Correction: Senate-Mississippi-The Latest story
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — In a story March 21 about a U.S. Senate seat in Mississippi, The Associated Press erroneously reported the end date of a term started by Republican Thad Cochran. The term expires in January 2021, not January 2020.
A corrected version of the story is below:
The Latest: Mississippi agriculture official named to Senate
The governor of Mississippi is appointing state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to succeed fellow Republican Thad Cochran in the U.S. Senate
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Latest on a replacement for Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran (all times local):
Noon
The governor of Mississippi is appointing state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to succeed fellow Republican Thad Cochran in the U.S. Senate.
Hyde-Smith will be the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress once Cochran resigns April 1. She will immediately begin campaigning for a Nov. 6 special election to fill the rest of Cochran's term, which expires in January 2021.
Republican Gov. Phil Bryant and Hyde-Smith appeared together Wednesday in her hometown of Brookhaven, where he announced her appointment.
The 80-year-old Cochran announced March 5 that he will step down because of health problems. He was elected to the Senate in 1978 after six years in the House.
His decision creates two Senate races in deeply conservative Mississippi as Republicans are trying to maintain their slim Senate majority.
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11 a.m.
Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant is expected to appoint state Agriculture Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to succeed a longtime U.S. senator who is resigning because of poor health.
Bryant scheduled an announcement Wednesday in Hyde-Smith's hometown of Brookhaven. Three state Republican sources have told The Associated Press that he chose the 58-year-old Hyde-Smith to succeed Sen. Thad Cochran, who is 80, is stepping down April 1. The sources spoke Tuesday on condition of anonymity because the announcement was not yet official.
Hyde-Smith would immediately begin campaigning for a Nov. 6 nonpartisan special election to fill the rest of Cochran's term, which expires in January 2021.
She won a state Senate seat in 1999 as a Democrat, then switched to the GOP in late 2010 and was elected agriculture commissioner in 2011.
