Editor’s Note: We are sharing our platform with Mississippians to write essays about race. This essay is the third in the series. Read the first essay by Kiese Laymon, and the second by W. Ralph Eubanks. Click here to read our extended editor’s note about this decision.
Taylor Turnage
About the Author: Taylor BreAnn Turnage is a native of Byram, Miss. Over the years she has served as executive director, treasurer, and fundraising chair for the Tougaloo College Chapter of the NAACP and currently serves as state president for the Mississippi State NAACP Youth and College Division. She is also an active member of the Gamma Psi chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. on the campus of Tougaloo College. Taylor continues to strive everyday to make the lives of everyone better.
Eric J. Shelton, Mississippi Today/ Report for America
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith leads Democrat Mike Espy in a new poll released just one week from Election Day.
Republican U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has a 52% to 44% lead against Democratic challenger Mike Espy in a Civiqs poll released Tuesday morning — one of the few public polls released in advance of Tuesday’s general election.
The same poll has President Donald Trump winning 55% to 41% against former Vice President Joe Biden. The pollster, which has a B/C rating from the respected FiveThirtyEight, which rates national pollsters, sampled 507 Mississippians online using a national survey sample.
A poll in late September by the Tyson Group showed Hyde-Smith with just a 1 point lead against Espy, while an internal poll released earlier to Mississippi Today by the Espy campaign showed him down 5 points. A few other polls showed Hyde-Smith, running for her first full six-year term, with larger leads. She is viewed nationally as a solid favorite in the race.
In the 2018 special election to replace long-time Sen. Thad Cochran, who stepped down for health reasons, Espy garnered just under 47% of the vote as Hyde-Smith became the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in Congress.
Of the people who have voted early in Mississippi, Espy and Biden both hold commanding leads, according to the poll released Tuesday. Espy leads 55-44 among early votes, while Biden leads 55-45. Mississippi does not have no excuse early voting, but according to data provided by the office of Secretary of State Michael Watson, a record number 146,000 Mississippians already have voted, using excuses allowed in state law to vote absentee. Turnout is expected to be well over one million voters.
The breakdown of the poll’s respondents is 62% white and 36% African American. Espy, trying to become Mississippi’s first elected Black senator, has said he needs the African American voter turnout to be more than 35% for him to have a chance to win. But, based on the poll results, Hyde-Smith is garnering 12% of the African American vote, though many question whether she will do that well with Black voters.
Espy has also said he needs 22% of the white vote — primarily college educated women. According to the poll, he is garnering 51% of the female vote to 46% for Hyde-Smith, but overall only 19% of white voters.
The poll also finds:
Support for adopting the flag proposed this summer by a legislatively created commission at 61% to 31%.
Support at 54% to 25% for removing a Jim Crow provision from the state Constitution requiring a candidate for statewide office to garner a majority of the vote and to win the most votes in a majority of the House districts to prevent the election from being thrown to the House to deicide.
The citizen-sponsored initiative to legalize medical marijuana was not polled, perhaps because of the complexity of the way the proposal is presented on the ballot. Voters can choose to adopt the citizen-sponsored initiative, a legislative alternative or neither.
Governor Tate Reeves is viewed as favorable by 34% of the respondents and negatively by 49%. The state’s senior U.S. senator, Roger Wicker, who is not on the ballot this year, is viewed favorably by 36% and unfavorably by 39%.
The Civiqs poll, commissioned by the left-leaning Daily Kos political blog, has a margin of error of 5.3%. Civiqs also released poll results from the swing states of Georgia and Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Biden was leading in both of those states by slim margins.
A 59-year-old voter in Ocean Springs told Mississippi Today she is planning to vote absentee this year by telling her local election officials she’ll be out of town on Election Day.
That will be a lie.
The voter, who asked not to be identified fearing retaliation from election officials, has an auto-immune disease that gives her a higher risk of complications if she were to contract COVID-19, and she doesn’t think her disease qualifies as a disability that would allow early voting.
“I’m very nervous about going into vote, and quite frankly, the only route left to me is to misrepresent the facts and vote absentee,” she said. “… It’s really concerning to me any time, but particularly in pandemic, that there are not allowances made for (high-risk) people in my position.”
Mississippi is the only state in the country that didn’t expand early voting during the global pandemic, and there are only a few specific reasons that someone can vote early. Fear of catching COVID-19 is not one of them, no matter a voter’s risk level.
Mississippi’s strict voting requirements and loose coronavirus precautions in many counties have concerned many Mississippians, and they wonder whether voting in person on Election Day could be dangerous as state health officials work to slow down another spike in cases.
