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Today, after months of campaigning on “giving education back to the states,” President Donald Trump signed an executive order that aims to totally dismantle the U.S. Department of Education.

There are serious questions of constitutionality that will need to be worked out in the courts, and Congress likely needs to sign off on the elimination of a federal agency. Who knows if this, like so much of what Trump and Elon Musk have been cutting, will actually go through. 

Nonetheless, Trump kept another major campaign promise — one that was directly forecasted in the Project 2025 manifesto that Trump’s top advisers helped write. Congratulations to you, I suppose, if you think this is a good idea.

My plea to you now: Play this out a little further and consider the critical, unanswered questions about what this is going to mean for states like Mississippi.

Let’s acknowledge this frankly: Our track record running our own public education system is god-awful. Last time Mississippi managed its own schools system without the federal agency in place, it was failing dramatically:

• Educational standards set by state leaders were woefully low. How low? Routinely, the Mississippians lucky enough to earn high school diplomas were illiterate when they entered the workforce. That low.
• Schoolhouses were falling in and barely usable, hungry kids were too ill to return to class, and special education programs for our most vulnerable students literally did not exist.
• Traditionally overlooked communities were wildly undereducated, with fewer than half of rural Mississippians and fewer than half of Black Mississippians holding high school diplomas.
• The political power structure set or influenced state’s curricula. Just one example of how this played out: In America’s Blackest state and the heart of the civil rights movement, public school students were only taught one white version of history. Can we really feel OK about that?

In so many ways, the founding of the U.S. Department of Education in 1979 created transformational guardrails for Mississippi that curtailed most of these travesties. Yes, we implemented our own changes at the state level, and yes, nothing is perfect now. But without the critical framework of the federal agency and its funding prowess, we never would have taken those steps. For decades now, only because of the federal agency, we have been assured that:

• Poor, rural school districts would get the funds they needed — funds they weren’t getting from legislative leaders of America’s poorest state.
• Critical special education — programs that did not exist because they were not being funded by Mississippi — would be funded with that money being distributed equitably.
• Annual standardized testing would show us whether we were ahead of, on par with, or falling behind the performance of students in other states. You remember the “Mississippi miracle,” the dramatic reading improvements that were a key point of pride for virtually every 2023 political campaign? We literally wouldn’t know the miracle existed without this critical federal benchmarking.
• Adequate funds would be distributed to ensure that students of marginalized communities — minorities, migrants, students with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness — got the extra support they needed to succeed, and the white political power structure wouldn’t focus only on students who looked like them.

Look, we have the right to know that our tax dollars are being spent efficiently and appropriately. Looking under the hood is indeed desperately needed across government at every level.

And truly, what better way to spend those dollars than on the education of our children? In so many ways, our state’s future hinges more on this basic function of government than any other spending. Do you want a stronger economy? More jobs and better jobs? Vibrant and well-run towns and cities? Functioning health care and economic systems? There’s no room for debate: All of that starts with providing our children with a quality education.

So call me cynical, liberal or just plain crazy, but as we’re staring down the barrel of one of the most dramatic public policy shifts in American history with this latest move by the White House, we need to get so many questions answered, or Mississippi could be set so far back in time that we’ll never recover. Our kids’ livelihoods are on the line here, and our collective success as a state is at stake.

Here are a few of those critical questions that come to mind.

Can Mississippi really manage up to $1.5 billion in federal funds on our own?

Mississippi, the state that relies more on the federal dollar than any other state, right now ranks 45th in the nation in public education funding. That’s already far too low.

But included in that total is $1.5 billion that the U.S. Department of Education sends Mississippi each year. If you’re counting at home, that represents 30% of the state’s annual spending on public education. That money is split up into grants and other specifically designated programs, so the state has little leeway in deciding how it can be spent. 

Trump and his administration have given virtually no specifics of how this post-DOE iteration of things will work — an extremely concerning reality in itself — but experts suggest that instead of funds being sent to states through the federal agency, Congress would send that money directly to the state in the form of block grants — or grants that have some general parameters on how they can be spent but fewer strings attached by way of accountability. One would assume that the Mississippi  Departments of Education would take on the responsibility of doling this funding out.

