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Drinking culture and American kids

On America's college campuses, there are epidemics we talk about and those we don't. When sexual assaults or fraternity hazing deaths make headlines, court cases follow and new rules are enacted, but less attention is paid to an underlying issue – binge drinking culture. CBSN Originals explores how drinking to excess is not only considered normal, but cool, and how for many young people "blacking out" is less a rarity than an every weekend occurrence – with grave consequences.</s>The Latest: Coliseum decked out in Christmas decor for Trump

TUPELO, Miss. (AP) — The Latest on President Donald Trump in Mississippi (all times local):

Christmas has come to Biloxi, Mississippi, as President Donald Trump holds his second rally of the day in the state.

The Mississippi Coast Coliseum has been decked out in an elaborate display that includes dozens of evergreens, a gigantic fake chimney, complete with stockings and a wreath, and Santa's present-filled sleigh. There are also large nutcrackers and even a blow-up helicopter with moving rotor and penguins inside.

During his campaign, Trump railed against what he described as a war against Christmas and promised that, if elected, "people would be saying Merry Christmas again."

Trump is campaigning for Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is facing a tough runoff election against Democrat Mike Espy on Tuesday as she seeks to keep her seat.

President Donald Trump is defending his government's use of tear gas on women and children in a group of Central American migrants that included some who tried to storm the border in Tijuana over the weekend.

At a roundtable in Mississippi on Monday, Trump asked why mothers had put themselves and their children in harm's way. He says, "You really say, 'Why is a parent running up into an area where they know the tear gas is forming and it's going to be formed and they were running up with a child?'"

Without offering evidence, he claimed that some of the women are not really parents but are instead "grabbers" who steal children so that they have a better chance of being granted asylum in the U.S.

Many of the female migrants have said they are seeking better lives for themselves and their children, away from gang violence and poverty.

President Donald Trump says Vice President Mike Pence and daughter Ivanka Trump plan to attend the Mexican presidential inauguration on Saturday.

Trump made the announcement Monday at a roundtable discussion to promote prison and sentencing reform legislation in Mississippi.

The White House has said Trump has developed a "strong relationship" with incoming Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and looks forward to working with him.

The two countries are working to find a solution for the caravans of Central American migrants traversing through Mexico in hopes of seeking asylum in the U.S.

Trump had an uncomfortable relationship with the outgoing administration of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Trump had promised during his 2016 campaign to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border and have Mexico pay for it. Pena Nieto refused.

President Donald Trump is hailing prison and sentencing reform legislation as a "great bipartisan effort" as he holds a roundtable discussion to promote it during a campaign jaunt to Mississippi.

Among those in attendance Monday are Vice President Mike Pence, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Miss Mississippi Asya Branch, who is wearing a gown and crown.

Trump has called on Congress to pass a new version of the "First Step Act" that would make it easier for nonviolent offenders to amass credits to get out of prison early and change some mandatory minimum sentencing rules.

The Senate announced it has reached a bipartisan deal on the issue, but if remains unclear whether Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell will choose to hold a vote in the lame-duck session before Democrats take control of the House in 2019.

President Donald Trump is defending his administration's response to Central American migrants who tried to illegally cross the border in Tijuana.

The action on Sunday prompted a chaotic clash that included U.S. agents firing choking tear gas into the crowds.

Trump said Monday at a campaign rally in Mississippi that he is sending the caravan members a clear message: "Turn around and go back home."

He tells that crowd that "we don't want those people in Mississippi" and that migrants are "not coming through anymore" illegally.

In the days leading up to the midterm elections, Trump likened the approaching caravans to an "invasion."

His comments at one point prompted the crowd to chant, "Build that wall!"

Opening a political rally in Tupelo, Mississippi — the birthplace of Elvis Presley — President Donald Trump is joking that people used to say he looked like the king of rock 'n' roll.

Trump was in Mississippi stumping for Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is in a Senate runoff. She is running against Democrat Mike Espy in a contest that has increasingly taken on racial overtones.

