Florida officials are investigating a racist social media post that shows the face of Willie Taggart, the first black head coach at Florida State University, superimposed over the body of a black man hanging from a tree.Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a white former state lawmaker who was appointed to the seat in April, is still favored over black Democrat Mike Espy in the reliably Republican state, which has not sent a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since 1982

But she has been engulfed in a political storm since a video surfaced showing her praising a supporter at a Nov. 2 public event by saying: “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row.”The comment caused an uproar in Mississippi, a deep South state with a history of racism and violence against blacks, including lynchings. Several businesses, including giant retailer Walmart, demanded that she return their donations.Hyde-Smith was also shown on another video joking about suppressing liberal student votes, and photographs have surfaced of her posing with Confederate artifacts in 2014.