Ty Pinkins Draws 20,000 Votes to Split Mississippi GOP in Senate Race
Updated
Updated · WTVA · Nov 4
Ty Pinkins Draws 20,000 Votes to Split Mississippi GOP in Senate Race
3 articles · Updated · WTVA · Nov 4
Summary
About 20,000 votes went to independent Ty Pinkins, a total large enough to have swung Mississippi’s razor-thin Senate race either toward Cindy Hyde-Smith or Scott Colom.
Pinkins said that impact was intentional: internal polling showed 70% of his supporters would otherwise be disgruntled Republicans, and he said his goal all along was to defeat Hyde-Smith.
He said he deliberately avoided majority-Black areas and instead pulled support from counties with relatively small Black populations, including Harrison, DeSoto, Rankin and Jackson.
County returns underscored that strategy, with Pinkins taking 3% in Harrison, 2.4% in DeSoto, 2.3% in Rankin, 2.7% in Jackson and as much as 4.5% in Hancock.
Pinkins said his broader political aim now is to help elect Mississippi’s first Black U.S. congressman since Reconstruction.