Trump says that when he was young, "other than the blond hair, they said I looked like Elvis."

The midterms are over, but President Donald Trump is back campaigning in Mississippi to help GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith keep her seat in Republican hands.

Trump is holding two rallies Monday to help Hyde-Smith finish the final two years of the term started by Republican Thad Cochran.

Hyde-Smith is in a tight runoff Tuesday against Democrat Mike Espy, a former congressman and agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton. Espy would be the first African-American to represent the state in the Senate since Reconstruction.

The election has been dominated by racial issues, after a photo emerged of Hyde-Smith wearing a replica hat of a Confederate soldier and a video emerged of her saying she'd be "on the front row" of a public hanging if invited.

President Donald Trump is heading to Mississippi for two rallies to try to keep a Senate seat in Republican hands.

Trump will be campaigning Monday for GOP Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who is in a runoff Tuesday against Democrat Mike Espy. The former congressman was agriculture secretary under President Bill Clinton.

Espy is trying to become the first African-American to represent Mississippi in the Senate since Reconstruction.

Trump plans to speak Monday afternoon at a rally in Tupelo and then that night at a rally in Biloxi.

Trump returned Sunday evening from Florida, where he spent the Thanksgiving holiday at his Mar-a-Lago club. He visited his nearby golf course all five days he spent in Florida, and he took time to talk to troops stationed abroad on Thanksgiving Day.</s>In the end, it was not enough.

Not enough that Cindy Hyde-Smith, the Republican candidate in the Mississippi Senate run-off tonight, was caught on tape saying she would be willing to take a front row seat at a “public hanging” if one of her important supporters invited her—an odd offer, to say the least, in a state that, according to the NAACP, has a horrific history that includes 581 lynchings from 1882 to 1968, the most of any state in that period.

Not enough that Hyde-Smith, after visiting the home of Confederate President Jefferson Davis, took to social media and posted a photograph of herself sporting a confederate cap and calling the place, “Mississippi history at its best.”

Not enough that she sponsored one resolution to honor the last living daughter of a Confederate soldier, and another to re-name a road the “Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway.”

Not enough that she attended a “segregation academy”—one of the private essentially “Whites Only” schools, that were hastily set up in the state to circumvent the federally mandated integration of public schools; Hyde-Smith sent her daughter to one of these as well.

None of this shameful record was enough to hand victory to her opponent, Democrat Mike Espy. At a rally on Monday to bolster Hyde-Smith, President Trump said of Espy: “Oh, he’s far left. He’s out there. How does he fit in in Mississippi?”

Espy, a former congressman and U.S. secretary of agriculture, was born in Mississippi. He was the first African American to represent the state in Congress since Reconstruction. He would have made a fine senator, but it was not to be. Alas, not in Mississippi, at least not yet.</s>WASHINGTON – Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith fended off a challenge from Democrat Mike Espy Tuesday in a closely watched Senate runoff election marked by racial tensions.

She becomes the first woman from Mississippi elected to Congress. The Associated Press called the race for Hyde-Smith just before 10:30 pm EST.

President Donald Trump, who campaigned for Hyde-Smith in Mississippi Monday, applauded Hyde-Smith on her victory.

"Congratulations to Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith on your big WIN in the Great State of Mississippi,'' he tweeted late Tuesday. "We are all very proud of you!"

Hyde-Smith was appointed by Republican Gov. Phil Bryant to fill the seat of longtime GOP Sen. Thad Cochran, who retired in April because of failing health. Hyde-Smith, a former state agriculture commissioner and state senator, will complete the two years remaining of Cochran’s term.

The contest was the last Senate race of 2018 and will give Republicans a 53-47 advantage next session.

Hyde-Smith, 59, will be among a record number of women, mostly Democrats, elected to Congress this year and part of the record number of women – 24 – to serve in the Senate in the upcoming 116th session. Of those, 17 are Democrats and seven are Republican.

The new number tops the record of 23 women now serving in the Senate.

