Welcome to the 782nd original “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day” profile, where today we’ll be discussing U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of Missouri, who served in the Mississippi State Senate from 2000-2012, and after winning two terms as Mississippi’s Commissioner of Agriculture of Commerce in 2011 and 2015, respectively, she was originally appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant to replace the retiring Thad Cochran, but she still had to win the 2018 special election to remain in that seat through the end of Cochran’s term in 2021.
That special election put a pretty large magnifying glass on Cindy Hyde-Smith, and what people found wasn’t exactly inspiring. People already had concerns about her attitudes on race when she came out in support of Donald Trump’s stupid idea for a border wall between the United States and Mexico, but a series of gaffes in November of 2018 made her look pretty friggin’ racist, to say the least. The first was at a campaign stop where she met a local rancher and said “if he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be in the front row”.
Given Mississippi’s nasty history of lynchings, this was perhaps not the best expression to use. And yet, she waited over a week for outrage to grow before she gave a meek apology. But then, a video came out of her on November 2nd, 2018, where she talked about “liberal folks in those other schools who that maybe we don’t want to vote… Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult…And I think that’s a great idea.” For those keeping score at home, she just described actively creating a campaign of voter suppression against liberals and how cool that would be for her.
By the time photos of her surfaced where she was posing wearing a Confederate hat and holding a musket in 2014… we really didn’t need to learn that she attended a segregated “whites only” academy as a schoolgirl and sent her daughter to one as well. Hell, there were photos of her on the cheerleading team posing with the “school mascot” that was just a kid in a Confederate general’s uniform.
But because it’s Mississippi, none of that was a deal-breaker, and Hyde-Smith went on to win the special election over Mike Espy. She thus has been able to remain in Washington, where she’s served as little more than a rubber stamp for Donald Trump, and approve every wildly unqualified or corrupt person he has nominated for a spot on a federal bench, and other such terrible folks as torture maven Gina Haspel, accused rapist Brett Kavanaugh, and blatant toady William Barr.
We’re guessing she’s still vulnerable enough that she will get a primary challenge from a Republican in 2020, but we’re positive regardless of how things play out, she’s going to embarrass the GOP on some level before that election comes to pass.
One Year Ago, September 7th, 2018: Seth Grossman (NJ)
Two Years Ago, September 7th, 2017: Shiva Ayyadurai (MA)
Three Years Ago, September 7th, 2016: Marlin Stutzman (IN)… 2016 Update
Four Years Ago, September 7th, 2015: Marlin Stutzman (IN)… 2015 Update
Five Years Ago, September 7th, 2014: Marlin Stutzman (IN)…Original Profile