CUNA's political action committee on Tuesday announced its final independent expenditure of this election cycle—television advertising on behalf of Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.).
The Mississippi election is unique; it is a special election for the seat that had been held by Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who resigned for health reasons. Hyde-Smith was appointed to replace Cochran and she is now running for a term that will expire in 2021.
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The advertisement says that Hyde-Smith is the state's first woman senator and highlights her position on defense spending and de-regulation. The ad is financed through an independent expenditure by CULAC, CUNA's political action committee. Federal law prohibits any coordination with a candidate's campaign if the contribution is an independent expenditure.
Hyde-Smith, the former state Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce, is running against three other candidates, all of whom will appear on the ballot without party affiliation. If no candidate receives 50% or more of the vote, the two frontrunners will face off in a runoff on Nov. 27.
Current polls show no candidate reaching that threshold. In an NBC-Marist poll of 973 adults conducted Oct. 13 through Oct. 18, Hyde-Smith received 38% of the likely voters, with Democrat Mike Espy receiving 29%. Espy is a former Democratic House member and Agriculture Secretary in the Clinton Administration.
If Hyde-Smith and Espy go on to a runoff, the poll showed Hyde-Smith receiving 50% of the vote, Espy receiving 36% of the vote, with 13% undecided.
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