“Mississippi was one of the last two states to have never elected a woman to Congress," said Debbie Walsh, director of the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University. “While Cindy Hyde-Smith got Mississippi out of that undistinguished club when she was appointed, there still had never been a woman elected, so this is another milestone for the state of Mississippi."

Vermont is now the only state to have never elected a woman to Congress.

Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., was joined by President Donald Trump at a rally Nov. 26, 2018, in Biloxi, Miss. Trump encouraged voters to support Hyde-Smith's runoff race against Democrat Mike Espy.

Despite the historic moment, much of the national attention on the Mississippi race in recent weeks has focused on Hyde-Smith’s controversial “public hanging” remark that sparked an uproar in a state with a troubled history of discrimination and lynching.

The Mississippi Senate race should have been an easy GOP win in the ruby-red state, but it took many twists and turns with Trump dropping in at the 11th hour to help Hyde-Smith’s faltering campaign.

“I don't want to take my chances" of her losing, Trump said at one of two rallies for Hyde-Smith in Mississippi Monday.

It was unusual for Republicans to have to battle for the seat. It’s been decades since a Democrat won a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi.

President Donald Trump points as the walks with Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., at Tupelo Regional Airport Nov. 26, 2018, in Tupelo, Mississippi.

Trump won the conservative state in 2016 and five of the six members of the state’s congressional delegation are Republicans.

“It should have been a slam dunk," said John Bruce, chair of the Political Science Department at the University of Mississippi. “We’re here because of the president and the national mood. And we’re here because Cindy Hyde-Smith has run a bad campaign. She has tripped over herself more than once."

Hyde-Smith had come under fire for remarks considered racially insensitive. In a video at a Nov. 2 event, Hyde-Smith said of a supporter, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row."

Mississippi has a history of lynching blacks. Hyde-Smith has since apologized “for anyone who was offended,” but blasted her opponents for trying to twist her comments.

Trump noted her apology and defended her saying Monday "her heart is good."

Hyde-Smith, who has kept a low profile in her seven months in the Senate, has been an avid supporter of Trump and his policies. She voted for several measures backed by Trump, including the confirmation of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

She campaigned on supporting Trump tax cuts, a stronger border patrol and funding for a border wall.

Trump, in turn, came to her aid, stumping for Hyde-Smith in Mississippi in October and returning on the eve of Tuesday’s runoff.

Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, among others, also campaigned for Hyde-Smith.

Espy, 64, former congressman and U.S. secretary of agriculture during the Clinton administration, also had high-profile backers campaign for him in Mississippi, including possible 2020 Democratic presidential contenders Sen. Kamala Harris of California and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.

Democrat Mike Espy, left, challenges an answer from appointed U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Miss., during their televised Mississippi U.S. Senate debate in Jackson, Mississippi, Nov. 20, 2018.

Beyond the visits, both campaigns and their allies spent millions on ads in recent weeks leading up to the special election.

Bruce said there have rarely been competitive special elections in Mississippi and that Republicans were nervous because they were “in unchartered territory.”

“This is kind of a novel thing," he said.

Mississippi in the spotlight again

It’s not the first time a Mississippi Senate race has drawn national attention.

The race for this same seat was also in the national spotlight in 2014 when Cochran had to fend off a runoff challenge from state Sen. Chris McDaniel, a tea party favorite.

Black voters are credited with helping Cochran pull off that win, but the senator was criticized by some fellow Republicans for courting them.

More: Mississippi plants seeds to elect state's first woman to Congress</s>In an unguarded moment on her campaign trail, Mississippi’s Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith revealed her racist attitude toward African Americans that serves as just one of several reasons why the state should elect Mike Espy to the U.S. Senate.

See Also: Mike Espy Speaks Out On Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith Saying She Would Sit Front Row At A ‘Public Hanging’

Republicans scrambled on Monday to prevent Hyde-Smith from losing a Senate seat in deep red Mississippi to a Democrat in the state’s runoff election Tuesday, Politico reported.

President Donald Trump was expected to hold two rallies for Hyde-Smith on Monday in the hope of turning out his base to vote for her.

