Elevate your local knowledge

Sign up for the iNFOnews newsletter today!

Select Region

Selecting your primary region ensures you get the stories that matter to you first.

The Latest: Trump could return to Mississippi for senator

JACKSON, Miss. – The Latest on a U.S. Senate special election runoff in Mississippi (all times local):

6:20 p.m.

President Donald Trump might return to Mississippi to campaign for a Republican U.S. senator who’s facing a Democrat in a runoff.

The White House is looking at holding a rally in Mississippi before the Nov. 27 runoff, but plans were still not definite on Wednesday. That’s according to a person with knowledge of White House thinking who is not authorized to speak publicly.

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith faces Democrat Mike Espy, who is a former U.S. agriculture secretary.

Trump endorsed Hyde-Smith in August, and she appeared with him at a rally in early October in northern Mississippi.

Gov. Phil Bryant appointed Hyde-Smith as a temporary successor to longtime Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who retired in April. The runoff winner gets the final two years of a term Cochran started.

____

4:28 p.m.

A black Democratic challenger says a white Republican U.S. senator from Mississippi needs to fully explain her comment about a “public hanging.”

Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith made the comment in a video that surfaced Sunday. She praised a cattle rancher at a Nov. 2 campaign event by saying: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”

Democrat Mike Espy said Wednesday in Jackson that Hyde-Smith’s comment was “hurtful and harmful.”

Mississippi has a history of racially motivated lynchings.

Hyde-Smith has said she used an “exaggerated expression of regard” for a supporter. She would not answer reporters’ repeated questions about it Monday in Mississippi.

Hyde-Smith and Espy are competing in a Nov. 27 runoff, with the winner getting the final two years of a term.

News from © iNFOnews.ca, . All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Join the Conversation!

Want to share your thoughts, add context, or connect with others in your community?