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Jackson’s Democratic primary, which has historically decided the city’s next mayor, saw a field of 12 mayoral candidates this year. Incumbent Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba, who has deployed a relatively small-dollar campaign, ran against other past or present elected officials such as state Sen. John Horhn, former county supervisor David Archie and former Edwards mayor Marcus Wallace.

Also on the ticket were Tim Henderson, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and military consultant, personal injury attorney Delano Funches, businessman and city contractor Socrates Garrett, as well as two nonprofit operators, a nurse practitioner, former TV personality and retired plumber.

With all 80 precincts reporting just after 9 p.m., Horhn was well in the lead with 11,909, 48%, of the roughly 24,800 votes, but did not receive enough in the unofficial count so far to avoid a runoff. Lumumba came in second with 4,124 votes, or about 17% of the vote. Absentee ballots — 876 — and affidavit ballots were not included in this count.

Mississippi Today retrieved the ballot counts from the election commissioners as they came in. See the results of the election below.

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, a runoff will be held on April 22.

Lumumba became mayor in 2017 after winning 55% of more than 34,000 total votes in the Democratic primary against eight challengers, including the incumbent. Horhn, who was running for his third time, came in second to Lumumba with 21% of the vote. After his first term, Lumumba won reelection after receiving 69% of the vote in the Democratic primary in 2021, this time with under 20,000 Jacksonians turning out.

The post Live results: Horhn leads, but receives under 50% of unofficial votes in 2025 Jackson mayoral race appeared first on Mississippi Today.

After months of bitter Republican political infighting, the Legislature appears likely to end its session Wednesday without passing a $7 billion budget to fund state agencies, potentially threatening a government shutdown if they don’t come back and adopt one by June 30. 

After the House adjourned Tuesday night, Speaker Jason White said he had presented the Senate with a final offer to extend the session, which would give the two chambers more time to negotiate a budget. As for now, the 100 or so bills that make up the state budget are dead.

The Senate leadership was expected to meet and consider the offer Tuesday evening, White said. But numerous senators both Republican and Democrat said they would oppose such a parliamentary resolution, and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann has also said it’s unlikely and that the governor will have to force lawmakers back into special session.

White said he believes, if the Senate would agree to extend the session and restart negotiations, lawmakers could pass a budget and end the 2025 session by Sunday, only a few days later than planned.

But if the Senate chooses not to pass a resolution extending the session, White said the House would end the session on Wednesday.

It would take a two-thirds vote of support in both chambers to suspend the rules and extend the session. The Senate opposition appears to be enough to prevent that. 

Still, the speaker said he believes Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate leaders are considering the proposal. But he said if he doesn’t hear a positive response by Wednesday, the House will adjourn and wait for Gov. Tate Reeves to call a special session at a later date. 

“We are open to (extending the session), but we will not stay here until Sunday waiting around to see if they might do it,” White said.  

White said leaving the Capitol without a budget and punting the issue to a special session might not cool tensions between the chambers, as some lawmakers hope. 

“I think when you leave here and you end up in a special session, some folks say, ‘Well everybody that’s upset will cool down by then.’ They may, or it may get worse. It may shine a different and specific light on some of the things in this budget and the differences in the House and Senate,” White said. “Whereas, I think everybody now is in the legislative mode, and we might get there.”

The Mississippi Constitution does not grant the governor much power, but if Gov. Tate Reeves calls lawmakers into a special session, he gets to set the specific legislative agenda — not lawmakers. 

White said the governor could potentially use his executive authority to direct lawmakers to take up other bills, such as those related to education, before getting to the budget. 

“When we leave here without a budget, it is entirely the governor’s prerogative to when he (sets a special session) and how he does that.”

While the future of the state’s budget hangs in the balance, lawmakers have spent the remaining days of their regular session trying to pass the few remaining bills that remained alive on their calendars. 

House approves DEI ban, Senate could follow suit on Wednesday 

The House on Tuesday passed a proposal to ban diversity, equity and inclusion programs from public schools, and both chambers approved a measure to establish a form of early voting. 