Espy is an underdog in the race to unseat Hyde-Smith, who was appointed by the governor to complete the term of retiring GOP Sen. Thad Cochran. He would become the state’s first Black senator since Reconstruction. A recent survey showed that Hyde-Smith has a 10-point lead despite revelations about her racist attitudes.

Hyde-Smith’s missteps may have opened the door for a possible win if Democrats—especially African-Americans—turn out in large numbers to support Espy and if moderate Republicans crossover or stay home.

Hyde-Smith’s biggest misstep came from a Nov. 2 campaign stop when she praised a longtime supporter. “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,” she was caught saying on a video posted to social media.

Just like Trump, Hyde-Smith has inspired racists. Two nooses and several hate signs were discovered Monday morning at the Mississippi State Capitol.

Hyde-Smith was also caught on video telling a crowd that “they remind me that there’s a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who 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.” Users on social media wondered if she was referring to the state’s many historically Balck colleges and universities.

It took a U.S. Supreme Court order — more than 15 years after Brown v. Board of Education — for many public schools in the South to racially integrate. Beginning in the 1960s, “segregationist” schools began to pop up in response. These private schools were all-white. Not only did Hyde-Smith attend a segregation high school in the 1970s, but she also chose to send her daughter to one.

Hyde-Smith supported a legislative measure to honor a Confederate soldier’s effort to “defend his homeland” while she also promoted revisionist views about the Civil War.

After Hyde-Smith’s public hanging comment, her campaign gladly accepted a $1,000 donation from former Ku Klux Klan member George Malvaney.

Even a Rhodes Scholar from Mississippi called the senator a white supremacist.

“The Trump administration has made no secret of its intention to secure our borders, and I support that goal. The implementation of the zero-tolerance policy and the separation of children from their parents is distressing to me as a mother, but we cannot lose sight that U.S. immigration laws must be enforced,” she stated.

Hyde-Smith has said she would support the repeal of Obamacare, raising fears about the safety of the law’s protections for pre-existing medical conditions.

The senator went out of her way—breaking the tradition of newly appointed senators quietly observing debates—to support the controversial nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Calls Grow To Fire Tom Shand, The Florida State Fan Who Posted Image Of FSU Coach Willie Taggart Being Lynched

Vote Mike Espy! 9 Irrefutable Reasons Why Mississippi Shouldn’t Elect Cindy ‘Public Hanging’ Hyde-Smith was originally published on newsone.com</s>WASHINGTON – Voters in Mississippi headed to the polls Tuesday in the Senate runoff election between Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic challenger Mike Espy.

The race has drawn national attention from both parties as Hyde-Smith has sought to tamp down a controversy over her remarks about a "public hanging" that evoked memories of the state's brutal past of slavery and racism.

Espy is seeking to become Mississippi's first black U.S. senator since Reconstruction. President Donald Trump held two rallies in the state on Monday for Hyde-Smith, urging voters to turn out.

Here's what you need to know about Tuesday's runoff:

The race is the conclusion of a special election for the seat of Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who retired in April. Hyde-Smith was appointed to fill the seat for the remainder of Cochran's term, becoming the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress.

The candidates were forced into a runoff after neither won a majority in the Nov. 6 election. The race split three ways, with Hyde-Smith earning 41.3 percent of the vote to Espy's 40.9 and former state senator Chris McDaniel snatching 16.4 percent.

Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. CST.

Mississippi Secretary of State Delbert Hosemann said that as of Monday, 46,428 absentee ballots had been requested for the runoff, portending high and perhaps record turnout, at least by runoff standards. The Nov. 6 election set a record for a Mississippi midterm, with more than 940,000 votes cast of the 1.8 million registered voters.

U.S. sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith listens to a fellow panelist of President Trump's round table on criminal justice reform initiatives in Gulfport before Hyde-Smith's rally for support of her runoff campaign against Mike Espy held at the the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi. Monday, Nov. 26, 2018.