Voting in person can be done safely, according to numerous public health officials, though there is slight risk. Most experts compare the risk to grocery shopping — tight, often-crowded spaces without a lot of airflow. Their assessment, though, factors in widespread masking. As of mid-October, about three-quarters of Mississippians still reported masking up, though masks will not be required to enter polling places. Some polling places are facing pressure to move booths outside to better protect voters.
Any enclosed, poorly ventilated space can be a breeding ground for COVID-19 spread — the smaller and more crowded the space, the easier a virus can spread from one person to another. Many polling places across the state are just these spaces. Waiting in long lines inside and failing to socially distance also increases risk.
But most spread is traced back to maskless close contact — within six feet — for more than 15 minutes where respiratory droplets are spread from an infected person through contact such as sneezing, coughing or loud vocalizations. The state health department says they’ve traced most cases in the state to just such indoor gatherings, like parties and after school activities.
After high-profile back and forths, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention formally advised that the virus can be spread through airborne transmission, where it can linger for short periods of time after an infected person has left the area. But experts still think most spread comes from direct droplet spread. Both of these spread scenarios suggest poll workers, rather than voters, are more susceptible to catching the virus, based on time spent interacting with voters. Poll workers will be provided masks, face shields and gloves, according to the state’s election safety guidelines.
Still, some voters are hesitant — especially those who don’t qualify for early voting but are higher risk for COVID-19 complications.
The Ocean Springs voter told Mississippi Today the unclear instructions for someone in her position, combined with the mask mandates coming and going, confuse her. But at the end of the day, she’s most concerned with casting her vote while protecting herself and others. Two Coast counties are back under mask mandates now after sharp spikes. Harrison and Jackson alone recorded an average 14% positivity rate — the percent of positives out of all tests — as of Oct. 17, some of the highest rates in the state.
Multiple other voters told Mississippi Today they had the same plans as the Ocean Springs woman — to say they’d be out of town while casting an absentee ballot.
“I feel like there is a trend to limit voter access, when we could be more creative in making access easier,” she said. “I wish I had a better alternative.”
Other voters are making plans now to head to the polls next week, but they say the absence of a statewide mask mandate and Mississippi’s legacy of suppressing the vote complicate the narrative.
“On that day, we’re probably going to have some people who are sick coming out,” said Germain McConnell, a 47-year-old educator in Columbus. “Some people may have COVID and still come out because they want to vote, especially if they get it late and they can’t do absentee… so really it’s a danger to actually go and vote on that day and not require that people are wearing masks.”
Anyone diagnosed with COVID-19 or under quarantine order can vote early, but early voting in person ends Oct. 31, and mail-in ballots are recommended to be requested at least weeks prior to the election. In reality, those recently diagnosed likely wouldn’t have any option but to vote day-of.
“It’s not even funny, but people are going to get out and exercise their right to vote anyway, which I’m happy about,” McConnell said. “But we are putting people’s lives in danger.”
He added that it’s not just the context of the pandemic that makes the danger of in-person voting hard to swallow — for many, the shadow of voter suppression still looms. “A lot of people lost their lives, lost jobs just battling and fighting for the right to vote,” he said. “If those individuals were that brave and willing to do so, then we can’t let fear of getting some disease keep us from voting and honoring their legacy either … but (the state) not making some allowances during a pandemic — that’s unconscionable and I really don’t understand it.”
He added: “I can’t say that it’s political — I think it may be some people who don’t have the compassion that they need to have or ignorance about this whole situation, but definitely it’s not right.”
Despite growing daily case numbers, Gov. Tate Reeves lifted the state’s mask mandate on Sept. 30, no longer requiring masks for in-person voting. As head of elections in the state, Secretary of State Michael Watson has encouraged masking at polls but will not require them.
On Oct. 19, Reeves reinstated a mask mandate for nine counties, ostensibly requiring masks at polling locations in those counties through Nov. 11. On Sept. 26, seven more counties were added.
Some cities, such as Jackson and Oxford, still have mask mandates in place, which voters say reassures them. But even in counties with a mandate, wearing a mask while voting will be a personal choice of the state’s voters, Reeves reiterated Monday.
This worries Dobbs, who has long advocated for widespread masking, including at the polls.
“The critical piece to this is going to be the critical mass of people wearing masks,” Dobbs said. “So if everybody in there isn’t wearing a mask but you are, then your level of protection is going to be a lot lower than if we collectively wear it. So if it could have been done, or it can be done, that there’s mandatory masks in polling places, I think that’s a fantastic idea.”
