,Cindy Hyde-Smith wins Mississippi U.S. Senate runoff.
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith defeats Democrat Mike Espy in special election; Peter Doocy reports from Jackson, Miss.
Mississippi proved once again Tuesday that is it a conservative state whose residents prefer Republican policies when voters elected GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith – a steadfast supporter of President Trump – to complete the term of former Republican Sen. Thad Cochran.
The president traveled to Mississippi on Monday to campaign for Hyde-Smith and seal the deal for her election, just as did earlier for other Republican senators-elect: Kevin Cramer in North Dakota, Josh Hawley in Missouri, Mike Braun in Indiana and Rick Scott in Florida.
Taking nothing for granted, President Trump went “all in” for Hyde-Smith by holding huge get- out-the-vote rallies first in Tupelo in northern Mississippi and then in Biloxi in the southern part of the state.
Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate in the spring by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant to replace Cochran when Cochran retired due to poor health.
Hyde-Smith defeated former U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, a Democrat who had served in President Clinton’s Cabinet and who was also a former member of the U.S. House. With 95 percent of precincts reporting, Hyde-Smith was ahead of Espy by a margin of 54.4 to 45.6 percent.
Tuesday’s election was a run-off, required because two other candidates for the Senate who trailed in the Nov. 6 midterm election prevented either Hyde-Smith or Espy from winning a majority of votes.
In voting for Hyde-Smith, Mississippi voters made clear – as they had when they voted for Trump two years earlier – that they want low taxes, secure borders, and judges who defend the Constitution. They want their Second Amendment rights protected and they want a strong American military.
With all eyes on Mississippi in the last federal election of the 2018 election cycle, Hyde-Smith stressed her strong support of President Trump’s America First agenda – and it paid off.
Hyde-Smith’s election increases the Republican majority in the 100-member Senate to 53 seats, up from the current 51 seats. The bigger GOP majority will make it easier for the president’s nominees to the courts and other positions to win Senate confirmation, and increase support for his legislative agenda.
Hyde-Smith now becomes the first woman elected to the Senate from Mississippi.
President Trump carried Mississippi by a commanding 18 percentage points over Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race, winning 58 percent to 40 percent.
In the end, liberal Democrat Espy didn’t have much of a chance because Mississippians had a lot of reasons to support President Trump’s candidate.
The choice facing Mississippi voters Tuesday was clear. A vote for Hyde-Smith was a vote to continue these Trump administration successes, while a vote for Espy was a vote to stop them.
The Trump economy is on fire and voters recognize it. America is respected around the globe again and voters appreciate it. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh is on the Supreme Court and voters remember it.
The choice facing Mississippi voters Tuesday was clear. A vote for Hyde-Smith was a vote to continue these Trump administration successes, while a vote for Espy was a vote to stop them.
Mississippi voters paid close attention and chose the candidate with a positive platform that includes more of the pro-growth Trump economic policies that have already paved the way for historically low unemployment rates and record employment numbers across the board.
And with a crisis brewing on America’s southern border, the people of Mississippi were in no mood to send a liberal to the Senate to join Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and his open borders advocates.
The president and Senate Republicans scored a remarkable feat by increasing the GOP majority in the Senate by two seats, when you consider that Democrats won control of the House of Representatives on the other side of the Capitol in the midterms.
In most midterm elections, the party controlling the White House loses seats in both the House and Senate.
On the House side, time will tell if the new Democratic majority will have any interest in compromising on issues important to the American people, such as border security and the cost of health care.
The ball is in the court of House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, who is expected to be elected the next speaker of the House in January.
Will Pelosi push any legislation that has a chance of passing the Republican Senate and actually gaining the president’s signature and becoming law? Or will she turn her back on the American people and have a full-time partisan witch hunt?
Choosing the latter will ensure the Democrats a ticket back into the minority status in the House in two short years.
The American people decided to send a Republican Senate and a Democratic House to Washington to work with President Trump to solve problems and make their lives better. I know that the president and congressional Republicans are fully on board to get the job done.
Are the Democrats?
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