DAY TWENTY-SIX - MIKE ESPY

Sep 24

Day Twenty-six | Mike Espy | Mississippi Senate
648 Sawbuck Patriots | $6965 pledged today | $204,431 donated overall

Team:

Our group has now sent $200K+ to help Dems win races. I'm grateful to you for your persistence.

So is this guy:

Dear Sawbuck Patriots:

I’m sending you thanks from Colorado. My team and I appreciate the flood of ten dollar contributions – some were quite a bit more! – from your group.

Our team will put your donations to work ensuring Democrats turn out to vote early and on election day, removing the Republican incumbent from this Senate seat, and electing Joe Biden – essential steps we must take to restore dignity, integrity, and common sense to the White House and to the Senate.

Your commitment to taking one daily action that helps preserve our democracy is exactly what’s needed by concerned Americans in this uncertain time. I’m grateful to be the twenty-fifth recipient of your targeted donations – and I hope that you’ll keep up the action every day until the election, and beyond. Together, we’ll help create a more perfect union.

The work is before us. Let’s do it! Thank you.

John Hickenlooper

THE SITUATION: Mississippi.

In normal years, that word would be enough to end a conversation about a Democrat winning a Senate seat. Fortunately, this isn’t a normal year.

The last time Democrats held Senate seats in this state was a long, long time ago: two racist dinosaurs named John Stennis and James Eastland were Mississippi Senators from 1947-1989 and 1943-1978, respectively. Since ’89, Mississippi has been represented in the Senate exclusively by Rs. In addition, all the statewide offices, the State Senate, and the State House are represented by Rs as well. House representative Bennie Thompson is the sole D federal officeholder, representing MI-2 since 1993, which includes Jackson, Greenville, and the Mississippi Delta – MS-2 being the only majority-Black district in Mississippi, uncoincidentally.

But this non-conversation got restarted by some news from earlier this week. (More on that later.)

THE OPPOSITION: The delightful Cindy Hyde-Smith. Appointed to the Senate to succeed a retiring Senator, she won the special election to fill out the rest of his term, narrowly defeating her D opponent. During the race, she explained that if she was invited to a public hanging, she’d “be in the front row.” She also appeared in a video clip explaining that “it would be a great idea” to make it more difficult for liberals to vote.

As a younger person, Hyde-Smith attended Lawrence County Academy, a Mississippi school created to avoid federally required court-mandated racial integration - a "segregation academy" with a Confederate mascot. As a parent, Hyde-Smith sent her own daughter to Brookhaven Academy, another segregation academy.

She votes with Trump 96% of the time, asked Mississippi to pass laws banning same-sex marriage from happening on state property, is a big fan of walls, and supports repealing Obamacare. Her website advertises her as a “rock-solid conservative,” and the top three issues found there are banning reproductive choice, stopping illegal immigration, and protecting the second amendment. Perhaps her schtick is starting to wear thin with voters; polls have shown her state favorability rating at a quite-low 45%.

She continues to remain scarce, once again making few appearances during this campaign, and dodging questions when she does show up. (Narrator voice: “So you’re saying she’s consistent, at least.”)

OUR CANDIDATE: Mike Espy was born in Yazoo City, Mississippi, was educated at Howard University and got his law degree from Santa Clara. In 1987, Mike Espy became the first Black man to represent Mississippi in Congress since Reconstruction, was re-elected three times, and resigned in 1993 as the US Senate confirmed him to serve as Secretary of Agriculture in the Clinton administration.

Out of public service for a couple decades, Espy was the first declared candidate for this Senate seat in 2018, after R Senator Thad Cochran announced his incipient resignation due to health concerns. In the crowded primary, Espy and Hyde-Smith tied with 41%; in the runoff, she defeated him by five points. They’re facing off again in a rematch, two years later, for a full, six-year term.

Make no mistake, he’s relatively conservative for a D (it is Mississippi, after all), though he’s still far to Hyde-Smith’s left. He is personally opposed to abortion but unbendingly supportive of Roe v. Wade, and he is a supporter of gun ownership (though the NRA endorsed Hyde-Smith). But he supports Obamacare, opposes Trump’s dumb border wall, and consistently aligns himself with a national D platform.

But most interestingly and importantly to us, he can actually help us flip the Senate – despite the one-word sentence of “Mississippi” up there at the top. Six months ago, this race wasn’t on ANYONE’s radar as a possible red-to-blue opportunity; Hyde-Smith was ahead of Espy by 26 points in early-race polling. But on Monday, a polling outfit unaffiliated with either campaign released a poll that tells a far different story: Hyde-Smith now leads Espy by just one point – 41% to 40%. (An internal Espy poll done in August showed that he’d closed the gap to five points, but national handicappers discounted that poll’s veracity, due to its origin.)

Today, I’d like you to consider donating more than a sawbuck; Espy’s campaign has suffered financially to this point, as he’s been ignored by the big-time national funders thus far in favor of Senate races that looked more winnable. And with only 3M people in Mississippi, your dollars make more of an impact here than they do in other, more heavily populated states.

I hope we can help make up for our party’s collective inattention to the Espy campaign, which I am happily (and I hope reliably) informed is coming to an end as you read this. Personally, I’m donating $200 today, doubling my daily commitment; please join me, if you’re able (and shoot me an email saying you did, if you do.) Because THE MATH SAYS MIKE CAN WIN.

Sawbuck Patriots, it’s go time: click HERE and send $10 (or more) to Mike's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $6965 today.

And before I sign off today:

say her name out loud: Breonna Taylor.

Thank you.

- Alex

Alex Clemens

DAY TWENTY-SIX - MIKE ESPY

Sawbuck Patriots, it’s go time: click HERE and send $10 (or more) to Mike's campaign. Our collective effort will invest $6965 today.

DAY TWENTY-SEVEN - WELCOMING CITIZENS HOME

DAY TWENTY-FIVE - JOHN HICKENLOOPER

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