This is where Mississippi’s education structure comes into play. Our state Department of Education is run by the Board of Education, a nine-member political board appointed by the governor, lieutenant governor and the speaker of the House. If these Trump-decreed changes go into effect, these nine people seemingly will, overnight, have a $1.5 billion weight on their shoulders.

We have every right to be concerned that these board members would act as if they were beholden to the politicians who appointed them — a long-standing reality across our state government system that has harmed Mississippians in just so many ways. The potential for corruption and misspending here is immense. (In case you’re wondering about Mississippi’s recent track record on doling out federal block grant funding, ask the handful of people who are awaiting federal sentencing in the state’s welfare embezzlement how they’re doing lately.)

A few more money-related questions that no one seems to be asking: How often will the feds send us this money — monthly, quarterly, annually in one lump sum? How quickly might it then make its way to school districts that desperately need it to provide these critical educational services? Who is watching our leaders to ensure the money is being spent how Congress dictates and how Mississippians need? Will Congress or our state Legislature create some sort of guardrails to ensure misspending doesn’t become commonplace? Without federal lobbying that happens on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education each year, will Congress appropriate the same amount of funding for Mississippi? Will anyone in the Mississippi power structure stand up if political influence of this spending becomes a problem?

Can Mississippi really be trusted to spend federal funds appropriately?

Yes, the U.S. Department of Education controls so much of how the federal funding gets spent. Again, in so many cases, that is a necessary and good thing, especially considering Mississippi’s problematic record spending federal dollars effectively.

Here’s just a sampling of what Mississippi receives from the U.S. Department of Education in fiscal year 2024, according to a Legislative Budget Office report that was requested by state Rep. Daryl Porter and shared with Mississippi Today:

• $236 million for Title I grants aimed at improving academic achievement and providing a high-quality education to students from low-income families. 

In the 2021-22 school year, 737 of 1,040 schools in Mississippi were eligible for Title I funds. What could go wrong in Mississippi, the state home to the very most children living in poverty, without this funding?

• $134 million for special education grants — the vast majority of the state’s overall special education program spending. 

Last year, the federal government deemed Mississippi in need of consecutive years of assistance to meet the goals of the Individuals with Disabilities Education (IDEA) Act, which was passed to create better outcomes and opportunities for people with disabilities.

• $56 million to provide vocational services for individuals with disabilities so that they may prepare for and engage in competitive integrated employment or supported employment and achieve economic self-sufficiency.

Again, an area of need in Mississippi that could not be met in any other way than through federal education grants.

• $29 million for Effective Instruction State Grants, which aim to reform teacher and principal certification programs, provide support and professional development for teachers and principals. Other aims of this grant include recruiting and retaining effective teachers and principals, providing professional development for teachers and principals, and reducing class size. 

Our state, which has for years been dealing with a critical teacher shortage, has one of the lowest average teacher salaries in the nation. These certification programs provide salary increases to teachers and better prepare them for the challenges they face in the classroom. God knows what it would mean for them if federal assistance disappeared.

• $10 million for 21st Century Community Learning Centers, which serves as the only federal funding source dedicated exclusively to afterschool programs.

Getting kids into afterschool programs not only increases their ability to succeed in the classroom, it keeps them entertained and deters them from committing crime.

So, a few more questions: Will anyone — Congress, the state Legislature, the governor, anyone — closely monitor how our Board of Education will spend these important federal funds? Can we trust Mississippi officials to treat every Mississippi child equally in funding schools and education programs? Can we continue our special education programs? Can we sustain support for rural districts and special education? Can we fully support our teachers?

As you can see, there are endless questions and few answers. A concerning reality is that no one, seemingly, has these answers. Perhaps the most concerning reality is no one in Mississippi leadership has tried to find the answers.

We’ve known for months that this was Trump’s play. He’s promised it. Yet to date, the Mississippi Board of Education has not publicly discussed any of this in a public meeting. The state Legislature, too busy fighting over cutting state revenue and spending, has not debated the federal education cut publicly. Congress has obviously not vetted this at all, and the federal courts have yet to weigh in. 

As is the case with so many other things that Trump has done in the past two months, we don’t know what’s happening. That is by design.

But we Mississippians better figure it out. Because of our past failures, the burden on us here is heavier than in most places. The future of Mississippi is on the line here, and we must get this right — and quickly.

