⇒ Cindy Hyde-Smith is a U.S. Senator from Brookhaven, Mississippi, with a background in cattle farming and agriculture, and a history of racial controversy: she attended an all-white private high school set up to bypass integration laws, she has been photographed with Confederate symbols, and in a 2018 Senate campaign event, she drew intense criticism for a racist remark made to praise a cattle rancher.

⇒ Before becoming a U.S. Senator, Hyde-Smith served in the Mississippi State Senate for twelve years. While elected as a Democrat, she later switched party affiliations, becoming a Republican and a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). She is currently named as an “ALEC alumni.” In 2008, in the state legislature, she co-sponsored one pro-Israel bill.

⇒ Since 2018, Hyde-Smith has received more than $150,000 in campaign contributions from three major pro-Israel groups: NORPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the Republican Jewish Coalition. She has also received more than $300,000 in campaign contributions from military contractors since 2018, as well as significant donations from smaller pro-Israel groups and lobbying firms such as Haley Barbour’s BGR Group.

⇒ Since elected in 2018, she has co-sponsored more than 25 pro-Israel bills in the U.S. Senate, many of which coincide with NORPAC, AIPAC, or the Republican Jewish Coalition’s legislative agendas — for instance, curtailing any nuclear deal with Iran, sanctioning the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, and moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, among other issues.

⇒ As disclosed in the U.S. Senate’s lobbying disclosure portal, Hyde-Smith also frequently meets with arms manufacturers, their lobbyists, law firms with interests in Israel, and other companies with business interests in Israel.

 

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