Wealthy businessman Gerard Gibert, who serves as a vice chair of the Mississippi Lottery Board, expressed interest this week in launching a GOP primary bid against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Gibert, who also flirted with running for governor this year but didn’t do it, pitched himself as someone who could bring investments to Mississippi.
However, Gilbert he didn’t say why he thinks voters should fire Hyde-Smith, and he also also used his interview with the Hotty Toddy Hotline to express interest in becoming chancellor of the University of Mississippi. Y’all Politics reports that Gibert can self-fund, though it’s not clear how much he’s willing or able to invest into a Senate bid.
Hyde-Smith, who was serving as state agriculture commission, was appointed to the Senate last year to succeed long-term incumbent Thad Cochran. While the White House was reportedly initially skeptical that Hyde-Smith could fend off Republican state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a tea party ally who had a horrible relationship with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Trump ended up endorsing the new senator.
Hyde-Smith had little trouble fending off McDaniel in November’s nonpartisan primary, and she probably expected a dull general election contest three weeks later against former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, a Democrat who was the state’s first black congressman since Reconstruction. However, the runoff quickly attracted the bad kind of national attention when progressive journalist Lamar White posted footage of Hyde-Smith saying of a supporter, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."
Hyde-Smith didn't apologize for showing eagerness to witness a lynching, and Espy ran a commercial going after her over her comments, as well as her "joke" that it should be harder for liberal college students to vote. Several major companies, including Walmart and Major League Baseball, also publicly asked Hyde-Smith to return donations they'd made to her campaign.
In a familiar scene, national Republicans reportedly became worried about Hyde-Smith's prospects, and the NRSC and Senate Leadership Fund ended up spending a combined $2.8 million here, while Espy's allies at Senate Majority PAC threw down a total of $874,000. Hyde-Smith won 54-46, which, while not close, was the worst performance for Team Red in a Mississippi Senate race since 1988.
That weak showing might encourage a primary challenge from Gilbert or another Republican. However, if Trump backs Hyde-Smith again, it will be very hard to stop the incumbent as she seeks a full term, especially since the Senate and presidential primary will take place on the same day.
It also remains to be seen what Democrats will step up. Espy quickly filed paperwork for a potential 2020 bid following his November defeat, but he didn’t announce if he’d run again. We still haven’t heard anything new from Espy, who raised very little moneyduring the first three months of 2019.