Republican Mississippi U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith is no stranger to getting her hands dirty. How else could a woman work her way from tending livestock and mucking stockyard stalls to earning a chairmanship in the Mississippi Legislature and later serving as the state’s first female Agriculture Commissioner to effective service in the U.S. Senate (again as the first Mississippi woman to hold that post)?
Here’s the answer. Just like managing the family stockyard operation, when the muck got deep, Hyde-Smith put her head down and kept shoveling until the job was done. She works, undistracted. She refused to allow her character to be defined by people who don’t know her.
First appointed to succeed legendary U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in 2016, Hyde-Smith in 2018 defeated former U.S. Rep. Mike Espy by almost 66,000 votes, 53.6% to 46.4%. In a special election for the Senate seat. In that 2018 race, Espy outraised and outspent the incumbent. Espy spent $6.97 million to Hyde-Smith’s $5.16 million. There was another $10.3 million in outside money spent in that race.
Facing Espy a second time in 2020 as she sought a full six-year term in the Senate in her own right, Hyde-Smith was again outraised and outspent by Espy. Espy raised close to $10 million to Hyde-Smith’s nearly $3 million.
That financial advantage gave Espy’s campaign an opportunity to try to bury Hyde-Smith under an avalanche of negative ads – accusing her of being ineffective in the U.S. Senate and of racial insensitivity. The ads didn’t say that the ratings entity also named most of the congressional leaders in both parties as “ineffective.”
What the ads also didn’t say was that the narrative of racial insensitivity was woven primarily from conjecture and innuendo. Voters apparently saw through it. She racked up a decisive victory over Espy twice despite the allegations. The same group of voters who elsewhere on the ballot authorized a new Mississippi state flag by 70 percent chose Hyde-Smith to continue as their senator.
The Espy camp attacked Hyde-Smith while ignoring the fact that Espy’s brief career as secretary of agriculture ended when the Clinton administration pushed him to resign during an investigation of alleged improprieties involving accepting gifts, according to a 1994 story in The Washington Post.
Most Mississippi voters rejected – once in 2018 and again in 2020 – the racial narrative and the suggestion that she was an ineffective senator. Why? Because Hyde-Smith had a public record long before her two political encounters with Espy.
Those voters remembered her path in Mississippi politics and the record she earned on that path.
Hyde-Smith – during 12 years in the State Senate with two terms as Senate Agriculture Committee chair, as a cattle farmer and stockyard owner – decided to challenge the notion that the agriculture commissioner’s job is a “man’s job.”
She served two terms as Mississippi’s Agriculture Commissioner before being appointed to the U.S. Senate to succeed Cochran. The folks compiling the attack ads probably didn’t know that Hyde-Smith’s political strength comes from handling most of the agriculture and property rights legislation that required heavy legislative lifting.
Her strength also comes from her close relationship with the Mississippi Farm Bureau, which has named her Agriculture Legislator of the Year and given her the organization’s highest honor for advocacy for agriculture, the Agriculture Ambassador Award, which has previously gone to GOP stalwarts like U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran and Gov. Haley Barbour.
The seats she holds on the U.S. Senate Agriculture and Appropriations committees are vital to Mississippi. After the mud and muck of the 2020 Senate campaign, Hyde-Smith finally now has time to step back from what has been a four-year constant campaign and concentrate on what’s she’s truly good at doing – visioning agricultural opportunities, constituent services, and doing everything in her power to drive economic opportunity forward in Mississippi.
Her reputation isn’t and shouldn’t be the province of TV attack ads. It should be the record of dedicated public service she spent a lifetime building in Mississippi.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com.
49 comments:
The ads were justified. The only reason she won was because about 55% of this state would vote for Satan if he were running as a Republican against a Democrat. Her win means nothing as to the validity of the negative ads against her.
Cindy Hyde Smith is an embarrassment to our state and to the Republican Party. Simply put, she is not smart enough to be an effective Senator. We would be as effectively represented if we gave Mitch McConnell a CHS rubber stamp so he can vote for her.
Out of state carpetbaggers were motivated to give the ever corrupt espy (corrupt because he accepted the gifts) because of the bogus august poll that showed he trailed by 1%.
And as democrats do, when desperate, the lie and slander their republican opponents.
