National Committee president Max Richtman stumped for Senate candidate Mike Espy in Tupelo, Mississippi yesterday. Democrat Espy faces GOP incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith in a runoff election next Tuesday after neither captured a majority of the vote on November 6th. Speaking to a crowd of Espy supporters in front of Tupelo’s city hall, Richtman called this a “significant election” and proclaimed that a victory for the Democratic challenger would be “an earthquake.”
Richtman told the crowd that Espy is the candidate who will fight for Social Security, Medicare, and affordable health care. As a Congressman representing Mississippi’s 2nd district from 1987-1993, Espy consistently voted on behalf of senior citizens. His commitment to Mississippians’ earned benefits remains unflagging.
“We owe it to Mississippi seniors to honor and protect the commitment we made to care for them through Social Security and Medicare. It is vital that we safeguard the benefits Mississippians have worked their entire lives to earn.” – MS Senate candidate Mike Espy
Seniors make up 15.5% of Mississippi’s population. The state has some 660,000 Social Security beneficiaries and roughly 560,000 on Medicare.
Richtman joined several prominent national figures who have endorsed Espy for Senate, including former Vice President Joe Biden, Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, and Congressman John Lewis, among others.
Mississippi U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy
Biden declared that Mike Espy “promises to protect Social Security, Medicare and the federal requirement that health insurance companies cover people with pre-existing medical conditions.” Congressman Lewis affirmed that Espy will stand up for seniors’ earned benefits while “taking on the corporations to keep prescription drug prices affordable.”
Espy’s opponent, Cindy Hyde-Smith, is on the wrong side of issues affecting older Americans. Appointed last Spring to fill the seat of Republican Senator Thad Cochran, Sen. Hyde-Smith has voiced support for the Trump/GOP tax scam, voted for the bill designed to give Republican candidates a fig leaf on the issue of pre-existing conditions, and boasted that “no one will work harder” to pass a Balanced Budget Amendment, which would force cuts to Social Security and Medicare.
Her campaign became embroiled in controversy after she joked about attending a “public hanging” – prompting accusations of racism. For his part, the Democratic candidate continues to focus on kitchen table issues that affect working families and retirees.
“Mike believes that Mississippians need access to affordable health care and that fixing health care for the American people will require a bipartisan solution. He wants to lower the cost of prescription drugs and rein in out-of-control insurance premiums, high deductibles, and caps on individual health costs.” – Espy for Senate website
While Republicans will control the Senate regardless of the outcome of Mississippi’s special election, an Espy victory would give the GOP a thinner margin – and increase the chances for improving Social Security and Medicare in the next Congress.
“We feel like Mike Espy is the person we need to have in the Senate,” said Richtman.