The House approved a conference report compromise to ban DEI programs and a list of “divisive concepts” from K-12 schools, community colleges and universities. If the Senate follows suit, Mississippi would join a number of other Republican-controlled states and President Donald Trump, who has made rooting DEI out of the federal government one of his top priorities. 

The agreement between the Republican-dominated chambers follows hours of heated debate in which Democrats, all almost of whom are Black, excoriated the legislation as a setback in the long struggle to make Mississippi a fairer place for minorities. Legislative Republicans argued the legislation will elevate merit in education and remove from school settings “divisive concepts” that exacerbate divisions among different identity groups. 

The concepts that will be rooted out from curricula include the idea that gender identity can be a “subjective sense of self, disconnected from biological reality.” The move reflects another effort to align with the Trump administration, which has declared via executive order that there are only two sexes.

The House and Senate disagreed on how to enforce the act, but ultimately settled on an agreement that would empower students, faculty members and contractors to sue schools for violating the law, but only after they go through an internal campus review process that would give schools time to make changes. The legislation could also withhold state funds from schools that don’t comply. 

Legislature sends ‘early voting lite’ bill to governor 

The Legislature also overwhelmingly passed a proposal to establish a watered down version of early voting, though the legislation is titled “in-person excused voting,” and not early voting.

The proposal establishes 22 days of in-person voting before Election Day that requires voters to go to the circuit clerk’s office or another location county officials have designated as a secure early voting facility, such as a courtroom or a board of supervisors meeting room. 

To cast an early vote, someone must present a valid form of photo ID and list one of about 15 legal excuses to vote before Election Day. The excuses, however, are broad and would, in theory, allow many people to cast early ballots. 

Examples of valid excuses are voters expecting to work on Election Day, being at least 65 years old, being currently enrolled in college or potentially travelling outside of their county on Election Day. 

Since most eligible voters either work, go to college or are older than 65 years of age, these excuses would apply to almost everyone. 

“Even though this isn’t early voting as we saw originally, it makes this more convenient for hard working Mississippians to go by their clerks’ office and vote in person after showing an ID 22 days prior to an election,” Senate Elections Chairman Jeremy England said. 

Republican Gov. Tate Reeves opposes early voting, so it’s unclear if he would sign the measure into law or veto it. 

Both chambers are expected to gavel at 10 a.m. on Wednesday to debate the final items on their agenda. 

The post Feuding GOP lawmakers prepare to leave Jackson without a budget, let governor force them back appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Johnny Byrd knew that when his south Jackson neighborhood Carriage Hills changed wards during redistricting last year, his neighbors would have trouble finding their correct polling place on Election Day.

So he bought a poster board and inscribed it with their new voting location – Christ Tabernacle Church.

“I made a sign and placed it in front of the entrance to our neighborhood that told them exactly where to go so there would be no confusion,” said Byrd, vice president of the Association of South Jackson Neighborhoods.

Still, on April 1, a car full of voters from a senior living facility who should have gone to Christ Tabernacle were driven to their old polling place. 

“I thought it was unfortunate they had to get there and find out rather than knowing in advance that their polling location was different,” said Sen. Sollie Norwood, a Democrat from Jackson who was on the ground Tuesday helping constituents with voting.

One of those elderly women became frustrated and said she no longer wanted to vote, Norwood said, though her companions tried to convince her otherwise. By midday Tuesday, 300 people had voted at Christ Tabernacle, one of the city’s largest precincts currently in terms of registered voters, but among the lowest in turnout historically.

Voting rights advocates and candidates vying for municipal office in Jackson are keeping an eye on issues facing voters at the polls, though without official results, it remains to be seen if that will dampen turnout this election with the hotly contested Democratic primary.

“I still believed it was gonna be low,” Monica McInnis, a program manager for the nonprofit OneVoice, said of turnout. “I was expecting it would be a little higher because of what is on the ballot and how many people are running in all of the wards as well as the mayor’s race.”

The situation is evolving as the day goes on, but the main issues are twofold. One, thousands of Jackson voters have new precinct locations after redistricting last year put them into a new city council ward. 

