Clearly nervous about the idea, Democrat Mike Espy topping the Senate race with candidates of all parties on the same ballot, Mississippi Republicans have begun to rally behind incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde Smith, R-Miss., as their best hope of winning the subsequent runoff.
An NBC News/Marist poll released Tuesday showed Hyde-Smith, who was appointed in April after Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., resigned, leading the crowded field with 38 percent. Espy, who was Bill Clinton's secretary of agriculture, placed second with 29 percent, followed by Republican State Sen. Chris McDaniel at 15 percent. The margin of error is plus or minus 6.1 percent.
These latest figures were a dramatic shift from those in the same poll a week earlier. At that time, NBC News/Marist showed Espy leading with 25 percent, followed by Hyde-Smith at 24 percent, and McDaniel 15 percent.
Should no candidate win a majority of the vote Nov. 6, a runoff between the top two vote-getters regardless of party will be held Nov. 27.
The shift to Hyde-Smith, the first woman to represent the Magnolia State in either house of Congress, is due in part to President Donald Trump. Last month, he came to Mississippi and made a strong pitch for electing Hyde-Smith. In addition, Hyde-Smith herself won high marks on the right for her powerful Senate speech calling for the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
McDaniel, a favorite of former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, has not been able to get much traction. Most Mississippi Republicans attribute this to him losing 2014 primary challenge to the more moderate Sen. Cochran. After losing a tight run-off to Cochran, McDaniel did not congratulate, nor endorse, the senator.
Former State GOP Chairman Wirt Yerger, widely considered the father of Mississippi's Republican Party, told Newsmax, "Mississippians don't like poor sportsmanship, and they remember it."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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