He reiterates that in-person voting is not altogether a very risky activity for COVID-19 exposure. But masks are a must for an overall protective effect, even if masking is not entirely universal, he says.
“So I do think it can be done pretty safely,” Dobbs said. “As far as the politics of how it happens, we know how coronavirus is spread, we know what to do to prevent it — you have fewer people in the room, you have stuff outside, you have masks on. So anything we can do to get to that would be beneficial, but I think obviously some of those things are off the table right now as we go into the election.”
The Mississippi State Health Department announced mid-October that they will supply free combination face mask-shields to elderly voters and those with certain pre-existing conditions at drive-thru and county health department testing locations, but the onus will be on voters to pick these up before heading to the polls. These combination masks offer the same baseline protective effect that healthcare workers use interacting with some COVID-19 patients, and tend to limit transmission.
Gov. Tate Reeves addresses COVID-19 for the state during his briefing Monday, October 19, 2020 at the Woolfolk Building.
Gov. Tate Reeves on Monday added seven counties to his mask-wearing order, bringing the total to 16 counties where he has reinstated the mandate as COVID-19 cases spike.
But Reeves said mask wearing will not be mandated for voting in the Nov. 3 election, even in those counties, as he believes mandating them would be an unconstitutional restriction. He noted protests earlier this year during the pandemic drew crowds larger than crowd size limits then in place, but were allowed as protected free speech.
“I do anticipate a vast majority of Mississippians will be wearing a mask (when they vote),” Reeves said. “… I think what you are going to find is that we will have a safe, secure election in Mississippi.”
The counties Reeves added to the mask mandate Monday are: Harrison, Madison, Marshall, Jones, Carroll, Leake and Benton.
Other counties will be added if they reach a threshold of more than 200 recent cases, or 500 cases per 100,000 residents over a two-week period, depending on the population size of the county.
Social gatherings in these counties will be limited to 10 people indoors and 50 outdoors, although Reeves has said this will not prevent high school football games, which are covered under separate orders.
Reeves’ latest executive orders also again require hospitals statewide to reserve 10% capacity for COVID-19 patients. If 10% capacity is not available, a hospital will have to delay elective procedures. Reeves said this worked during the summer peak to relieve pressure on hospitals.
Reeves on Sept. 30th lifted a statewide mask mandate — making Mississippi the first state to rescind such a mandate — that he had issued on Aug. 4. He also relaxed restrictions on social gatherings. Since then cases have risen.
During the span of the statewide mask mandate, the seven-day average for Mississippi cases plummeted, dropping by 54%.
Reeves had been hesitant to issue a statewide mask order in the summer, instead taking a county-by-county approach until state hospitals were becoming overloaded.
But Reeves has said he still prefers limited COVID-19 orders to “the heavy hand of government,” and said a mask mandate “is not a silver bullet.” He has said he believes people pay more attention to limited, regional mask orders based on case spikes.
On Monday, the state Health Department reported 447 new COVID-19 cases, eight new deaths and 683 hospitalizations. The state has had a total of 3,263 COVID-19 deaths reported.
Othia McMillian fills out her absentee ballot in mid-October at the Hinds County courthouse.
Mississippians continue to vote absentee in record numbers before the Nov. 3 general election, with more than 169,000 ballots requested, compared to less than 111,000 requested in the 2016 election.
Circuit clerks in several highly populated counties have told Mississippi Today that absentee voting amid the COVID-19 pandemic appears higher than ever for 2020, which features a presidential election and a U.S. Senate race between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy. Some clerks, including in populous Hinds and Harrison counties, have reported long lines outside their offices for people voting weeks before the election.
In 2016, nearly 103,000 absentee ballots were received in Mississippi’s election, and just over 101,000 were accepted. So far this election, nearly 146,000 absentees have been received by circuit clerks. High absentee voting typically portends heavy in-person turnout on Election Day.
Mississippi’s early voting laws are among the most restrictive in the nation, and it’s the only state not to provide all citizens an option to vote early rather than go to crowded precincts on Election Day during the pandemic. Only people who are going to be away from their home area on Election Day, those 65 and older, and people with disabilities are allowed to vote absentee, either in person or by mail.
A federal lawsuit filed against the Mississippi secretary of state this year and settled last week resulted in two new rules for this election.
Voters must receive correspondence from election officials about any problems with the signature verification on their absentee ballots, and the voter will have 10 days to correct it.
Also, election officials must provide curbside voting opportunities on Election Day for people experiencing COVID-19 symptoms or who have been exposed to the coronavirus.
