Mississippi voters overwhelmingly rejected the manufactured media narrative that this state and America are systemically racist by soundly defeating Democrat Mike Espy, ending a Jim Crow era state constitutional provision, and endorsing a new Mississippi state flag.
That is the headline from Mississippi for Election 2020, but you will not hear that from the national mainstream media or from their sycophantic counterparts in the Mississippi media who claim to be “non-partisan,” yet fawningly craft narratives that remain utterly disconnected from the vast majority of Mississippi voters.
Mike Espy ran his 2020 campaign as a referendum on race and the national Democrat party. He raised and spent over $9 million, a record amount for a Democrat. He had a full complement of staff, though relatively inept who only talked to left-leaning media, and political consultants out the wazoo courtesy of national interest groups and out-of-state donors. He took what Democrats thought was momentum from 2018 and ran his political ship aground betting that Mississippians would want to align themselves with the more socialist trending national Democrat party.
Espy routinely recycled some of the messaging from his failed 2018 run, trying to paint Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith as a vestige of the past and using her words out of context in relation to prior comments she made that, while certainly ill-timed, had nothing to do with what she truly believes. But 2020 was sharply more partisan in tone and that race-baiting message was roundly rejected by a near record turnout of Mississippi voters.
Yet, Espy’s view of Mississippi is not the only thing that voters rejected that had its roots in racism.
Voters in the Magnolia State resoundingly adopted a new state flag, replacing the retired symbols of the past with a more unifying and upstanding flag depicting the faith of our citizens. The “In God We Trust” flag won over 70% of the vote, essentially dismantling any attempt at pushing for another vote on the issue. The Legislature is expected to gavel in come January and put this new flag into law.
That would be enough in itself to highlight the goodwill of today’s Mississippi, but there is one more.
With nearly 70% of the votes cast, Mississippians eradicated the Jim Crow era law on selecting statewide officials. Whether or not the idea of racism was the reason behind the change is debatable, but that was the narrative crafted against the state constitutional provision on all sides and that is what voters rejected Tuesday.
Mike Espy and the Democrats will have a hard time saying that he was rejected due to some racial bias from Mississippi voters. He was not. It was simply because he ran a bad campaign, focused on the wrong issues, like race, and did not connect with voters as he proudly ran tied at the hip with the left’s national view of a racist Mississippi and an America infested with systemic racism.
Tuesday proved Mississippians have moved forward and it is a new Mississippi. The racial stereotypes of the past have been defeated by a wide margin. Mississippi is now reaching forward into the future with hope in conservative policies that lift every Mississippian and every American regardless of race, gender, or political party.
Welcome to today’s Mississippi! The Hospitality State is truly alive and well.
Frank Corder
