U.S. Senator (R-MS)

• 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 USD in campaign contributions from three major pro-Israel groups: NORPAC, the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), and the Republican Jewish Coalition. She has also received more than 300,000 USD 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.

Read the full profile here.