The post Trump moves to eliminate U.S. Department of Education. Right now, Mississippi must figure out what’s next. appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Mississippi Senate leaders have said a House plan to eliminate the state income tax over about a decade was foolhardy, and instead proposed a much longer, more cautious approach.

But the Senate had a few typos in the bill — errant decimal points — that instead of drawing out the phase out of the income tax would speed it up, nearly as fast as the House proposal, multiple lawmakers confirmed to Mississippi Today.

The House ran with it. It realized the Senate’s error and passed the measure on Thursday.

Now, if the House leadership wanted, it could send the measure to Gov. Tate Reeves, who could sign it into law. The measure was held on a procedural motion that could allow the House to reconsider and continue negotiations.

Legislative leaders and Gov. Tate Reeves went radio silent after the House unexpectedly concurred with the Senate proposal on Thursday morning. Early Thursday afternoon, House and Senate leaders were meeting behind closed doors, and many lawmakers had no idea about the snafu.

Later Thursday afternoon, Reeves posted on social media that he was looking forward to receiving the bill on Friday and signing it into law and, “Today is a day for celebration!”

Hosemann and White’s offices on Thursday afternoon did not immediately respond to a request for comments about the situation.

The intent of the Senate’s “cautious” plan to eliminate the state individual income tax over many years would only eliminate it if economic growth “triggers” were met. After an initial four-year reduction in the income tax rate, the triggered phase out would require revenue growth to far outpace spending.

READ MORE: House votes to send Senate income tax elimination plan to governor. But is debate really over?

But instead of saying revenue growth over spending reached 85% of the cost of a drop in income tax, the bill accidentally said .85%. This means a very small amount of growth would trigger large income tax cuts, eliminating it far quicker than the Senate had wanted. Similar typos were in other metrics of the trigger language.

Jared Walczak, Vice President of State Projects at the Tax Foundation, said the error could have harmful consequences for Mississippi’s economy.

“If implemented as-is, the law could trigger tax cuts when Mississippi can’t afford them,” Walczak wrote in a social media post. “Twenty-eight states have cut (personal income tax) rates since 2021, including Mississippi. They’ve mostly done so responsibly. With this drafting error, the Mississippi legislation would break from that pattern of responsible tax relief and could put the state in a very rough spot.”

It’s unclear whether the House would really send a bill with obvious unintentional flaws — dealing with a major overhaul in the state’s taxation — to the governor.

Another bill remains alive — the one with the House’s most recent counter offer — before the Senate.

Lawmakers could reconsider passage of the bill with typos, or let it die, and hold more negotiations between the House and Senate. Or, both chambers could unanimously agree to fix the typos and send what the Senate originally intended to the governor.

Or, the largest tax cut in Mississippi history, coupled with one of the largest (gasoline) tax increases, could become the law of the land because of a few typos. If it did become law, lawmakers could come back sometime in the next four years before the growth triggers take effect and change them.

In Reeves’ social media post he said: “I hear there are those who desire future tweaks to this law, and those can certainly be considered in future legislation.” He thanked White and House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar.

The post OOPS! Senate sent House an income tax bill with typos. House ran with it. What’s next? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The House on Thursday morning voted 92-27 to agree with the Senate’s latest proposal to eliminate the state income tax and increase the gasoline tax.  

But the House GOP leadership held the bill on a motion to reconsider, and another version of the tax bill remains alive. After the House passed the measure, the top legislative leaders and the governor went quiet, and declined to comment.

“Let’s end the tax on work once and for all in the state of Mississippi,” House Ways and Means Chairman Trey Lamar said.

If the measure does become law, then oddly, a handful of Senate Democrats would have been crucial in passage of the largest tax cut in state history, and a sea change towards more regressive taxation that puts more burden on the poor and those of modest means through increased consumption taxes.

The vote was a surprise. The House and Senate up until the vote had appeared to still be far apart on particulars of a tax overhaul. The bill approved Thursday was held on a motion to reconsider by the GOP House leadership, and Gov. Tate Reeves, House Speaker Jason White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann all declined comment on the issue — bizarre for such monumental policy.

It’s unclear whether Reeves would sign the measure if it makes it to his desk.

Despite calling for elimination of the income tax, Gov. