Mississippi Democrat says he’d be ‘senator for everybody’
JACKSON, Miss. – Mike Espy is doing a balancing act as he runs for U.S. Senate in Mississippi.
As an African-American Democrat, he needs a strong turnout of black voters. But he can’t win without some white support in a conservative Southern state where voting patterns tend to break along racial lines. While most black votes go to Democrats, the white majority leans Republican.
Mississippi hasn’t sent a black man to the Senate since Reconstruction or a Democrat since Ronald Reagan was president.
Espy, a former U.S. agriculture secretary, is one of three candidates trying to unseat Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith next month.
The race could have national significance as Republicans try to maintain a Senate majority.
Mississippi’s governor appointed Hyde-Smith to serve temporarily when longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran retired in April.
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