Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy released a new ad via NBC today.
According to NBC News, this latest ad was shared exclusively with them as “part of six-figure buy… buoyed by new internal polling showing a race within single digits.”
https://youtu.be/YBpbqu4rs5M
“It’s the first of at least three TV ads set to run across the state over the next few weeks,” NBC reports.
<<READ MORE: Espy desperately wants Mississippi seen as a battleground for U.S. Senate>>
Espy uses the ad to bring attention back to what he calls U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith’s “talk of public hangings and glorified Confederate symbols,” both issues he attempted to hang around the neck of his rival in 2018. He ultimately lost the election by nearly 9 points.
The Democrat’s 2018 ad entitled “Values” can be seen below. It has been up on their campaign YouTube for nearly two years and only has 3,259 views showing as of this reporting.
Pushing the ad through a national outlet is likely more of a sign that the ad push is about trying to attract national attention to raise money down the home stretch (or a future gig) and not as much about reaching voters in Mississippi at this point.
<<READ MORE: Is Mike Espy auditioning for a Joe Biden gig?>>
NBC News notes that an “internal Espy campaign poll from mid-August showed him 5 points behind Hyde-Smith. Other independent polls give Hyde-Smith more of an edge, and NBC News does not currently view the race as competitive.” The poll, from a Democratic polling/consultancy group with no real history of polling Mississippi races, was a mixed bag for Espy. It showed him only receiving 85% of the black vote, which if those results held would be a huge deficit to overcome from his base.
NBC News recently listed their most competitive U.S. Senate races and Mississippi did not make the list. Nearly every national media outlet and political rating organization lists the Mississippi U.S. Senate seat as “Safe Republican” in favor of Senator Hyde-Smith.
Frank Corder
