Mike Espy (D): Legal. "I'm anti-abortion, but I'm pro-choice." "Women should have the basic right to make their own decisions."
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Ban. "100% pro-life."
Chris McDaniel (R): Ban. Has authored repeated "legislation to protect the unborn." Voted to ban abortions after 15 weeks.
Q: Healthcare: Allow Planned Parenthood to receive public funds for non-abortion health services?
Mike Espy (D): Probable yes. Says will fight for women's rights & reproductive health care. including the availability of medical services.
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): No. Opposes public funds going toward family planning services at healthcare organizations that also provide abortions.
Chris McDaniel (R): No. "Defund Planned Parenthood." Doesn't matter that their clinic doesn't offer abortion, because their money is fungible.
Mike Espy (D): Yes. "Committed to ALL Mississippians having access to their rights of citizenship," regardless of sexual orientation.
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): No. "Personally believes marriage is between a man & a woman."
Chris McDaniel (R): No. Supreme Court gay marriage decision "has absolutely no basis" in Constitution or common law.
Mike Espy (D): No. Need "laws against waste, fraud & corruption" to protect people. "Wall Street seems immune from any restraint."
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Unclear. Voted to roll back CFPB rule limiting potentially discriminatory auto loan rates.
Chris McDaniel (R): Unclear on CFPB. End "burdensome regulations." Require Congress to approve new regulations.
Mike Espy (D): Wouldn't say absolutely no. Maybe medical first. "I would just have to know if it was safe" & "a financial benefit to the state."
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Likely no. Voted to block amendment that would have allowed banks to work with legitimate cannabis businesses.
Chris McDaniel (R): Leave it up to the states.
Mike Espy (D): Wouldn't say absolutely no. Maybe medical first. "I would just have to know if it was safe" & "a financial benefit to the state."
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Likely no. Voted to block amendment that would have allowed banks to work with legitimate cannabis businesses.
Chris McDaniel (R): Leave it up to the states.
Mike Espy (D): Wouldn't say absolutely no. Maybe medical first. "I would just have to know if it was safe" & "a financial benefit to the state."
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Likely no. Voted to block amendment that would have allowed banks to work with legitimate cannabis businesses.
Chris McDaniel (R): Leave it up to the states.
Mike Espy (D): Yes. Would increase interest subsidies on student loans. Also, protect students from predatory for-profit schools.
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): No position found.
Chris McDaniel (R): No. Has said the federal government should have no role in education, not even to pay for it.
Mike Espy (D): No. Tariffs need to come to a halt. They harm Mississippi soybean production.
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Yes. Hard for soybean growers, but they "just have to hold on. They will be better off in the long run."
Chris McDaniel (R): Yes. "China First is NOT America First. Mexico First is NOT America first."
Mike Espy (D): Probable No. Says "I stand firmly for civil rights, voting rights & women's rights."
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Yes. Voted for legislation requiring specific forms of voter identification in order to vote.
Chris McDaniel (R): Yes. Helped defeat bill giving felons the right to vote & instituting early voting. Instead, pushed for a stronger voter-ID bill.
Mike Espy (D): Yes, up to a point. "I believe in the Second Amendment. but things have changed." No assault weapons to anyone under 21 or "declared a danger to himself or others."
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): No. Says, "Right to bear arms is essential to American Liberty. No law-abiding Mississippian should EVER be denied their constitutional rights."
Chris McDaniel (R): No. Will never take away rights of law-abiding gun-owners.
Mike Espy (D): Support. Protect while expanding mental health & prescription drug coverage & offering preventive services without cost-sharing.
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Repeal ObamaCare. Help families afford health insurance coverage without expanding government role.
Chris McDaniel (R): Repeal. "I WILL support & vote for the full repeal of ObamaCare."
Q: Require people to work to receive Medicaid?
Mike Espy (D): No. "Mississippians should have full access." Expand funding of Medicaid & CHIP.
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Unclear. Support Farm Bill amendment adding a work requirement to food stamp programs.
Chris McDaniel (R): Probable yes, though no Medicaid mention. "I WILL support & vote for work requirements for welfare recipients."
Mike Espy (D): "Separating children from their families is misguided. We can have secure borders WITHOUT punishing innocent children."
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): "Distressing to me as a mother, but we cannot lose sight that US immigration laws must be enforced."
Chris McDaniel (R): Obama "separated children from families & the national press said NOTHING. But now there is outrage."
Mike Espy (D): Yes. Strongly support increased minimum wage & increased Earned Income tax credit.
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): No position found.