The candidates and the controversies

In the weeks leading up to Tuesday's runoff, Hyde-Smith was plagued by controversy. She continues to face backlash from comments made Nov. 2 that she'd be in the "front row" if invited to a "public hanging." The former beef cattle farmer and state agriculture commissioner was also caught on video making comments about voter suppression.

Hyde-Smith's critics say her comments have stirred up images of lynching and Mississippi's racist past, which was underscored Monday when nooses were found hanging from trees near the state's capitol in Jackson.

In his uphill battle to defeat Hyde-Smith, Espy has walked a fine line on the issue of race as he attempts to win over voters. A former congressman and U.S. secretary of agriculture in the Clinton administration, Espy has focused on casting himself as a moderate who can work with both parties on issues like access to health care.

Democrat Mike Espy votes in a runoff election Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018 in Ridgeland, Miss. Mississippi voters are deciding the last U.S. Senate race of the midterms, choosing between Espy and Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Although Hyde-Smith's lead in the polls has shrunk in recent weeks, she's still favored to win. To pull off an upset, Espy needs to motivate African-Americans voters to turn out and also capture the votes of some white voters.

“The contest is going to be decided on race one way or the other because Espy’s path to victory is dependent on African-American turnout," Jennifer Duffy, senior editor at the nonpartisan Cook Report, told USA TODAY.

About 38 percent of Mississippians are African-American. Black voters in the state lean strongly Democratic. But the state has historically been a Republican stronghold, as many white voters favor the GOP.

What this means for the Senate

The Mississippi runoff is the last Senate contest this election cycle. If Hyde-Smith wins Tuesday, Republicans will have 53 seats next year instead of the 51 they now hold. Even if she loses, Republicans will still hold a majority in the Senate but will have one less vote to count on.

A total of 53 votes gives Republican Senate leaders room for potential defections but it would not put them over the threshold for most controversial bills, which need 60 votes. While winning a majority in the Senate, Republicans saw control of the House flip to Democrats in the midterms.

More: A look at Mike Espy before US Senate runoff: People over party, keeping head down

More: A look at Cindy Hyde-Smith before US Senate runoff: Trump's choice, guarded public image

Voters wait in line at a polling precinct in north Jackson.</s>President Donald Trump is holding two rallies for a Republican senator from Mississippi who has been criticized over racially charged comments she made ahead of a closer-than-expected runoff election.

Trump praised Cindy Hyde-Smith on Monday ahead of the rallies for the senator, who faces Democrat Mike Espy in a runoff on Tuesday following the 6 November election.

Hyde-Smith has drawn fire for a video showing her praising a supporter by saying: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”

Trump says Hyde-Smith has apologized and misspoke. He says her comments were “taken a certain way but she certainly didn’t mean it”.

He also says she’s done a great job and is respected in the Senate.

Hyde-Smith has made Monday’s rallies a highlight of her campaign, and Trump thanked her right back on Twitter for voting for “our Agenda in the Senate 100% of the time”.

But race has become a dominant issue as Hyde-Smith faces Espy, who would become Mississippi’s first black senator since Reconstruction.

Espy says he’s running his own race and won’t be thrown off by Trump’s rallies.

Espy told reporters Monday in suburban Ridgeland that Trump is “going to say whatever he has to say”.

Espy, a former US secretary of agriculture, continues to emphasize that he’s a moderate seeking the votes of everyone and willing to work across party lines.

He notes that he crossed the “party chasm” to endorse the re-election of Republican governor Haley Barbour in Mississippi in 2007.

Hyde-Smith was appointed to the Senate by Governor Phil Bryant when Thad Cochran retired earlier this year. The winner of Tuesday’s vote gets the final two years of the term.

Meanwhile, a civil rights group is challenging Mississippi’s absentee voting procedures in a lawsuit filed on the eve of the Senate runoff election.

The Washington-based Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law is asking a federal court to make Mississippi extend its deadline for voters to return absentee ballots.

The complaint says some voters didn’t have enough time to fill out and mail absentee ballots for the runoff over the Thanksgiving holiday unless they paid for costly overnight shipping.