Hey, carpetbaggers, go stuff your money up your backsides.
Ok, boomer.
Slap an 'R' on the backside of a pig and 99% of Retrumplicans in this state would vote for it.
Why didn’t Chris McDaniel challenge her in the primary? Are we locked into her until she decides to retire?
Surely there’s another Republican in this state who wants to be in the Senate. Tate Reeves in 6 years???
CHS is ineffective but its thousands times better than having ME who had too many scandals to count...
Imagine being paid to write nonsensical articles like this. Imagine PAYING someone to write nonsensical articles like this.
I was set to vote for Espy. While I am not a democrat, and I detest most anything that Espy stands for, at least he tells you what he wants to do. CHS wanted to change the state flag. Based on that alone Espy had my vote. Until about a week before the election he came out strong for legal weed. I can’t go for that. Puff, puff, give to a loos Mike, your reefer addict.
10 million dollars by outside democrats. 9:48 You are right.
9:39 AM,9:44 AM, 9:50 AM if you don't like it here move to New York or California. Enjoy those high TAX states.
Espy needed Republican votes to win. So what did he do in one of the strongest pro-Trump states? Come out for impeachment.
He was actually a pretty moderate Congressman. Pro-NRA, pro-business. Definitely not a Benny Thompson clone. Yet they made that part of his record a secret in Mississippi. Thats the problem with the out of state donors. They write those checks and expect you to push their values in California in New York. Problem is, that doesn't play well here. That's why smart guys like Rahm Emmanuel recruit candidates who can win in their district, not win where the checks are written.
Truth is, we have lost our right to elect Senators. The game now is for a Senator to retire during his term. The Governor - one man - appoints the replacement. That Senator now enjoys all the power and privileges of incumbency. They line up the donor cartel, and presto, the machine steamrolls. Of course, if someone obtains out of state money, they will shriek about that too. That is why some Governors only appoint replacements who won't run for re-election.
At least under the original method of choosing Senators, our elected representatives chose the Senator. Under the new way, there is no such representation or input.
That same pig would have more sense than the democrat it was running against, Jr.
Imagine reading these nonsensical articles and then complaining about them. Wait, we don't have to imagine that, do we? How about the complainers write an article and let us critic them. That's the ticket.
You are right on, Kingfish. That was a sneaky way to remove power from the people.
Machine politics. Neither Cindy or Espy qualifies as a desirable candidate for either party. But the party machines chose them and the money backs them. The people don't give a damn about either of them. They just hate the other guy and would vote for any turd as long as he's not the candidate of the other party. That's the face of American politics right now. Why should Mississippi be any different?
Never thought I would see the day that Republicans complained about out of state political donations. Do you guys not even do a cursory google search before you start parroting the party lines?
@9:39..."The ads were justified. The only reason she won was because about 55% of this state would vote for Satan if he were running as a Republican against a Democrat. Her win means nothing as to the validity of the negative ads against her."
The same can be said that there is a percentage of the state that would vote for Satan if he were running as a Democrat against a Republican.
Name one significant piece of legislation she has guided to passage.
And back at you, 10:06. Just like you can move to another country if you are unhappy with the results of our national election. Might I suggest a nation as conservative as you appear to be -- perhaps Saudi Arabia
I am a Republican because it aligns with my beliefs. But I do think it’s sad that the strongest candidate the Dems had was Espy. He tried to trash CHS but we all remembered he resigned in shame after his own scandal. I don’t think he could have won, but would have been better served to run a positive campaign, not lying and smearing the competitor. His obnoxious commercials never told me what he would do. They just trash talked her.
@11:18
A fraudulent election is no reason to emigrate. It is every reason to resist... just like seditious leftists did for 45's ENTIRE TERM!
As soon as the dust settles on this election, I'm feeling confident 10:06 will be pleased with the results. The democrats were this close to stealing it, but close doesn't count, except in horseshoes and hand grenades. I can hardly wait for the screaming.
I'm so glad she won. I got so tired of hearing his stupid commercials. Maybe he won't run for anything again!
I guess Bennie T. is not quite the kingmaker that everyone thought him to be...
