JACKSON, Miss. — Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith has won Mississippi’s Senate runoff, defeating Democrat Mike Espy after drawing intense scrutiny for comments during the four-week runoff campaign.

Hyde-Smith had 54 percent of the vote to Espy’s 46 percent with 95 percent of precincts reporting after the Associated Press called the race. The result means Republicans will hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate next year, and it makes Hyde-Smith the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in the Senate. She will have to run for reelection to a full term in 2020, after being appointed to fill Thad Cochran’s seat earlier this year.

Hyde-Smith faced an unusually energetic special election challenge from Espy, a former congressman and Clinton-era agriculture secretary who inspired slim Democratic hopes of repeating the party’s miraculous Senate victory in Alabama last year, as Hyde-Smith faced a storm of controversy over a recent remark about attending a “public hanging.”

“Cindy Hyde-Smith has been a strong conservative voice since joining the Senate, so it should come as no surprise that she was elected by Mississippians to represent them in Washington,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, which spent more than $1 million on TV ads during the runoff.

It was clear Tuesday night that Hyde-Smith was lagging typical Republican performance in the state — but not nearly to the degree necessary for a stunning upset defeat.

Hyde-Smith, in her victory speech, called it an “unbelievable campaign.” She thanked President Donald Trump for his two rallies in the state Monday, which helped ensure strong Republican turnout, and also thanked Gov. Phil Bryant for appointing her to the seat and supporting her campaign.

Hyde-Smith told reporters after her speech that she spoke to Trump shortly after the race was called, and said he told her she had “been through a storm and you’ve survived it.” She said she had apologized for her controversial comments and planned to move on and look forward.

Asked if anything she had endured during the campaign would prevent her from running for a full term in 2020, she said, “absolutely not.”

“This is not for the faint of heart and I’m certainly not the faint of heart,” Hyde-Smith said.

Espy, who is African-American, called Hyde-Smith’s “public hanging” comment a “black eye” for the state. Hyde-Smith ultimately apologized to “anyone offended” by her remark, which she said was an exaggerated form of regard for a supporter. But the comment, which some viewed as connected to Mississippi’s history of lynching, brought unexpected scrutiny to Hyde-Smith, putting Republicans on edge even in a state that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982.

Party officials believe Espy’s performance gives Democrats hope for potentially rebuilding and becoming more competitive in future statewide races. Democrats hope to challenge for the state’s governorship in 2019.

“While this is not the result we were hoping for, I am proud of the historic campaign we ran and grateful for the support we received across Mississippi,” Espy said in a statement. “We built the largest grassroots organization our state has seen in a generation, through a coalition of voters who shared our belief that Mississippi’s future will be brighter than our past.”

There were concerns among Republicans in Mississippi and Washington about how Hyde-Smith handled the scrutiny that followed her controversial comments. Austin Barbour, a veteran Republican strategist who has managed statewide campaigns in Mississippi, said he thought Hyde-Smith should have apologized more quickly for the “public hanging” comment. She initially declined to apologize and largely avoided discussing the remark before offering an apology to “anyone offended” during the only debate between the candidates one week prior to Election Day.

Barbour added that Trump’s two rallies in support of Hyde-Smith Monday ensured Republicans didn’t take the race for granted.

During his visit Monday night, Trump returned to the formula that helped him boost several red-state Republican Senate candidates to victory just a few weeks ago, bashing Espy as too liberal for the state and comparing him to national Democrats unpopular in Mississippi.

“The president is such a motivating factor for people in Mississippi who want to go out to vote, for both sides but obviously more for him than against him,” said Barbour. “[Trump] coming to the state the night before the election, there was no way for Espy to counter that.”

Source: Politico