Two, some voters didn’t realize their polling place for the municipal elections may differ from where they voted in last year’s national elections, which are run by the counties. 

In Mississippi, voters are assigned two precincts that are often but not always the same: A municipal location for city elections and a county location for senate, gubernatorial and presidential elections 

“People in Mississippi, we go to the same polling location for three years, and that fourth year, it changes,” said Jada Barnes, an organizer with the Jackson-based nonprofit MS Votes. “A lot of us are confused. When people are going to the polling place today, they’re seeing it is closed, so they’re just going back home which is making turnout go even lower.” 

Barnes said she’s hearing this primarily from a few Jackson voters who called a hotline that MS Votes is manning. Lack of awareness around polling locations is a big deterrent, she said, because most people are trying to squeeze their vote in between work, school or family responsibilities. 

“Maybe you’re on your lunch break, you only got 30 minutes to go vote, you learn that your polling location has changed and now you have to go back to work,” she said. 

Norwood said he heard from a group of students assigned to vote at Christ Tabernacle who had attempted to vote at the wrong precinct and were told their names weren’t on the rolls. They didn’t know they had been moved from Ward 4 to Ward 6, Norwood said, meaning they expected to vote in a different council race until reaching the polls Tuesday.

Though voters have a duty to be informed of their polling location, Barnes said city and circuit clerks and local election commissioners are ultimately responsible for making sure voters know where to go on Election Day. 

Angela Harris, the Jackson municipal clerk, said her office worked to inform voters by mailing out thousands of letters to Jacksonians whose precincts changed, including the roughly 6,000 whose wards changed during the 2024 redistricting. 

“I am over-swamped,” she said yesterday. 

Despite her efforts, at least one voter said he never got a letter. Stephen Brown learned through Facebook, not an official notice, that he was moved from Ward 1 to Ward 2. 

A resident of the Briarwood Heights neighborhood in northeast Jackson, Brown’s efforts to vote Tuesday have been complicated by mixed messages and a lack of communication. He has yet to vote, even though he showed up at the polls at 7:10 this morning. 

His odyssey took him to two wrong locations, where the poll managers instructed Brown to call his ward’s election commissioner, who did not answer multiple calls, Brown said. Brown finally learned through a Facebook comment that he could look up his new precinct on the Mississippi Secretary of State’s website — if he scrolled down the page past his county precinct information.

This afternoon, Brown has a series of meetings planned, so now he’s hoping for a 30-minute window to try voting one more time, even though he’s skeptical it will make a difference. 

“I’m a very disenchanted voter, because I’ve been let down so much,” he said. “I vote because it’s the thing that I’m supposed to do and because of the sacrifices of my ancestors, but not because I truly believe in it, you know?” 

Brown’s not alone in facing turbulence. Back at Christ Tabernacle, one Jackson voter, who declined to give her name, said she’s frustrated from having to drive to three polling locations in one day.

“I’m dissatisfied with the fact that I had to drive from one end of this street and all of the back to come over here when I usually vote over here on Highway 18,” she said. “This was a great inconvenience, gas wise and time wise.”

The same thing happened to Rodney Miller. He called the confusion some voters are facing in this election “unnecessary.” 

“That ain’t the way we should be handling business,” he said. “We should be looking out for one another better than that, you know? It’s already enough getting people out to vote, and when you confuse them when they try? Come on now. That’s discouraging.”

Christ Tabernacle is the second largest precinct in the city in terms of registered voters, with 3,330 assigned to vote there as of 2024, according to documents retrieved from the municipal election committee. But it had one of the lowest voter turnout rates – 10% in the 2021 primary election before redistricting and before it became so large.

Byrd mentioned the much higher turnout in places like Ward 1 in northeast Jackson, compared to where he lives in south Jackson. Why does Byrd think this is?

“Civics,” Byrd said. “They took civics out of school. If you ask the average person what is the role and responsibility of any elected official, they can’t tell you.”

