peter baker thank you very much. mississippi tonight, democrat mike espy, can he pull an upset against cindy hyde-smith? it will be interesting to see. alabama is different than mississippi. this could be a win/loss situation for republicans, if they win they may get a substandard standard bearer in the senate which creates more longer term consequences. thanks so much. still ahead an issue that has split some top republicans. criminal justice reform. we ll talk to senator mike lee about that and what he says to colleagues who are trying to pump the brakes. you re watching morning joe . we ll be right back. this is not a bed.
the campaigns thinking this morning and can the democrat mike espy pull off an upset there? number one, willie, you don t see many elvis presley signs around. you don t see many donald trump signs around. you see cindy hyde-smith signs around. the republican candidate in this race essentially brought in that designated hitter and then down in the southern city of gulfport. this is still mississippi and the republican party here and they re the party with the infrastructure here. downtown was on the ground and finished off with a gospel
you apologize to them. you ask forgiveness from prosecute them. then you move on. you don t look down at the paper and read your politics. cindy hyde-smith and her republican backup operation have constantly, over the last several days on the tv air waves and at those events tried to remind mississippi voters that she s the conservative in this race, she s the pro life, lower taxes candidate in this race, that she says has supported president trump a hundred percent of the time with her votes. compare that to mike espy. the reality check here is that this is a tall task for him. back on november 6th, there was a second republican in this race, chris mcdaniel, who had 140,000 votes. he s no longer in the race. but even with those 140,000 votes, cindy hyde-smith still bested mike espy on november 6th by 8,000 votes. but on the ground across the state here, willie, having
explosioning here in jackson. compare the two events from last night. cindy s far left opponent, he s far left. how does he fit in with mississippi? just explain i could go over this, but how does he fit in? mike espy opposed justice kavanaugh. es py will vote in total lock step with schumer, pelosi, the legendary maxine waters. there are some who chose to go to a rally somewhere else tonight. if you re like me, i d rather be at this kind of rally. because when we are seeking inspiration, we don t go to the politicians. my mama always told me that when you make an error or you do something wrong, you look at that person in the eye.
is that off base? i think it s a tougher battle, because alabama is more metropolitan, more suburban areas just as steve gave in his excellent analysis. he can go anywhere in america, just break it down in the way a native can appreciate. but you look at how this has to break for mike espy. indeed, he has to get some white moderate crossover voters? is that going to happen? are mississippians going to be inta embarrassed enough by cindy hyde-smith s ongoing performance trying to justify her comments about public hangings in the state with a terrible history of racial violence. is the embarrassment that she s brought to the state over the past month going to cause people to turn and to vote for mike ese espy who attracts more