Chris McDaniel (R): No. Would eliminate employment opportunities but do little to reduce poverty or inequality. Government shouldn't dictate employer wages.
Mike Espy (D): Yes. Supports federal spending on infrastructure, broadband & childcare, to grow the economy.
Cindy Hyde-Smith (R): Mixed. Sees value in federal spending on local projects. But "controlling spending" is a priority.
Chris McDaniel (R): No. Federal spending "crowds out private investment & discourages economic growth."
"In my platform I'm saying 'I'm a Democrat yes, but I'm not only a Democrat,'" he said. "I place the state ahead of the party...everything that comes down is not something that I'm necessarily going to vote for lock, stock and barrel with my party."
Being a candidate in "the sensible middle" helps create a plausible, but undeniably challenging, path to the runoff and to Capitol Hill, Espy said.
"In my platform I'm saying `I'm a Democrat yes, but I'm not only a Democrat,'" he said. "I place the state ahead of the party...everything that comes down is not something that I'm necessarily going to vote for lock, stock and barrel with my party."
Being a candidate in "the sensible middle" helps create a plausible, but undeniably challenging, path to the runoff and to Capitol Hill, Espy said.
The runoff is baked into Espy's campaign strategy against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and conservative firebrand Chris McDaniel, Republicans who he'll face in a so-called "jungle" primary special election Nov. 6 to finish the final two years of GOP Sen. Thad Cochran's six-year term. Cochran retired in April citing health reasons, and Hyde-Smith was named to replace him until the election determined a successor. If none of the candidates receive 50 percent of the vote on Nov. 6, the top two finishers will square off in a Nov. 27 runoff.
The thinking about runoffs goes like this: A black candidate in the South could easily win a multi-candidate primary, as long as they get most of the black vote, which could be as high as the mid-to-low 30s. But in a one-on-one contest, the potential to add to that total is diminished.
The runoff is baked into Espy's campaign strategy against Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and conservative firebrand Chris McDaniel, Republicans who he'll face in a so-called "jungle" primary special election Nov. 6 to finish the final two years of GOP Sen. Thad Cochran's six-year term. Cochran retired in April citing health reasons, and Hyde-Smith was named to replace him until the election determined a successor. If none of the candidates receive 50 percent of the vote on Nov. 6, the top two finishers will square off in a Nov. 27 runoff.
The thinking about runoffs goes like this: A black candidate in the South could easily win a multi-candidate primary, as long as they get most of the black vote, which could be as high as the mid-to-low 30s. But in a one-on-one contest, the potential to add to that total is diminished.
"We are eating ourselves to death," said Espy, who said adults, including himself, don't easily grow out of lard-laced, sugar-spiked childhoods. One reason for this dietetic disaster, he said, is the fact that, in the United States "neither [farm policy nor food policy] has anything to do with health policy."
A: Yes. I wanted to be known as President Clinton's best friend in the Black Caucus. They used me a lot, during the campaign, to answer charges. The Sister Souljah thing was one [where Jesse Jackson criticized Clinton on race].
Q: What was Bill Clinton's relationship with Jesse Jackson?
A: Jesse was used to being the emissary for white politicians in the black community, and Bill didn't need that. He could go himself. Bill operated in a world that was truly diverse, where he was comfortable, and Jesse operated in a world that was a bit limited. He was the foremost black leader, and Bill wanted to be the foremost leader. That's where they began to diverge, and it was resented in some ways. I tend to follow Bill Clinton's style of leadership, where you're comfortable in all crowds, where you don't compromise your principles, but you try to explain what you did. That's how I try to pattern myself.
A: [As a Congressman], I was involved in a task force that had a bunch of hearings on welfare reform, and IDA, Individual Development Accounts, and moving renters to homeownership. It was called the Empowerment Caucus or something like that. I'm not sure of that name, but I was a leader in that effort to bring poor people new strategies for wealth development. The DLC liked that. Then, obviously, my record in Mississippi [when running for U. S. Congress] is one of being able to get white votes, and they liked that. Al From, one of the founders of the DLC, began to come to my speeches. He began to talk to me about this effort to create the Democratic Leadership Council, which was a moderate wing of the party, [saying things like] "the party was moving too far left." Then they asked me to become one of the three DLC vice presidents.ÿ
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The above quotations are from 2018 Mississippi Senate Special Election (to replace Sen. Thad Cochran).
Click here for other excerpts from 2018 Mississippi Senate Special Election (to replace Sen. Thad Cochran). Click here for other excerpts by Mike Espy. Click here for a profile of Mike Espy.
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