On Monday, the USA Today reported on the latest Cook Political Report highlighting the U.S. Senate seats they consider up for grabs on November 3rd.
Just as with the Washington Post and FiveThirtyEight‘s ratings released last week, Mississippi’s Senate seat held by Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith was not on the USA Today / Cook Political Report list of those seats viewed as competitive or likely to change parties.
“There are eight Republican-held seats rated as either leaning Democratic or tossups by the nonpartisan Cook Political Report,” the USA Today writes, “which by contrast lists only one Democratic seat as leaning Republican and none as a tossup.”
According to USA Today / Cook, the key races to watch in the 2020 Senate election are Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Montana, North Carolina and South Carolina.
In fact, Cook lists Mississippi’s Senate race between Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy as ‘Solid Republican,’ meaning the race is not considered competitive and is not likely to become closely contested.
Democrats are trying to flip at least three seats in the U.S. Senate and win the White House to take the 50/50 split with a Democrat Vice President giving them the tie-breaker and the majority. They are predicted to lose the Alabama seat currently held by Sen. Doug Jones, and thus must win at least 4 of the contested races to reach 50.
Mike Espy, Mississippi’s Democrat candidate for Senate, does not appear to be a factor in the national Democrats’ strategy to gain the majority as Election Day nears and the reality of the likely result in the Magnolia State trends toward a Republican victory for Sen. Hyde-Smith just as it did in 2018 when the two previously faced each other at the ballot box.
Hyde-Smith won that special election contest 54% to 46% over Espy.