The group sued on behalf of the Mississippi NAACP and three voters.

The secretary of state’s office didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment.</s>Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS) prevailed in Mississippi’s Senate runoff on Tuesday night, boosting the Republican Senate majority to 53-47 and becoming the first woman elected to the Senate from the state.

After failing to capture a majority of the vote on November 6, she went to a runoff on this post-Thanksgiving Tuesday. With 83 percent of precincts reporting, Hyde-Smith was leading her Democratic opponent Mike Espy, a former Mississippi congressman and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in Clinton's administration, by a margin of 54.9% to 45.1%.

In the initial November 6 vote, Republicans earned 58 percent of the vote, combined between Hyde-Smith and her firebrand GOP challenger Chris McDaniel. Espy and another Democrat in the initial count earned 42 percent.

Espy, whose family has deep roots in the states, dramatically outperformed Hillary Clinton, who lost by about 18 points in a state where a Democrat last won a Senate race since 1982.

He released a hopeful statement after the race was called, saying: "Make no mistake—tonight is the beginning, not the end. When this many people show up, stand up, and speak up, it is not a loss. It is a moment. It is a movement. And we are not going to stop moving our state forward just because of one election. I look forward to finding new ways to do just that.”

Hyde-Smith offered herself as an instrument of President Trump’s agenda, hitting the trail on a bus called the MAGA Wagon emblazoned with with an image of the 45th president.

Like Trump, who held two rallies for her earlier this week, Hyde-Smith drew attention to herself through a series of self-inflicted wounds that had Republicans worried about losing a seat in the solidly red state.

“If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,” Hyde-Smith was caught saying at an event. Espy attempted to capitalize on the moment, telling voters she embarrassed the state that has long-suffered from its history of racial violence. Making matters worse, Hyde-Smith did not immediately apologize or appear to reckon with the impact of her remarks in a state that had the highest number of lynchings in the country from 1882 to 1968.

Hyde-Smith eventually issued a muted apology in her only debate with Espy but, in Trumpian fashion, claimed her words had been “twisted and it was turned into a weapon to be used against me.” Espy quickly shot back that “No one twisted your comments. They came out of your mouth. I don’t know what’s in your heart—but we all know what came out of your mouth… It’s caused our state harm. It's given our state another black eye that we don’t need.”

President Trump defended Hyde-Smith to reporters before departing for the rallies on Monday. "I know her. And I know she apologized. And she misspoke," he said of the senator. "She's been an excellent senator. She's done a great job. She's somebody that's respected in the Senate."

Major companies like Walmart, Google, and Major League Baseball appeared to agree with Espy though, as they withdrew political contributions to Hyde-Smith in the closing days of the campaign.

But that wasn’t enough to move the voters of Mississippi, who ultimately backed Hyde-Smith on Tuesday, allowing her to fill out the remainder of the term until 2020.</s>Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith will win Mississippi’s US Senate runoff election, CNN projects, in a contest that centered on her actions and comments evoking the state’s dark history of racism and slavery.

Hyde-Smith will defeat Democratic challenger Mike Espy, a former congressman and agriculture secretary, in the last Senate race to be decided in 2018. The victory will make her the first woman ever elected to Congress from Mississippi.

Her win on Tuesday means Republicans will hold 53 seats to Democrats’ 47 seats in the Senate in January. The GOP grew its majority in the Senate by two seats in this year’s midterm elections even as Democrats took control of the House.

Hyde-Smith’s victory also means that there will be 24 women in the Senate next year. That will set a new record for women serving in the Senate, one more than the current high, set during this Congress.

Hyde-Smith will finish out the final two years of former Sen. Thad Cochran’s term, who retired earlier this year due to health concerns. Hyde-Smith will have to run again in 2020 to serve a full six-year term.

RELATED: A political blockade is colliding with the evidence on climate change

President Donald Trump visited Mississippi on Monday to rally Republican voters behind Hyde-Smith after her comments about a “public hanging” set off weeks of controversy.

It began when video emerged online of her telling supporters earlier this month that she’d be “on the front row” if one of her supporters “invited me to a public hanging.” She later called the comments an “exaggerated expression of regard,” but her use of the phrase brought memories of Mississippi’s history of lynchings to the forefront and put the contest under the national microscope.

Asked about her remark in a debate, Hyde-Smith said she would “certainly apologize” to anyone who was offended, but then pivoted to an attack on her opponent.

“This comment was twisted and it was turned into a weapon to be used against me,” Hyde-Smith said.

The same progressive blogger who published the video of her using the phrase “public hanging” later published one in which Hyde-Smith told a small group at Mississippi State University that suppressing the votes of students at other colleges was “a great thing.” Her campaign said it was a joke, but that explanation backfired when the black student seen laughing in a picture from the event her campaign posted on Twitter responded that Hyde-Smith’s campaign was using him as a prop.

On Friday, the Jackson Free Press reported that Hyde-Smith had attended a private high school that was founded in 1970 so that white parents could avoid attempts to integrate public schools. Hyde-Smith’s daughter later attended a similar private school established around the same time, according to the Free Press. The senator’s campaign responded to the report by attacking the “liberal media.”

Over the weekend, CNN reported that Hyde-Smith once promoted a measure that praised a Confederate soldier’s effort to “defend his homeland” and had pushed a revisionist view of the Civil War.

In photos posted to her Facebook account in 2014, Hyde-Smith was pictured posing with Confederate artifacts during a visit to Beauvoir, the home and library of Confederate President Jefferson Davis. The caption on the post read, “Mississippi history at its best!”

Democrats had hoped a surge in turnout among black voters — who make up nearly 40% of Mississippi’s population, the largest share in the nation — could carry Espy to victory in a state that is highly polarized along racial lines, with most white voters backing GOP candidates and black voters supporting Democrats.

Espy’s campaign hammered Hyde-Smith with television ads that cast her as an embarrassment to a state that has attempted to overcome its history of slavery and racism.

“We’ve worked hard to overcome the stereotypes that hurt our economy and cost us jobs. Her words should not reflect Mississippi’s values, either,” a narrator said in one ad. The ad also called Hyde-Smith “so embarrassing, she’d be a disaster for Mississippi.”

Several companies that had donated to Hyde-Smith’s campaign, including Walmart, publicly withdrew their support for the senator over the “public hanging” comment.

The controversies surrounding her set off a major push by national Republicans to avoid the same embarrassment they’d suffered last year in Alabama over the Senate campaign of Roy Moore and save Hyde-Smith.

While Hyde-Smith largely stayed off the campaign trail, the party’s infrastructure rallied to her defense. GOP groups spent $4 million on the Mississippi runoff — much more than Democrats’ $1.2 million, according to Federal Election Commission filings. Republican groups spent more than twice as much as Democrats on television advertisements, per the ad tracking firm Kantar/CMAG.

Trump’s visits to Mississippi on Monday night were also seen as bid to rally the Republican base to vote in an election taking place two days after the Thanksgiving weekend.</s>In spite of some race-related controversies, Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith won Mississippi’s special Senate election Tuesday night, defeating Democrat Mike Espy, according to a projection by NBC News.

Hyde-Smith had 55.2 percent, or 362,567 votes, while Espy had 44.8 percent, or 296,254 votes, with 78 percent of the votes reported.

With Hyde-Smith’s victory, Republicans will have a 53-47 majority in the Senate in January.

The race-related controversies surrounding Hyde-Smith included her recorded remark about willingness to attend a “public hanging.” She claimed that the remark was not intended to have an racial overtones, but it was hard for many to overlook in a state that was once known for lynchings and where racial divisions continue to this day. (NBC News)
• Hyde-Smith claimed that her words were “twisted” and used against her.
• She was endorsed by Donald Trump.
• Espy is a former congressman who worked as agriculture secretary for President Bill Clinton.
Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith defeats Democratic candidate Mike Espy in a run off election in Mississippi.