Two nooses were found hanging at the Mississippi State Capitol Monday morning around 7:15 a.m., WLBT reports.
NBC News: “Hate signs also were found, although it unclear what they said or if the signs referenced the racially charged runoff Senate election taking place Tuesday between Democrat Mike Espy, who is black, and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.”
Rep. Mia Love (R-UT) said that President Trump’s mocking of her election loss was “hurtful,” adding that he has “no real relationships, just transactions,” CNN reports.
Said Love: “The President’s behavior towards me made me wonder: What did he have to gain by saying such a thing about a fellow Republican. It was not really about asking him to do more, was it? Or was it something else? Well Mr. President, we’ll have to chat about that.”
James Hohmann: “If tomorrow’s special election in Mississippi is a referendum on President Trump, Republicans will win. That’s why he will hold not one but two rallies tonight for appointed GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.”
“Elections have become more nationalized and more polarized in the Trump era. Both trends work to the GOP’s advantage in this final federal election of 2018. Trump carried Mississippi by 18 points in 2016. For context, he won both Indiana and Missouri by 19 points. These are two of the four states where Republican challengers knocked off Democratic incumbents in the midterms.”
“There has been frustratingly little reliable public polling in this contest. Both sides agree that Hyde-Smith is ahead but that her lead has narrowed in recent weeks.”
Former Rep. David Dreier (R-CA) told NBC Los Angeles that Republicans lost the House because of the party’s lack of aggressively checking the White House.
Said Dreier: “Oversight, which is a Constitutionally directed responsibility, is so critically important. And my Republican colleagues did not, I believe, do an adequate enough job.”
He added: “Ours is a nation of institutions. We need to remember that, and Congress needs to exercise that authority.”
First Read: “According to the Cook Political Report’s David Wasserman, the Dem popular vote advantage is now a full 8 points, 53.1% to 45.1%.”
“Indeed, Dems are getting close to 60 million votes. In 2008, John McCain got 60 million votes; Mitt Romney got 61 million in 2012; and Trump got 63 million in 2016. It’s stunning that Dems got as many House votes as the GOP presidential nominees in 2008/2012/2016.”
First Read: “A few hours into Election Night 2018, it felt like it was happening again — Donald Trump and the GOP were about to defy political gravity… But by 11:00 pm ET that night — and especially in three weeks since the midterm elections, as races have been called and more votes have come in — it was clear that political gravity caught up to Trump. And that might have been one of the more consequential outcomes of the 2018 midterms:
“To be sure, Trump and Republicans turned out their voters, ensuring that the GOP didn’t lose more House seats and control of the U.S. Senate… But that the laws of political gravity applied to Trump in 2018 – and we also saw this play out in Virginia’s gubernatorial race in 2017, in Alabama’s Senate contest in December 2017 and the special PA-18 race in 2018 – provide an important lesson for 2020: Political fundamentals still matter.”
“Republicans think Cindy Hyde-Smith will ultimately pull out a win in Mississippi’s special Senate election on Tuesday. But they say the race has tightened — and after what happened in Alabama last year, they’re on edge,” Politico reports.
“A swirl of controversy surrounding the Republican senator — stirred up by her comment about attending a “public hanging” — has given Democrat Mike Espy momentum in the home stretch, officials from both parties say. Hyde-Smith has never trailed in polling, and Democrats acknowledge she’s likely to win, but they argue that her flubs have given Espy a very narrow opening if everything breaks his way.”
President Trump tweeted his support for Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) a day before he heads to the state to rally support for the embattled senator in her runoff election.
Said Trump: “She is an outstanding person who is strong on the Border, Crime, Military, our great Vets, Healthcare & the 2nd A. Needed in D.C.”
The Hill: Hundreds planning to protest Trump’s visit to Mississippi.
Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) “once promoted a measure that praised a Confederate soldier’s effort to ‘defend his homeland’ and pushed a revisionist view of the Civil War,” CNN reports.
“Hyde-Smith, a Republican, faces Mike Espy, a Democratic former congressman and agriculture secretary, in Tuesday’s runoff in Mississippi — the final Senate race to be decided in 2018. The measure… is the latest in a series of issues that have surfaced during her campaign, many of which have evoked Mississippi’s dark history of racism and slavery.”
“Cindy Hyde-Smith’s embattled bid for another two years in the Senate hit another race-related hurdle this weekend, as a report in a Mississippi newspaper revealed the Republican incumbent graduated high school at a segregation academy,” Politico reports.
“A photograph from the 1975 edition of the Lawrence County Academy yearbook, published Friday by the Jackson Free Press, appears to show Hyde-Smith among a group of cheerleaders — including a mascot holding a Confederate flag who appears to be wearing a costume imitating a Confederate general’s uniform. A sophomore girl in the picture is identified in the caption as Cindy Hyde.”
Dan Balz: “When President Trump won the White House in 2016, he did it by hijacking the Republican Party. Now, after what happened in the midterm elections, it’s clearer than ever that the president’s fortunes and his party’s future are at odds.
“If the enthusiasm for Trump in rural and small-town America constituted the story after 2016, the revolt against him in the suburbs, led by female voters, has become the story of the 2018 elections. The more you analyze the House results, the more the GOP’s suburban problem stands out.”
Politico: “We looked at the newest additions to the House and Senate — 100 non-incumbent winners — and found their average age is 49. That makes this incoming class the youngest in the past three cycles. It is also the most diverse cohort to date.”
In his closing ad before Mississippi’s U.S. Senate seat run off on November 27, Mike Espy (D) deftly ties Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s (R) “public hanging” remarks to potential harm to Mississippi’s state economy.
People: “They are longtime friends who have been bridesmaids in each other’s weddings, worked for and with each other for years, and supported one another with daily text chains and phone calls. And on Nov. 6, these five Democratic women candidates each won their state Senate races by double digits in Colorado, with their wins flipping the Senate from red to blue for the first time since 2013.”
“Democrats are on the cusp of flipping 40 seats in the House, solidifying what many prognosticators had long anticipated: a blue wave,” the Washington Examiner reports.
More than two weeks after Election Day, TJ Cox (D) trails Rep. David Valadao (R) by just 447-votes in California’s 21st congressional district.
Nate Silver: “We’re moving CA-21 to Lean D. Obviously going to be very close, but these late ballot updates keep coming in on pace with what Cox (D) would eventually need to win by a couple tenths of a point.”
David Wasserman: “T.J. Cox (D) now has a better than even chance to defeat Rep. David Valadao (R) in #CA21 and give Dems a 40 seat gain.”
“It could come down to a coin toss: A race that may decide control of the Alaska House of Representatives is now tied,” the Anchorage Daily News reports.
“According to complete pre-recount figures released by the Alaska Division of Elections on Wednesday afternoon, Republican candidate Bart LeBon and Democratic candidate Kathryn Dodge have each earned 2,161 votes in the race for Alaska House District 1.”
Rep. Rob Woodall (R-GA) barely survived his re-election against Carolyn Bourdeaux (D), prevailing in a recount two weeks after Election Day, Roll Call reports.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.