11:50 Espy was not the "strongest candidate the Dems had" like CHS was not the strongest the Republicans had. Far from it. Talented, intelligent people of integrity are not gravitating towards politics, locally or nationally. They are frustrated with the bullshit and having to pander to extremists on both sides. Imagine the country thinking the best Mississippi has to offer is CHS. Do not rejoice because one lemon beat the other but vow to work against this pandemic of political bullshit in the future.
Never been a fan of Sid’s but this piece is very informative and I now appreciate and have more respect for CHS.
9:39 AM, your comment is impossible since Satan runs the Democrat Party now. You can not vote for murder on Tuesday…then sing Jesus loves me on Sunday.
9:50 AM, see response to 9:39 AM above.
KF makes great points. Will add though that prior to Obama, a lot of Democrats were Pro-NRA, Pro-Life i.e. had good sense. I voted Democrat for AG (Moore and Jim Hood) while voting Republican for state House & Senate, Governor and US House and Senate. Could not vote Hood for Gov as his/the Democrat party keeps moving more and more towards marxism.
Espy would have voted to take our guns away. The Democrat party wants to weaponize the government against anyone that disagrees with them.
Leftist Democrats will stand back and watch their cities burn, allow rioting, looting/stealing…but let Republican supporters show up and start kicking some Antifa ass, aannddd here comes the Po Lice!
11:56, HA!
I assume you think Crazy Uncle 45 won the first debate too? Keep grasping at baseless conspiracy theories from parler. That won't change the fact that Biden won. Trump did not. There will be a change of presidents in January, hissy fits from 45 notwithstanding. Face it.
Like you, I can hardly wait for the screaming either. Now, time for you to book that one way flight to Saudi Arabia.
I campaigned for Cindy as Ag Commissioner, not knowing her very well, but thinking she had qualifications to do a good job. There has not been one single decision in any of her posts since which I felt wasn't wise. She has upheld her responsibilities, gone beyond what is needed, and displayed good will to all Mississippians. In her terms 'she done us proud.' As I've gotten to know her a little have seen two absolutely outstanding examples of personal integrity & generosity, both in situations where she will never get praise or credit. She's simply intuitively a good person. She's not an elegant speaker, a wordsmith, a flim-flam master, or a great campaigner. She puts her head down and does Mississippi's work. Best of all she doesn't take bribes or steal.
Espy was not the "strongest candidate the Dems had" ...
Who do the Mississippi Democrats have who was stronger than Espy? Put up.
Maybe we should just go back to the days of the state legislature appointing the US Senator...
Lifelong republican conservative here. I never understood why Deputy Feel appointed this woman to begin with. Not a damned soul understands it. Sure, I'd rather have a republican in the seat than a democrat (many of you don't understand what difference that makes), but I'd love it if she had a viable republican challenger.
I heard her on Supertalk today asking everybody to pray for veterans today at eleven minutes after 1:00. How dense does one have to be to understand that veterans day celebrates the ELEVENTH hour on the ELEVENTH day of the ELEVENTH month....NOT eleven minutes after ONE DAMNED O'Clock!
If we leave this useless woman in office another term, we are stuck with her incapability and irrelevance.
I kept waiting for an ad showing Espy reloading shotgun shells and passing out bottled water from the tailgate of a F-150.
“Lifelong republican conservative here. I never understood why Deputy Feel appointed this woman to begin with.“
Oh that’s an easy one...for the same reason Larry Templeton hired Sylvester Croom, to seek immortality. “Remember me, I was responsible for the (hiring/appointing) of our states’ first (fill in the blank).” Yeah, we remember!
Anyone that doesn't know the presidential election isn't decided until the electors vote on 12/14/2020 is a mental midget. It doesn't matter the number of times anyone says different. The fact Trump has allowed the democrats to make fools of themselves with every baseless accusation is lingering in the back of your mind. That nagging fear that he will somehow win this election, sometimes, is more than you can take. Trump should be called the Teflon Don. I watched as the raging mob of democrats took Nixon down in the early 70's. I also watched as a similar raging mob of democrats couldn't touch Trump. Here we are more than a week after the election. One in which Joe Biden said "We have put together I think the most extensive and inclusive voter "fraud" organization in the history of American politics.” Crazy Uncle 45 you said, more like Crazy Uncle Joe. Trump, the guy that beat the queen of the democrat party, Hillary. Trump, the guy that was under continuous assault for the past 5 years by every MSM outlet, by the halfwit democrat controlled house, by the Obama FBI, Obama justice department, and every democratic backstabber in the White House. As I said,a week after the election that everyone knew, this will be it for Trump, Trump still stands and over 70 million Americans are standing with him. Call your psychotherapist, stop by your local drugstore to fill your scrips. Work on getting used to the idea Trump is going to win this election.
