Pharma (mostly) wants out of the Hyde-Smith business

A special election runoff today in Mississippi didn't have much of a pharma angle until a few weeks ago, when Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R) told voters — in a state with a brutal history of lynchings — that she'd sit in the front row at a "public hanging."

That remark and several others have led corporate PACs representing drug companies (as well as others) to ask for their campaign contributions back, including a pair of Pfizer contributions totaling $5,000 and two checks from Amgen worth $2,000 each. Merck, however, has remained conspicuously silent. It did not respond to a request for comment about the $3,000 its PAC wrote Hyde-Smith's campaign on Sept. 30.

The pharmaceutical manufacturing sector put roughly $12 million toward the 2018 midterms, with a slight majority going to Republicansbut the bulk of late spending aimed at Democrats as it became increasingly clear they would recapture the House.