and losing a possibly winnable race in 2018.
Jim Hood would almost certainly beaten Cindy Hyde-Smith in 2018 in a head-to-head race (assuming his entry into the race didn't cause other stronger Republican candidates to jump in and get to the top 2 in her spot).
And Mississippi isn't any more racist than Louisiana (Democratic governor) or Alabama (Democratic senator), nor is any more Republican than either of those states. It's all about matching a strong Democratic candidate against a weak Republican candidate. The MSGOP did its part in 2018 (just like the ALGOP in 2017 and LAGOP in 2015), but the Democrats weren't able to do the same.
No he wouldn't have.
Doug Jones won because Roy Moore was a pedophile and it was low turnout special election with nothing else on the ballot three weeks before Christmas.
Louisiana has a strain of white voters that would vote for Dems like John Bel Edwards. A Black Dem could never win statewide.
Mississippi whites routinely vote 90 percent GOP no matter what. That is A LOT of racial animus behind those margins. And the fact that a person can only be elected Governor if they win a majority of districts when they know Black folks are clustered in the Delta and Jackson is one of the most egregious and racist statutes enshrined as law.
