The "public hanging" highlights Miss's race. In the Senate

JACKSON, Miss. – A video of a white Mississippi US senator hinting at a "public hanging" infuriates voters during a second special electoral turn, drawing attention to the history of the lynching in this state and reinforcing the hope of Democrats to obtain a stunning in the far south.

Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith is facing former congressional and former US Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, a black Democrat, in a second round. She was captured in a video praising a supporter by stating, "When he invited me to a public hanging, I would be in the first row.

After the video broadcast on Sunday, Hyde-Smith said his November 2 remark during a campaign in Tupelo was "an expression of exaggerated respect" for a friend who invited her to speak. "Any attempt to turn that into a negative connotation is ridiculous," she said.

Espy called Monday the remark of "disappointing and harmful".

"It reinforces the stereotypes we have been trying to get away from for decades, stereotypes that continue to hurt our economy and cost us jobs," he told MSNBC's Chris Matthews.

At a press conference Monday with Republican Governor Phil Bryant, a stone-faced Hyde-Smith refused to answer questions regarding the suspended remark.

"I published a statement yesterday and that's all I'm going to say about it," she said.

Republicans are counting on a Hyde-Smith win against Espy as they try to expand their majority in the Senate. His remark may not have slowed down in the deeply conservative state, but it has highlighted a battle between the past and the future of Mississippi and put a painful coda on an election season marked by a resurgence of racism in Southern politics.

"This has really shaken people up," said Democrat Rukia Lumumba, co-director of The Electoral Justice Project and a Mississippian national whose family is deeply rooted in state politics and activism in favor civil rights. "The fact that she has not yet apologized, acknowledged the impact of her comments or that people have suffered from it … I hope it makes us feel like we're there." 39; emergency ".

The words have undoubtedly raised the profile of a breed that has largely flown under the national radar. Hyde-Smith was named to fill the vacancy left by long-time Republican Senator Thad Cochran when he retired in April, and this fall occupied that seat for the remaining two years of his term. Cochran.

Espy and she each received about 41% of the vote in a four-way race to qualify for the second round. Another Republican won 16%.

The findings suggest that Espy has a tough battle, but some in the state see him as a rare democrat from Mississippi who might get angry. Backed by Democrat Doug Jones' victory in the US Senate race in Alabama last year, Democrats have been organizing in Mississippi for months. Black voters in particular have fueled this effort, viewing it as a good time for generational change.

"This race is important because the voters decide: are we going to move forward or backward?" Said LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, a voter turnout group that was one of the main organizers of the Jones victory.

According to the NAACP, 4,743 lynchings took place in the United States between 1882 and 1968, and nearly 73% of the victims were blacks. Mississippi had 581 during this period – more than any other state.

Bryant, who named Hyde-Smith, defended his Monday, stating: "There was nothing in his heart of ill-will."

"All members of public life have said on the occasion things that could have been better formulated," he said. "She did not want to offend by this statement."

Mississippi has long struggled against race and racism in its politics.

The state still uses a state flag adopted in 1894, which includes the emblem of the Confederate battle, although all public universities in the state and several cities and counties no longer have the flag.

Another Mississippi Republican, Trent Lott, lost his Senate Majority Leader position in 2002 after declaring at the city's Centennial Celebration, US Senator Strom Thurmond, that Mississippi voted with pride for Thurmond when he led a segregationist campaign in 1948.

A Republican representative of the Mississippi House, the representative Karl Oliver, was criticized in May 2017 after posting on Facebook that it was necessary to lynch people for having removed the Confederate monuments.

In 1986, Espy became the first African-American, since Reconstruction, to win a US seat in Mississippi. If he defeated Hyde-Smith, he would be the first African-American since Reconstruction to represent the state in the US Senate.

Hyde-Smith, who is backed by President Donald Trump, is the first woman to represent Mississippi in either House of Congress and is attempting to become the first woman to be elected to the US Senate by the state. .

Voter survey, AP VoteCast, revealed significant differences in voting behavior by age and race in the Mississippi special election. Hyde-Smith relies heavily on the support of white voters, especially the older ones.

In total, 57% of white voters supported Hyde-Smith, 21%, Espy and 18%, Republican Chris McDaniel, who was ranked third last week. Black voters crushed for Espy: 83% supported the Democrat, according to AP VoteCast.

On Monday, local groups held a teleconference to discuss their participation strategy and response to Hyde-Smith's remarks. A protest is scheduled for Friday in front of the Hyde-Smith office.

Brown said Black Voters Matter, which has an office in that state, will stay there for two weeks before the second round.

"This race is going to be won by Mississippi people," said Brown.

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Associated Press reporter Hannah Fingerhut also contributed. Whack reported from Philadelphia.

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For full AP coverage of mid-term elections in the United States: http://apne.ws/APPolitics