Summary

News

Cindy Hyde-Smith

Current Position: US Senator since 2018
Affiliation: Republican
Candidate: 2020 US Senator

Cindy Hyde-Smith is the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in Washington, D.C.  Initially appointed by Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant in April 2018 to fill the U.S. Senate seat vacated by long-time Senator Thad Cochran, Hyde-Smith won a special election for the U.S. Senate in November 2018.  She has established herself as Senator committed to conservative principles as she works for all Mississippians.

In the 116th Congress, Hyde-Smith serves on the Senate Committee on Appropriations, Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, and Committee on Rules and Administration.

For more information, see this Cindy Hyde-Smith post.

Mike Espy

Current Position: Other
Affiliation: Democrat
Former Position(s): Former Secretary of Agriculture and US Congressman

Mississippi has been held back for too long. I’m running for U.S. Senate to be a voice for all Mississippians

I ran for the United States Senate in the 2018 special election, and received almost 47 percent of the vote, the highest percentage for a Democrat in 30 years. I’m running again in 2020, because I believe in Mississippi and Cindy Hyde Smith is hurting our state. Cindy Hyde Smith promotes images that do not represent today’s Mississippi. She openly laughs about public hangings and makes statements supporting voter suppression. It’s hard to bring good jobs to Mississippi with a United States Senator acting like that.

For more information, see this Mike Espy post.

Issues

Governance

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Senator Hyde-Smith, as a conservative and small business owner, understands the importance of responsible fiscal policies.  The Senator has introduced legislation to amend the U.S. Constitution to require the President to submit, and Congress to approve, a balanced budget each year.

Senator Hyde-Smith supports policies that responsibly reduce the federal tax burden on small businesses, families, and individuals.  She strongly believes workers should be able to keep more of their hard-earned money.

Mike Espy 

N/A

Civil Rights

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

2nd Amendment

Senator Hyde-Smith, who holds an enhanced-carry permit, is a strong advocate for protecting the Constitutional right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. The Senator has authored and supported federal legislation defending Second Amendment rights and is committed to supporting efforts that would prevent the federal government from infringing upon those rights.

Mike Espy

N/A

Economy

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Jobs & Economy

Senator Hyde-Smith supports federal policies to foster an economic environment that encourages job growth in Mississippi and the nation.  She supports the tax cuts and reforms enacted by President Trump and the Republican-majority Congress.  She believes in eliminating burdensome federal regulations that hinder small businesses, farmers, and industry.

The Senator supports policies and opportunities to continue and expand Mississippi’s ability to contribute to national security, high-tech research, agricultural innovation, and energy production.

Senator Hyde-Smith welcomes opportunities to work with local, state, and federal officials to make Mississippi a better place to work and raise families.

Rural Communities

Senator Hyde-Smith believes the Unites States is strong when agriculture and rural America are strong.  The Senator understands the unique challenges faced by rural Mississippi to provide residents with basic services, infrastructure, education, and health care.  She supports policies that will allow rural communities to expand economically.  The federal government should not be a roadblock to the growth and wellbeing of rural America.

Mike Espy 

Agriculture

I grew up in the small, rural Mississippi town of Yazoo City. I cherish the rural way of life, and Mississippi is blessed with fertile lands, rich bodies of water, and dedicated farmers. As our nation’s 25th secretary of agriculture, I used my experience and knowledge working and living in Mississippi’s rural communities to negotiate trade deals and take on entrenched interests.

My father was a student of noted professor George Washington Carver at Tuskegee Institute, and dedicated his life to uplifting our rural communities. After he graduated college, he served as a U.S. Department of Agriculture county agent in Crittenden County, Arkansas, assigned to serving that state’s Black farmers. He helped them to secure farm loans, increase productivity and locate new markets. Like my father, I stand with Mississippi’s farmers and I’ve dedicated my life to expanding opportunities in our rural and agricultural communities.

In Mississippi, agriculture is the largest part of our economy and it is incredibly diverse. Catfish, poultry, timber, beef, soy, corn — you name it, our farmers probably have it. But over the last several years, farmers have been put through the wringer — battling biblical-level flooding, devastating tornadoes, punitive tariffs, and most recently backups in our food supply chain brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.

I have the experience of having personally negotiated two multilateral trade treaties that greatly expanded market opportunities for our nation’s farmers. They deserve a proven advocate for them in the U.S. Senate — not someone engaged in hyper-partisan political gamesmanship. I will work with any president and any administration to improve opportunities for Mississippi’s farmers and make sure those opportunities directly benefit them.

