2020 poll watch
The Mississippi Senate race is tightening, a new poll shows
Mississippi may have a real Senate race on its hands.
At least that's what the latest Tyson Group poll suggests. The survey has incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) up just one point on her Democratic challenger, Mike Espy, who represented Mississippi in the House from 1987 to 1993 before serving as agriculture secretary in the Clinton administration for a time.
As with all polling, there are caveats, and it's worth noting that although the Tyson Group survey was released Monday, it was conducted between Aug. 28-30. So it's tough to tell how well it reflects the current sentiment among Mississippi voters, especially since Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death will likely affect elections around the country. But it's the latest poll out of the state, and if recent fundraising is any indication, Espy does have some momentum. On Saturday, buoyed by a nationwide in Democratic donations, he raised more money in a singe day than any Mississippi candidate for federal office in history, The Mississippi Free Press reports.
Espy and Hyde-Smith faced off in a special Senate election in 2018. The latter emerged victorious, but it was the closest Senate race in Mississippi since 1988.
The Tyson Group poll was conducted between Aug. 28-30 and consisted of responses from 600 likely Mississippi voters. The margin of error is 4 percent. Read the full results here.