The post ‘A lot of us are confused’: Lacking info, some Jacksonians go to wrong polling place appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Hotly contested legislation that aimed to increase the transparency and regulation of pharmacy benefit managers appeared dead in the water Tuesday after a lawmaker challenged the bill for a rule violation.

The bill was sent back to conference after Rep. John Hines, D-Greenville, raised a point of order challenging the addition of code sections to the bill, which will likely kill it. 

House members in the past have chosen to turn a blind eye to the rule, which would require the added code sections to be removed when the bill is returned to conference. This fatal flaw will make it difficult to revive the legislation. 

“It will almost certainly die,” said House Speaker Jason White, who authored the legislation. “And you can celebrate that with your pharmacist when you see them.”

“…This wasn’t ‘gotcha.’ Everybody in this chamber knew that code sections were added, because the attempt was to make 1123 more suitable to all the parties.”

The bill sought to protect patients and independent pharmacists, who have warned that if legislators do not pass a law this year to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, which serve as middlemen in the pharmaceutical industry, some pharmacies may be forced to close. They say that the companies’ low payments and unfair business practices have left them struggling to break even.

The bill underwent several revisions in the House and Senate before reaching its most recent form, which independent pharmacists say has watered the bill down and will not offer them adequate protection. 

House Bill 1123, authored by White, originally focused on the transparency of pharmacy benefit managers. The Senate then beefed up the bill by adding provisions barring the companies from steering patients to affiliate pharmacies and prohibiting spread pricing – the practice of paying insurers more for drugs than pharmacists in order to inflate pharmacy benefit managers’ profits. 

Independent pharmacists, who have flocked to the Capitol to advocate for reform this session, widely supported the Senate’s version of the bill. 

The Senate incorporated several recommendations from the House into its bill, saying that they believed that the legislation would have the House’s support. 

Instead, the House sent the bill to conference and requested additional changes, including new language that would eliminate self-funded insurance plans, or health plans in which employers assume the financial risk of covering employees’ health care costs themselves, from a section of the bill that prohibits pharmacy benefit managers from steering patients to specific pharmacies.

This language seeks to satisfy employers, who argue that regulating pharmacy benefit managers’ business practices will lead to higher health insurance costs. 

Sen. Rita Parks, R-Corinth, who has spearheaded pharmacy benefit manager reform efforts in the Senate, previously said that adding the language to the bill would “remove any protection out of the law.” But she signed the conference report that included the language Monday after a heated conference meeting between lawmakers. 

Rep. Hank Zuber, R-Ocean Springs and co-author of the bill, said the bill has something for everybody, gesturing to its concessions for employers and independent pharmacists. He said the bill gives independent pharmacists 85% of what they wanted. 

Mississippi Independent Pharmacies Association director Robert Dozier was not available for comment by the time the story published. 

Zuber told House members Tuesday to “blame the Senate” for the slow progress of pharmacy benefit manager reform in Mississippi, citing the body’s failure to take up a drug pricing transparency bill half a decade ago, for three years in a row.

“If the Senate had followed the leadership and the legislation that we drafted those many years ago, we would not be here,” Zuber said. “We would have the information on drug pricing, we would have the information and transparency on (pharmacy benefit managers) and we would have the ultimate reason as to why drug costs continue to rise.”

Members of the House expressed dissatisfaction with the legislation Tuesday, arguing it did not do enough to ensure lower prescription drug costs for consumers. 

“I’m going to try to do something next year that goes even further,” Zuber responded.

For the past several years, lawmakers have proposed bills to regulate pharmacy benefit managers, but none have made it as far as this session. 

“We’ll go another year,” said White. 

The post ‘We’ll go another year’ without relief: Pharmacy benefit manager reform likely dead appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The lawyer for Rankin County Sheriff Bryan Bailey defended the sheriff’s use of trusties on his family’s chicken farm, saying it was part of an inmate work program authorized by statute. But four trusties who said they worked at the farm were released from the Rankin County Detention Center before 2021, when the only statute governing a work program for jail inmates was passed.

