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After running the closest election last year in Mississippi for United States Senate since 1982, Mike Espy is energized and ready to continue the fight in 2020. Espy launched his campaign for U.S. Senate Tuesday with the release of an announcement video, citing a momentum for change in the state.
“There are too many people in our state who can’t find a decent job. Rural hospitals across our state are closing. And the price for education is too high. Meanwhile, Washington is a mess, and Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith has done little to truly help the Magnolia State,” Espy said. “It feels like a new crisis dominates the headlines every day but does nothing to create jobs or improve our communities. Too often, our current Senator puts party over country instead of doing what’s best for our state and even our national security.”
Espy’s campaign will have a committed focus on access to health care, better job opportunities, support for Mississippi’s farmers, and improvements to public education. Importantly, it will work to bring people together to find bipartisan solutions to issues facing every Mississippian.
“This campaign isn’t about one person or one party,” Espy said. “It’s about all of us rising up to fight for what’s best for our great state and our country. Mississippians haven’t forgotten the unfortunate comments made by our current Senator last year about public hangings and voter suppression, or the picture of her proudly wearing Confederate garb. Mississippi wants and deserves a leader with dignity and respect for all—someone who will move our state forward instead of continuing to hold us back. That is why I’m running.”
In his announcement video, Espy shares how his family history shapes his desire and lifelong devotion to help Mississippians and makes him uniquely qualified to serve as Senator.
“Mississippi is changing,” Espy says to open the video. “My great-grandparents were slaves brought to Mississippi from Virginia and Georgia. But their son—my grandfather… founded the first hospital for African-Americans in Mississippi… My grandfather broke barriers and through his legacy and fortitude, decades later, I would break a few more—becoming the first African-American to represent Mississippi in the United States House of Representatives, and the first and only African-American United States Secretary of Agriculture.”
The video highlights the positive changes Mississippi has seen but raises the important point that progress in the state is still too slow, and that cannot be changed without also changing current leadership.
“Cindy Hyde-Smith is hurting Mississippi—our progress and our reputation—and we simply must replace her. That’s why I’m running for Senate,” Espy says in the video. “I want us to meet our potential to be a state we can all be proud of.”
(Released by Mike Espy)