Article snippet: Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) is projected to win Mississippi's Senate runoff, fending off a stronger-than-expected challenge from Democrats after she stumbled with a series of missteps that brought race to the forefront of the campaign. Hyde-Smith defeated former Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy (D) to serve out the remaining two years of former Sen. MORE's (R) term, in the last remaining Congressional race of the year. Her win makes her the first female senator elected from Mississippi after she was appointed by Gov. Phil Bryant (R) to replace Cochran in April . Hyde-Smith's victory is a huge sigh of relief for Republicans, boosting their Senate majority to 53-47 seats.The runoff was triggered after neither candidate won over 50 percent of the vote in the four-way special election on Nov. 6.At her election night party on Tuesday, Hyde-Smith thanked her supporters as well as the contest was upended after video surfaced of Hyde-Smith joking about attending a “public hanging” if invited by a supporter. The comments sparked a major backlash in a state with a history of lynchings of African Americans, who today make up about 38 percent of the state’s population. But she eventually apologized after initially defending the statement as an “expression of regard” and calling it “ridiculous” to interpret her comments with a negative connotation. Hyde-Smith compounded her gaffe by joking at a separate event that it should be more difficult for liberal students to vote and afte... Link to the full article to read more