Mississippi Today and The New York Times reported in a joint investigation Thursday that Bailey allegedly used inmates under his supervision to spray weedkiller, cut grass and muck out chicken houses on McLain Farms, owned by Bailey’s mother. Former trusties said they were expected to keep that work secret. 

In a statement released Thursday to a few local news organizations, the lawyer, Jason Dare, acknowledged that trusted inmates, known as trusties, had worked on the farm, but insisted they were always paid “according to statute.” 

“That’s absolutely a lie,” said one of the former trusties who worked on the farm. He maintained he was never paid for that work. 

Dare’s statement makes apparent reference to a section of a 2021 state law that authorized Rankin County to establish a pilot work release program for jail inmates. That law requires participating employers to pay inmates at least the “prevailing wage” for their position. While that statute empowers the department to keep 15% of the inmate’s wages, Dare said the sheriff keeps none. 

Mississippi Today interviewed two former trusties who participated in the work release program, which allows inmates to work at local businesses and deposit their earnings in personal savings accounts. Those former trusties said they used their savings from work release to pay their fines, hire lawyers and save for cars. 

But jail logs show that the four former trusties who told Mississippi Today they worked on the farm were released from the jail before the sheriff’s department established the work release program in 2021. There is no statute covering the payment of jail trusties who do not participate in a work release program.

It is unclear how trusties were paid prior to the work release program. The sheriff’s department did not fulfill a request made early this month for records of any payments made to trusties for their work on or off jail property, for which Mississippi Today paid the department $150.

At least three former trusties said they were never paid for their work on the farm. Those who witnessed some trusties getting paid said the sheriff would pay them in cash – “rolls of twenties,” one specified. Dan Pacholke, a corrections consultant and co-founder of the Sustainability in Prisons Project, raised concerns about transparency in such an arrangement, because cash payments are impossible to track.

Ted Booth, executive director of the Mississippi Joint Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review, said as far as he knew, a list of eight participating employers in his committee’s 2024 report on Rankin County’s work release program was exhaustive. McLain Farms does not appear on that list.

But even if McLain Farms had been on the list, former state Rep. Nick Bain, who voted for the law in 2021 and has since served on the Mississippi Ethics Commission, said it could be unethical for a sheriff’s family business to be a participating employer in such a program. He said that could be a potential violation of the state’s constitution and ethics code, which prohibit public officers from having an interest in any contract with their county of employment while in office.

Bailey did not respond to a request for comment.

Steph Quinn is a Roy Howard Fellow at Mississippi Today.

This story was published with the support of a grant from Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights, in conjunction with Arnold Ventures, a nonprofit research foundation that supports journalism.

The post Statute invoked to defend Rankin sheriff didn’t exist when inmates worked on family farm appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Three new programs are promising to make child care more accessible, helping not only parents and families but also providers and business owners.

Mississippi recently received $30 million from the  Preschool Development Grant Birth Through Five. It’s using that money to create ELEVATE: A Quality Support System meant to improve early childhood care and education by supporting child care workers and parents.

The two other programs were developed to help employers understand how much child care issues are costing their businesses, and to take advantage of a tax credit incentive to help their employees meet that need.

ELEVATE is meant to address quality issues in early childhood education by providing resources to child care providers and helping parents make informed decisions about their child care options. “Our goal is to help families and child care providers understand and promote high-quality early learning experiences for our youngest learners,” reads the announcement.

The program has been in development for almost two years. The Mississippi Department of Human Services held town halls across the state to get input from child care providers and parents.

Lesia Daniel-Hollingshead, owner of Funtime Preschool in Clinton, attended one of the town halls and said she is hopeful the program will increase the quality of Mississippi’s child care offerings. She is grateful that providers were given input. 

“Our child care providers are entrusted with our state’s most valuable resource and should have the knowledge and training to provide children the best environment possible to grow and develop,” said Daniel-Hollingshead.

She added that “parent involvement is critical for every child’s education. We need families to value high quality early education so their children are set up for success when they enter kindergarten.”

MDHS plans to implement ELEVATE over the next three years, starting with child care centers that participate in the Child Care Payment Program. Providers will have access to educational resources on improving teaching and curricula. This includes group training, professional development, and more. They can receive up to 12 special badges that display their training in a particular area. 

