Mike Espy is conceding defeat. There are not enough votes to continue fighting for the election, he told the audience here.

He said he is grateful for the support, saying that his campaign built the biggest grassroots campaign in the history of Mississippi. He is telling his supporters her tonight that this is “not a loss, but a movement.”

Espy thanks his wife, Portia, who he said, “did a lot.”

He said that the young people need to believe that a new Mississippi is possible.

“We want Mike,” his supporters are shouting. “We want Mike.”

With 80 percent of the vote in, the Associate Press has called the US Senate runoff for Cindy Hyde-Smith.

Mike Espy is getting ready to speak now. 

Hyde-Smith has a 12 point lead over Espy with more than 60 percent of the vote in so far.

Much of the Delta and other black counties are still out, so there is a sliver of hope. But the mood at the party is a bit sober. Optimistic, but still sober.  

Just as people who are Muslim are asked to go to Mecca at least once in their lives, I think that every black person should go to Mississippi at least once in their lives. This is the blackest state in America.

Not just because of the population, but because of the culture. As brutal is white folks have been to black folk down her over the years, there is a powerful history of black resistance here. I’ll be writing more about this tomorrow.

In the meantime, the DJ at this watch party is playin the hits, ya feel me.

Playing now:

Per POLITICO, US Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is leading 55.3 percent over Mike Espy, who has 44.7 percent of the vote.

36.2 percent of the vote is in.

This is not a surprise, but the night is still very young. Espy is still in the hunt.

This Runoff Is Bigger Than Mike Espy

Indeed, Mike Espy is the top name on top of the ballot, but this runoff is bigger than him. Black people make up 37 percent of Mississippi, the highest percentage of black people of any state in the union. There is a perception that Mississippi is a red state so unattainable for Democrats that there is no point in trying. I’ve been talking to dozens of black people here in the state who take exception to that lack of optimism.

Black activists on the ground who are grounded in the work of Fannie Lou Hamer all say that the reason why Mississippi is so red is because not enough people are willing to fight to make it blue.

One of the people who is working to make that happen is LaTosha Brown, who I interviewed for The Root.

Mike Espy’s Watch Party’s At The Mississippi Civil Right’s Museum

7:41 p.m. CST

Greetings from Jackson, Mississippi. We’re at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, where former congressman and agriculture secretary Mike Espy is hosting his watch party. People are beginning to fill the staging area. What is important to note is that while US Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith is favored to win, Espy supporters are hoping that Hyde-Smith’s racist statements will sink her shot at keeping the seat she was appointed to in March by Governor Phil Bryant.

The key is Black voter turnout. If enough black voters turnout, Espy has a shot.