Am I the only one who thinks people are ignorant when they say someone is going to take their guns away? I can't believe that still works to mobilize people @1:40. I've been hearing it for years and haven't seen it happen yet, not even close actually. Even if a presidential candidate wanted to, I believe our Courts (which is conservative) is the last line of defense and I trust them to protect our constitutional rights. When I hear people say that, it lets me know they don't know how government works. It's a fact that Republicans occupy a majority of state offices, Senate seats and Supreme Court seats. The current climate is highly due to Republican policies. They essentially run everything esp. here in MS. Not complaining, just saying how stupid and ill informed some of these comments are.
Teachers sprayed him with a fire extinguisher...Teachers!
Every time an Espy campaign video came on, I expected to hear the old 60's song "Whiter Shale of Pale" come on in the background. Those were some of the whitest commercials I ever seen....
Where was all his constituents from Clarksdale voicing how they were voting for Espy, where was Bennie...very few AA's in his ads and they were as light as he tried to be....
Espy's campaign was a lost cause from the outset but he made it worse when he let the whiny coterie of Mississippi "progressives" dupe him into thinking that Democrats only needed to embrace the national platform to win here statewide. Only a fool would believe that and ol' Mike proved to be the latest. With a couple of weeks to go and his internal polling showing him way behind he tried to pivot some back to the center in his campaign ads. But it was already over by then.
@4:45, don't sign up for any of the medical pot.
6:07, that was part of it.
Look at George Flaggs. Fairly moderate and gets both black and white votes.
Remember when Eich and Brandon were running Cottonmouth. They called him an Uncle Tom because he didn't vote the way those honkeys wanted him to vote. George knows a helluva lot more about winning elections than those guys combined. Same thing for Willie Simmons. He got quite a few white votes last year and by white votes I mean conservative votes. I know a couple of staunch conservatives who explained they knew him for years, was a good guy, was common sense, and thought he would do a good job and not go for the foolishness that afflicts other politicians.
There are a couple of others out there who are paying their dues.
However, such black politicians are anathema to the MT and progressive crowd.
Anybody see Bennie Thompson's coattails? He can't find them.
6:45 all "Bennie" has done in the last 27 years is make a bunch of Republican catfish farmers more money with all his politic'n "Vote for Me" fish fry feedings!!!!
"I guess Bennie T. is not quite the kingmaker that everyone thought him to be..."
I think you're right.
Bennie has never EVEN came close to putting anyone on a throne.
But to his credit, he does know how to throw a serious fish fry in Bolton.
What is the reason Jim Hood didn't run for the seat? He probably would have lost, but would have been better than Espy, who has a ton of baggage.
Conway Twitty, I mean Hood, basically ran as a gun shooting, camouflage wearing, road building, pickup truck driving good ole boy in his campaign for governor.
4:45 PM, there was a time in my life when, like you, I could have said
“haven’t seen it yet, not even close actually” if someone had been worried about late term abortion i.e. murder of fully developed babies in our country up and until 8 months and 29 days (Hitler would be extremely proud of the Democrat Party today);
“haven’t seen it yet, not even close actually” if someone had been worried about the Democrat Party trying to remove a duly elected President, beginning on inauguration day, before they even had manufactured a bogus excuse for doing so;
“haven’t seen it yet, not even close actually” if someone had been worried about American born marxist leftist domestic terrorists killing an innocent black child while only riding in a car with his mother in Atlanta;
“haven’t seen it yet, not even close actually” if someone had been worried about American born marxist leftist domestic terrorists being allowed, for months on end, to literally take over city blocks, burn buildings to the ground, loot/steal, assault, etc., while police are told to stand down (the 1992 LA riots lasted for less than a week in case you are too young to remember);
“haven’t seen it yet, not even close actually” if someone had been worried about our RIGHTS TO FREE SPEECH being censored by media outlets, by universities, by anti-free speech groups calling themselves Antifa and BLM, etc.