Jamie Anderson, a mother of two who works at Funtime Preschool, applauds ELEVATE’s concept of ” helping families by ensuring child care providers are well trained in best practices and knowledgeable about what is considered best practices to meet the developmental needs of their children while families are working.”

“Our child care programs work very hard to educate and care for Mississippi’s children, and they are a great resource for Mississippi’s working families,” said Chad Allgood, director of the MSDH’s Division of Early Childhood Care & Development. “They need our support, but more than that, they deserve recognition for what they do. ELEVATE will give them both.”

Early childhood is a crucial period of brain development. Access to quality early childhood education has a significant impact on a child’s future from K-12 and beyond. 

Child care is an economic issue as well. Mississippi Early Learning Alliance released a report last year that showed that 7% of Mississippi’s labor force was not working full time due to family responsibilities, including child care. That 7% would add $8 billion to the state’s GDP. Most of those staying home are women.

Child care costs are a major reason many women stay home. A 2024 childcare market survey from Mississippi State found that depending on several factors, families pay around $100 to $200 a week on child care.

One solution is the Mississippi Business Child Care Tax Credit, a 50% income tax credit to employers who either provide their employees with child care during work hours or provide at least $6,000 in a stipend to a licensed child care provider for their employees. However, a survey from the Mississippi Economic Council found that less than 3% of businesses in Mississippi are taking advantage of it and other child care incentives. 

The Mississippi Early Learning Alliance recently launched two resources to encourage businesses to take advantage of this tax credit. The Economic Impact Calculator allows employers to calculate annual financial losses due to their employee’s problems with child care. The Mississippi Business Child Care Tax Credit and Employee Stipend Resource Guide  informs businesses about the Mississippi Business Child Care Tax Credit.

The Mississippi Economic Council, which helped develop these tools,t said in a statement, “This toolkit/resource guide will greatly help HR departments and CFOs for companies that want to take advantage of this opportunity to offset the high cost of childcare for their employees!”

MELA’s executive director Biz Harris stated in a press release, “These tools give businesses real data on how child care instability affects them and show how they can use an existing tax credit to benefit both their company and their employees.”

The post New programs could increase child care availability in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The federal government has frozen millions of dollars for family planning services for 91 clinics in Mississippi pending an investigation into the nonprofit that receives and disburses the grant.

A March 31 letter from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services cites a 2020 statement made by the nonprofit Converge opposing racism and committing to diversity in health care in the wake of multiple deaths of Black men killed by police and the national outcry. The letter alleges that based on the group’s statement, it “could be in violation” of the terms of the award and parts of the federal civil rights law. 

The statement includes the line: “Race, income, geography and/or identity should not determine whether a patient has access to high quality family planning care.” 

Converge, which beat out the state Health Department for the funding in 2022, received the notification one day before they were set to receive the fourth year of their funding. The nonprofit receives about $4.5 million annually and funds services like screenings for breast and cervical cancer, intimate partner violence, and mental health problems, as well as contraceptive services. 

Title X funding has been in place for over 50 years and provides a range of services related to helping people get pregnant, preventing pregnancy through birth control like long-acting contraception, STI testing and treatment, pregnancy testing and counseling and basic infertility services. It’s intended to ensure that every person, regardless of location, income or insurance status, has access to basic preventive reproductive health care.

Rates of unplanned and unintended pregnancies are higher for women in Mississippi than in other Southeastern states, according to a 2018 report from the Center for Mississippi Health Policy. The report specifically cites the importance of timely and inexpensive access to long acting reversible contraception such as IUDs and implants.

Mississippi also leads the nation in its rates of syphilis and HIV, in addition to other STIs.

“This is a safety net program. Any delay in funding will just exacerbate the extreme health care disparities and lack of access to care in Mississippi,” Converge Co-executive Director Jamie Bardwell said. “Clinics that rely on Converge – we aren’t able to offer them a new contract on April 1, so they can’t offer Title X services …” 

Bardwell says Converge is one of seven nonprofits nationwide to receive such a letter, in addition to nine Planned Parenthood state affiliates. 

