Cindy Hyde-Smith

Cindy Hyde-Smith is a Republican U.S. Senator from Mississippi, first appointed in April 2018 to fill the seat vacated by Thad Cochran, then winning the November 2018 special election and a full six-year term in 2020; she is the first woman elected to represent Mississippi in Congress. Before the Senate she served as Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce (2012-2018) and spent 12 years in the Mississippi State Senate (2000-2012), including eight years chairing its Agriculture Committee. A graduate of Copiah-Lincoln Community College and the University of Southern Mississippi, she previously worked as a lobbyist and congressional affairs consultant. She and her husband Mike have a daughter, Anna-Michael, and reside in Brookhaven, where their fifth-generation farming family raises beef cattle and are active members of Macedonia Baptist Church.