Mississippi results for every midterm race
The Mississippi elections will be a good test of exactly how unpredictable the 2018 midterms are going to get.
On their surface, both of the Senate races here in the deep South should be boring. Sen. Roger Wicker, a member of Senate Republican leadership, should handily win reelection. But the contest for retired Sen. Thad Cochran’s seat has the potential to get interesting.
Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith was appointed to fill Cochran’s seat earlier this year, and she is now facing the voters to finish his current term, which expires in 2020. But Mississippi’s unusual election laws give both a conservative insurgent and a Democratic challenger at least an outside chance to shake things up.
Mississippi has a jungle primary. Every candidate is running on the same ballot on Tuesday. If one candidate gets 50 percent on Election Day, they win. But if no candidate manages to clear 50 percent, the top two vote-getters will face off in a runoff election on November 27.
Hyde-Smith is contending with conservative Chris McDaniel, who very nearly won Cochran’s Senate seat in 2014, and Democrat Mike Espy, who rose pretty high in national politics in the 1990s before the taint of alleged (but never proven) corruption caught up to him.
The sitting senator, Hyde-Smith, should be treated as the favorite, but the unusual election system makes it unpredictable. Espy might be the favorite if he and McDaniel (who has racially retrograde views and associations) come out ahead of Hyde-Smith. But even a Hyde-Smith versus Espy race could be close. Election forecasters say the race leans, but only leans, toward the Republicans.
The entire statehouse is safely in Republican hands in this red state, and that will not change today, when none of its seats are on the ballot.
President Donald Trump is quite popular in this state, with a healthy majority of people saying they approve of his job performance, according to Morning Consult.
Mississippi US Senate
DEM | Mike Espy | 341,020 | 41% | |
GOP | Cindy Hyde-Smith | 337,512 | 41% | |
GOP | Chris McDaniel | 136,116 | 16% | |
IND | Tobey Bartee | 11,696 | 1% |
Mississippi US Senate
GOP | Roger Wicker | 463,089 | 58% | |
DEM | David Baria | 318,417 | 40% | |
LIB | Danny Bedwell | 11,467 | 1% | |
OTH | Shawn O'Hara (Reform Party) | 5,399 | 1% |
Mississippi US House 1
GOP | Trent Kelly | 145,025 | 68% | |
DEM | Randy Wadkins | 68,163 | 32% | |
OTH | Tracella Lou O'Hara Hill (Reform Party) | 1,504 | 1% |
Mississippi US House 2
DEM | Bennie Thompson | 145,093 | 73% | |
IND | Troy Ray | 40,889 | 21% | |
OTH | Irving Harris (Reform Party) | 12,315 | 6% |
Mississippi US House 3
GOP | Michael Guest | 148,535 | 62% | |
DEM | Michael Evans | 87,383 | 37% | |
OTH | Matthew Holland (Reform Party) | 2,300 | 1% |
Mississippi US House 4
GOP | Steven Palazzo | 143,709 | 69% | |
DEM | Jeramey Anderson | 63,756 | 30% | |
OTH | Lajena Sheets (Reform Party) | 2,162 | 1% |