Mississippi voters will fill the remaining vacant Senate seat Tuesday in a runoff between Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith and her Democratic challenger, Mike Espy. The race went to a runoff when neither candidate managed to reach 50 percent on November 6th.
The big picture: Hyde-Smith would be the first woman elected to represent the state in Congress but has only a slight lead. Espy would be Mississippi's first African-American senator since Reconstruction. The winner will serve the remaining two years of Senator Thad Cochran’s term and have to run again in 2020.