That’s A Wrap
With the AP and several other outlets having called Mississippi’s U.S. Senate runoff for Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, we’re calling it a night, too.
Going into Tuesday there was speculation that the race would be competitive, and early in the evening it did seem as if Espy stood a chance to pull off the upset win. He was outperforming in some counties that Democrats hadn’t fared as well in the first round of voting. Ultimately, Espy did outperform his Nov. 6 marks, but not by enough to overcome the political landscape of a state as red as Mississippi (at least in statewide elections).
Mississippi leans about 15 points more Republicans than the country overall, according to our partisan lean metric. And Hyde-Smith is likely to end up winning by a margin in the high single digits -- a sign that her campaign, which was pretty poorly run and dogged by controversies, cost her some votes. A less controversial GOP candidate likely would have won by more.
Republicans will now enter the 116th Congress with a 53-47 majority.