…

Economy & Jobs

I know how important Mississippi’s small businesses are to our state’s economy. For as long as I can remember, I worked in my family’s small business. — At Century Funeral Home, I greeted customers, collected funeral dues, typed up premium books on insurance policies- and when I was older, I regularly handled funeral ceremonies.

Starting and running a small business takes incredible perseverance, hard work, and a love for our community. Mississippi’s small businesses are a huge part of our state’s economy, making up almost 50% of our state’s private-sector workforce. Our leaders need to do more to support our small businesses, especially our minority, LGBTQ+, and women-owned businesses, by providing them the tools they need to grow.

Mississippi’s leaders have failed to make the long-term investments that would allow our state to grow and compete in the 21st century. Our economy relies heavily on low-wage, service jobs, creating an income gap between our state and the rest of the nation. As that gap has grown, our young professionals flee to other states in search of higher pay and diverse career opportunities. A lot of people refer to this as the “brain drain” crisis.

…

See post for more info.

Education

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Senator Hyde-Smith understands the importance of education to ensure a better future for Mississippi children and their ability to be part of an economically-strong state.  The Senator believes in the importance of state and local control of public education, while recognizing the role of the federal government to support educational achievement across the country.

Senator Hyde-Smith is also supportive of the significant federal research and development initiatives involving Mississippi institutions of higher learning—work that, among other things, improves American competitiveness, national security and agricultural production.

Mike Espy 

Education

Every child in Mississippi deserves access to a quality education that will allow them to reach their full potential — no matter the school they attend, the color of their skin, or how much money their parents make.

I grew up in Mississippi while our K-12 schools were desegregated, but not yet integrated. I was fortunate enough to attend a local parochial school until my junior year, until the school closed and I transferred to all-white Yazoo City High School. For a semester, me and my twin sister, Michelle, were among the very few Black students there. Every day was a challenge: from being called the “N-word”, to having to fend off racial attacks by students- and even sometimes from teachers I confess that I didn’t learn very much during that semester.

While it has been many years since Mississippi’s schools were desegregated, the legacy of that time can still be seen in our state’s education system. In 2016, half of all Black students in the state attended school in a district rated D or F — and 86% of those students were Black. The achievement gap between Black students and white students is immense. One piece or legislation won’t solve these problems. Only by supporting our students and our dedicated teachers can we begin to give every student in our state a high-quality education from the roots up.

I support all schools in our state. But public dollars should go toward our public schools. Period. Too many Mississippi school districts are struggling as dollars meant for them are diverted away. For years, Mississippi’s leaders have ignored laws, allowing our public schools to be underfunded by $2.3 billion dollars since 2008. Decisions about education are best left to our educators, teachers, parents and school administrators on the ground, and I will fight to get them the support and funding they need.

See post for more info.

Environment

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Energy & Environment

Senator Hyde-Smith knows dependence on foreign oil poses economic and national security risks for the United States.  The Senator supports responsible exploration and production of Mississippi’s and the nation’s energy resources, including the development of new technologies to support the production of biofuels and other energy sources.

Senator Hyde-Smith understands the importance of conservation and good stewardship of our natural resources.  She supports balanced and responsible resource management policies to ensure Mississippi’s forests, wetlands, and coastal region remain assets for future generations to enjoy.

Mike Espy

N/A

Health Care

Cindy Hyde-Smith

Health Care

Senator Hyde-Smith supports common-sense, patient-centered health care reforms to help Mississippi families afford health insurance coverage without expanding the government’s role in providing health care.  She believes the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, should be repealed.

Senator Hyde-Smith appreciates the role of the state’s universities to support federal research on better prevention and treatment efforts on chronic diseases, like diabetes, that affect Mississippians disproportionally.

Mike Espy 

Health Care

AFFORDABLE, QUALITY HEALTH CARE FOR ALL MISSISSIPPIANS

I know how important affordable health care is for all Mississippians, because it’s part of my family’s legacy. In 1924, my grandfather, Thomas J. Huddleston, started the first Black-owned hospital in Mississippi at the height of Jim Crow. Through ingenuity and hard work, for 50 years, the Afro-American Sons and Daughters Hospital served Black residents of Mississippi, many of which had few options for care. Within circumstances of poverty and discrimination, the Afro-American Sons and Daughters Hospital gave quality, affordable health care to thousands.