HHS provided a list of documents Converge must provide within 10 days. They include “a copy of any policies related to the treatment of illegal aliens,” “a copy of any nondiscrimination policies,” and “a statement of positions on the concerns” outlined in the letter.

“They are asking for a wide range of documents – some are pretty straightforward, and some are things that just do not exist,” Bardwell said. “And they want this information from Converge and for the clinics that we give money to for Title X.” 

Converge acts as the pass through for clinics in both Tennessee and Mississippi. Last year, over 30,000 people in both states received services funded by Title X. They also operate the state’s only telehealth program for contraception and at-home STD and HIV testing. 

Bardwell says she and her colleagues are in the process of notifying the grant recipients of the funding freeze, and the nonprofit is trying to comply with the request as quickly as possible.

“We’re going to do everything in our power to show we for sure do not discriminate against anyone on the basis of race.” 

The post Feds freeze millions of dollars for birth control, STI testing in Mississippi appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Note: Rep. Jeffery Harness, D-Fayette, offered the following comments during the Mississippi House Democratic Caucus press conference on Feb. 25. House Bill 1193, which he references, is still pending before the Legislature.

Today, we stand together—not just as legislators or as representatives of our districts, but as children of Mississippi, as students of history and as warriors for justice. This movement is bigger than politics as usual. It is about the soul of our state, the soul of our nation, and the very principles that make America worth fighting for.

Make no mistake: House Bill 1193 is not merely another piece of legislation. It is an attack on fairness, on truth and on the values that bind us together. When our Republican colleagues claim they want a better Mississippi, the question remains: for whom? Their proposed bans on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs in our public educational institutions tell us the answer loud and clear – it is not for the majority of Mississippians. They care about diversity only when it suits them. When it comes to taking your hard-earned tax dollars or sharing the facts about our history, they remain silent.

Let’s be clear about what DEI stands for:

• Diversity means ensuring representation from all backgrounds – race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status and more.
• Equity means recognizing that people start from different places because of historical and systemic barriers, and providing the resources needed for fair opportunities. 
• Inclusion means creating environments where every individual feels valued, respected, and fully able to participate without discrimination.

This bill seeks to strip our schools and universities of programs that celebrate our diverse narratives and to not acknowledge the lived realities of millions. It forbids educators from teaching the full spectrum of our shared history and attempts to erase the challenges and triumphs of marginalized communities. If we were all truly on an equal playing field, we wouldn’t see data revealing disparities in healthcare, education, wages and investments. But the truth is, our Republican colleagues do not want an equal playing field; they want to silence the voices that remind us of our collective struggle toward a more perfect union.

Let us remember: History demands that we stand and be counted. As we navigate these trying times, let us emulate our ancestors—the brave souls who fought for our children’s future and for democracy itself. House Bill 1193 is an attempt to erase, to silence and to control—a government-enforced ideology that denies the lived experiences of our people, especially when it comes to race, gender and identity.

It is no coincidence that this assault on truth occurs at a time when our nation is under threat from dangerous forces. Bills like these are part of an agenda championed by the tyrant Donald Trump and his followers—a reign of lies, division and fear that has poisoned our political discourse. To all Mississippians—regardless of party—heed this bill as a dire warning that we are witnessing the attempted slow dismantling of our democracy.

To our colleagues in the Democratic Party: This is our moment—our line in the sand. We urge a reconsideration of these measures so that Mississippi continues to progress toward a more inclusive and equitable society. We must speak out against these anti-DEI measures now, or history will remember us as cowards. And to our colleagues on the other side of the aisle, hear us clearly: You will not erase us. You will not silence us. You will not defeat us. Truth is louder than lies, and justice is stronger than oppression.

To the people of Mississippi, we say this: They want you afraid and divided. They want you to believe that this state is theirs to control, that your future is theirs to dictate. But they are wrong. Mississippi belongs to the people, and the people will have the final word.

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Make sure you vote today like your town or city’s life depends on it.

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