In an unexpected move, Politico’s Alex Isenstadt reports that the NRSC is planning to spend at least $1 million over the next two weeks to help Mississippi GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in her Nov. 27 special election against Democrat Mike Espy, and Medium Buying says their first TV buy will start on Thursday. Additionally, a group called Mississippi Victory Fund is also deploying $300,000 to aide Hyde-Smith’s cause. So far, we haven’t seen any major spending to support Espy, and it’s not clear if Team Red is just playing it safe after a cycle full of unpleasant special election surprises, or if they’re actually worried about an upset in this conservative state.
Meanwhile, the GOP seems determined to defend Hyde-Smith’s notorious “public hanging” remark past the bitter end. Gov. Phil Bryant, who named her to this seat earlier this year, appeared with Hyde-Smith on Monday and insisted that his appointee “meant no offense by that statement” and in fact was “sensitive to race relations in this state.” From there, he engaged in some epic whataboutism, declaring, “In my heart, I am confused about where the outrage is at about 20 million African-American children that have been aborted,” adding, ”No one wants to say anything about that.” Hyde-Smith stood in silence beside Bryant the whole time.
Hyde-Smith herself has not apologized and only put out a statement on Sunday saying she “used an exaggerated expression of regard, and any attempt to turn this into a negative connotation is ridiculous.” When reporters asked her the next day if she was familiar with the state’s history of lynchings, all she would say is variations of “I put out a statement yesterday,” and “That’s all I’m gonna say about it.” Espy, who along with 40 percent of the state’s residents is black, was not amused by any of this, and said Monday that Hyde-Smith was “reinforc[ing] stereotypes that we’ve been trying to get away from for decades, stereotypes that continue to harm our economy and cost us jobs.”