The list could go on and on but hopefully it is now very clear to you 4:45, what ignorant and ill-informed really looks like.
P. S. You can add this to your list of reasons why your leftist marxist Democrat friends like Espy will not be taking away our guns…we’re not giving them up.
I laughed every time Espy ran the ad on Jackson area sports radio. The ad had Michele Obama extolling Espy's virtues to an audience that was about 80% conservative, 10% moderate, and 10% liberal.
10:01 said..."CHS wanted to change the state flag."
Meanwhile, Espy's ads with the white woman talking said Cindy was still supporting the old Confederate Flag.
Can't have it both ways.
Yep...If George Flaggs ran against her, I'd vote for him.
Espy ran for one reason and one reason alone-
to feather his retirement nest egg
Never been a fan of Sid’s but this piece is very informative and I now appreciate and have more respect for CHS.
9:39 AM, your comment is impossible since Satan runs the Democrat Party now. You can not vote for murder on Tuesday…then sing Jesus loves me on Sunday.
9:50 AM, see response to 9:39 AM above.
KF makes great points. Will add though that prior to Obama, a lot of Democrats were Pro-NRA, Pro-Life i.e. had good sense. I voted Democrat for AG (Moore and Jim Hood) while voting Republican for state House & Senate, Governor and US House and Senate. Could not vote Hood for Gov as his/the Democrat party keeps moving more and more towards marxism.
Espy would have voted to take our guns away. The Democrat party wants to weaponize the government against anyone that disagrees with them.
Leftist Democrats will stand back and watch their cities burn, allow rioting, looting/stealing…but let Republican supporters show up and start kicking some Antifa ass, aannddd here comes the Po Lice!
Goodness gracious, you so-called "conservatives" love to dangle your little dainty fingers screaming about socialism and marxism while voting for a totalitarian authoritarian fascist. Yeah, let's get some more of that fascism while Mitch McConnell gets another term blocking American progress for the last 12 years!?
You jokers scream you're pro-life but vote for policies that do anything to propel health care in this country. You cry about freedom while trying to tell someone how to manage their own damn bodies.
We are basically a Democratic Socialist country right now, but too many damn people don't understand political science and identify it via our national policies.
Last but not least, the damn gun debate could have been put to rest years ago if the damn Republicans would have at least got to the table to debate the issues, but that's where that "Totalitarian" mindset kicks in where its gotta be one way and no other!
So let us know when you "CONservatives" want to get serious about debating issues in this Democratic Republic.
9:25AM Waylon Roscoe Jennings,
No such thing as a “conservative” anymore as we are in the vote buying phase of this republic i.e. what’s good for the goose/Democrats, is good for the gander/Republicans.
And while we’re obsoleting the word conservative, let’s do the same for the words capitalism and free markets as well since they no longer apply to this country.
Re: managing your own bodies, if you’ve reached the point of carving out i.e. murdering an 8 month 29 day old fully developed human being, you’ve long past the point of failure at “managing your own body.”
Agree we are in a Democratic Socialist country right now i.e. see 1st and 2nd paragraphs above.
Re: the gun debate, there’s nothing to debate. Leftists run a revolving door catch & release lawless system of sending thugs back out on to the streets i.e. do not enforce current laws already in place.
DEMOCRATS love letting thugs run loose rioting/burning/looting/stealing/killing innocent children with stray bullets, etc. proving they ONLY WANT NEW GUN LAWS AS A TOOL TO WEAPONIZE THE GOVERNMENT AGAINST THOSE WHO DARE DISAGREE WITH TOTALITARIAN DEMOCRATS.
Again, nothing to debate re: gun laws.
P.S. Sure hope Mitch McConnell gets another term as Majority Leader. If so, its gonna be nice carrying on the Harry Reid legacy.
Poor ole Harry, his racists remarks about Obama being a 'light-skinned' African American 'with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,' put him under Obama’s thumb until he crawled off into retirement.
Sure has worked well though i.e what’s good for the goose/Democrats, is good for the gander/Republicans.
Suck it.
Cindy won.
Deal with it.
She is who I voted for, and I couldn’t be happier for her.
Be glad no one spends $10 million to make you look bad.
Or maybe you should run for office.
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