Another day, another opportunity to be horrified by Cindy Hyde-Smith’ s campaign. As a quick recap, Hyde-Smith is the Mississippi Senator who was caught on a now-viral video “ joking” about attending a “public hanging.” To make a disgusting comment even worse, her then-opponent, Democrat Mike Espy, is a black man.
And this goes without even mentioning Mississippi’s long, shameful history of lynchings.
Surprising no one with common sense, after her racism became public knowledge, many corporate donors requested their money back. But as reported by the Daily Dot, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) filings, Hyde-Smith’s campaign has yet to return a lot of them.
There’s a mix of private donors as well as big corporations. Private donors are among those who have received their donations back. Of the three private donors who received their donations back, you might recognize the San Francisco Giants' principal owner Charles Johnson, who received his $2,700 donation back, as well as his wife, Ann, who received back a donation of the same amount.
But for big names you might recognize like Google, Facebook, and Walmart, it’s a different story. These corporations all requested their donations back, and according to these filings, have yet to receive them. (Amazon was another big-name donor, but they actually didn’t request a return on their donation).
As reported by CNN, in total, the campaign lost just over $23,000 in a combination of refunds and stopped payments between November and December. Several political action committees, for example, stopped payments on their checks and had their money returned that way. The MLB, the National Cattlemen's Association, and Amgen had all donated $5,000 each.
It’s important to note, as pointed out at the Daily Dot, that her campaign might not actually have to return the donations. (Legally speaking, not ethically). As reported by CNN, Hyde-Smith spent a whopping 1.7 million in final efforts to defeat her opponent. Is she worried the campaign doesn’t have enough to pay back all the refund requests?
Hyde-Smith returns to the Senate this January, after a disappointing win over Espy in November.