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Then a progressive blogger released videos in which Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith's adversary opponent Espy said she would attend a "public hanging" if she was invited by a supporter, and that deleting the vote of university students could be a "good thing"
On defense, Hyde-Smith called the commentary to attend a public hanging of "exaggerated manifestation of respect". Her campaign said she "was making a joke" when, in front of a group comprising students from Mississippi State University, she praised the idea of making "just a little harder" the vote of "liberals from these other schools ". .
But the Democrats have seen an opening.
The allegations have given voters in the state who do not generally support Democrats a right to vote.
Espy, a 64-year-old former congressman and agriculture secretary, now hopes that Hyde-Smith's comments will also provoke electoral bidding and tilts voters in the second round against her.
"That's what you will not get from me: you will not hear about electoral repression, you will not hear about public hanging," Espy told more than 100 women in a hotel. here on Saturday morning. Instead, Espy said that he would focus on education, gender equity and health care.
He said his election would reflect "a Mississippi moving forward, a Mississippi with a better image".
Espy told the mostly black women's group that Jones had won in Alabama thanks to women's support.
"What did it do for Doug Jones in Alabama, you have to do for me in Mississippi, do you know what I'm saying?" he said.
The nationally renowned Democrats – aware of the fact that the state is organizing a very early primary that could play a key role in the process of nominating the Democratic president – are also flocking to Mississippi to campaign with Espy.
Californian Senator Kamala Harris campaigned with Espy on Saturday, inviting the hotel crowd to "assert her point of view on who we are as a country, symbolized by the state of Mississippi".
Asked about Hyde-Smith's comments after Saturday's event, Harris described them as "harmful and hurtful," as well as "neglecting to understand what these words mean in a historical context."
Another presidential candidate of 2020, New Jersey Senator Cory Booker, will travel to Mississippi on Monday.
& # 39; The ingredients are present & # 39;
Mississippi is a long shot for Democrats – but it's not impossible.
In 2016, Donald Trump won the state by 18 percentage points. It's an eruption, but it's still narrower than the margins in other red states like Indiana and Missouri.
The state's elected state attorney general, Jim Hood, is a democrat, though conservative, who downplays ties with his party – and he presents himself as governor in 2019.
Nearly 40% of Mississippi's population is black, and those who vote the most do so for Democratic candidates.
And the mayor of Jackson, Chokwe Lumumba, 35, is considered nationwide as a rising and progressive star.
"The ingredients are present," Lumumba said in an interview. "You have people who want something different, and I think you have a population that does not feel satisfied with the results."
Still, to win the second round in the Senate, Espy must walk on a red thread, outperforming African-American voters and university students from urban areas of the state, during a second round held Tuesday after Thanksgiving weekend, while winning a share typically Republicans. It's hard to do both.
"We must be as radical or progressive as circumstances dictate," Lumumba said. "If you say yes to everyone, you end up saying no, if you play the center in this regard, no one feels organized, no one feels engaged."
National jockey parties
National Democrats say the results in Alabama give them hope, but that Mississippi is even harder than some of the other struggles the Democrats have fought over the last two years. The party will probably follow the same path as in other states and districts generally hostile to Democrats, protecting its involvement with maneuvers such as financing obscure super-PACs.
If a Democrat has a chance to outperform Doug Jones's style among African-American voters, where they form more electorate than the population, that's well espy, said a Democratic national agent .
"It's a tough race in a difficult place, and we would need to make up for any breaks," said the agent.
The Republicans, meanwhile, are working to avoid another embarrassing loss in the Great South.
The National Republican Senate Committee – the Senate GOP campaign arm – also spends $ 1.1 million for an ad that highlights Espy's work as a lobbyist and throws him into the "swamp" of DC.
And Trump will campaign for Hyde-Smith the day before the elections, with stops scheduled for Tupelo and Biloxi, the Trump campaign announced on Saturday.
The president's visit "will be a good boost to ensure that all Conservatives know that they have a very clear choice in this second election," Hyde-Smith said in a statement.
Her campaign said she was not available for an interview this week. She was in Washington, with the Senate in session.
Testimony of Hyde-Smith
The controversy surrounding Hyde-Smith's remarks about a "public hanging" continues to elicit negative reactions against his campaign in Mississippi, a state in which the Confederate flag is still part of the flag of the United States. State.
More than 10,000 people have signed a petition calling for its removal, created by Mississippi Matters, a coalition of progressive groups.
The group staged a protest outside the Hyde-Smith office in Jackson on Friday. On Sunday, Aaron Banks, a member of Jackson's City Council, organized a rally against "hatred and racism" on Capitol Hill.
The Hyde-Smith campaign, meanwhile, sought to spread controversy around the new video in which she called it "a good idea" to make it more difficult for students to vote, with a tweet in which she was seen when the same event. the video was recorded laughing with two students – one of whom is black.
"It's good to always have a sense of humor in America, is not it?" the tweet posted on Hyde-Smith's account said. "These students laughed well with Cindy despite the state's social media publications trying to mislead the Mississippians."
On Friday night, the black student on the photo, J.R. Coleman, went to Twitter with scathing criticism against Hyde-Smith's campaign for his use of the photo.
"As a student of political science, I want to understand and inform about each candidate, but I do not support Cindy Hyde Smith, I'm disgusted, the only purpose of this photo is that I'm black," he said. declared. .
In another tweet, Coleman added, "She's trying to be different in using this picture of me, we do not laugh at her terrible statements, and I do not like this post trying to make it look good. "
The Hyde-Smith campaign removed his tweet with the photo including Coleman.
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