(TriceEdneyWire.com) – Mike Espy, the first African-American elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Mississippi since Reconstruction, a former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, and now a practicing attorney, is running for a U.S. Senate seat against two Republican candidates in a special election. To win outright, a candidate needs 51 percent of the total vote or else the top two vote-getters will compete again in a run-off. In a conversation with Trice Edney News Wire contributor Khalil Abdullah about his historic run, Espy reflects on his time at USDA and shares his vision of Mississippi’s future. In order to win, he says, he will need the state’s Black, White and ‘purple people’ – those who will not necessarily vote along party lines, but in sync with his plans for the disadvantaged.