Following in the footsteps of my grandfather, I will work to guarantee all Mississippians access to quality and affordable health care — which is so desperately needed especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Too many Mississippians are getting crushed by the rising cost of premiums, copays, and prescription drugs.

THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

I am committed to building upon the Affordable Care Act in order to lower health care costs for all Mississippians. The Affordable Care Act lowered costs for high-quality health insurance, provided essential protections for people with pre-existing conditions, allowed children to stay on a parent’s or guardian’s plan through the age of 26, and guaranteed health insurance includes essential care benefits, such as maternal care.

Over 600,000 Mississippians — more than a third of our state — have a pre-existing condition. I count myself as one of them. I know what it’s like to struggle with your health insurance coverage or get charged thousands of dollars for necessary treatment. I will fight to make sure that the pre-existing conditions protections in the Affordable Care Act are maintained so that no one with a pre-existing condition is charged more for insurance or denied it altogether.

MEDICAID EXPANSION

A large part of the Affordable Care Act is Medicaid expansion. Thirty-nine states and D.C. have expanded Medicaid — but not Mississippi. I want to expand Medicaid as a way to support our rural hospitals as they face a growing crisis over uncompensated care.

As a child, I suffered from chronic asthma. And it was the care of rural hospitals that saved me from a severe asthma attack. Yet last year, a young mother from northeast Mississippi tragically died of an asthma attack because her rural hospital’s emergency room had closed years prior due to financial insecurity and she was too far away from the nearest hospital to get treatment in time. The young mother who passed in 2019 and I had the same problem — an asthma attack — nearly 60 years apart. But for all the progress we’ve made in those 60 years, we have failed our rural hospitals and our rural communities because we won’t expand Medicaid to guarantee affordable and accessible health care to every Mississippi.

See post for more info.

Immigration

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Border Security & Immigration

Senator Hyde-Smith believes the federal government’s first responsibility is defense of the American people, which includes securing the nation’s borders.  She is a strong proponent of strengthening border security and the enforcement of U.S. immigration laws.  The Senator does not believe in rewarding those who enter the country illegally.

The Senator supports the implementation of a nationwide E-Verify system to ensure a legal workforce and enable American jobs to be filled by legal American workers.

Mike Espy

N/A

Infrastructure

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Infrastructure & Public Works

Senator Hyde-Smith believes rebuilding infrastructure is key to the future of Mississippi and the nation.  She understands that aging highways, bridges, and basic public works infrastructure represents an impediment to public safety and economic growth.  She includes the need for greater broadband access among these needs.  Senator Hyde-Smith is committed to using her committee assignments to support responsible efforts to improve infrastructure, particularly in rural areas.

Mike Espy 

N/A

Safety

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Law Enforcement & Public Safety

Senator Hyde-Smith has great respect and admiration for the law enforcement and first responder personnel who dedicate their lives to protecting the public.  As a member of the Senate Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, she will continue to support programs and policies that enable these public servants to do their jobs more effectively.

Homeland Security

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as the lead agency for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and U.S. Coast Guard, plays an important role in Mississippi.

Senator Hyde-Smith is committed to working closely with FEMA and other federal agencies to ensure Mississippians are prepared for natural disasters and emergency situations.  She supports hazard mitigation policies, which have proven to help save lives and save taxpayer dollars.

The Senator also supports Homeland Security efforts to protect the American people from domestic and foreign threats, which include ensuring a strong and well-equipped U.S. Coast Guard.

FEMA

Senator Hyde-Smith believes preparedness is imperative to protecting lives and property when severe storms and natural disasters hit Mississippi and other areas of the country.  A state-level lawmaker when Hurricane Katrina devastated the state, she recognizes the role of the federal government in helping individuals, communities, and the state rebound after such disasters.  Senator Hyde-Smith supports the Federal Emergency Management Agency and efforts to improve the agency’s effectiveness.

Mike Espy 

N/A

Veterans

Cindy Hyde-Smith 

Senator Hyde-Smith is committed to ensuring the federal government meets its commitments to the men and women who have bravely served in the Armed Forces.  She understands the changing needs of America’s newest generation of veterans and their families, and is dedicated to supporting efforts to make sure they receive the highest-quality medical care possible.

Mike Espy 

N/A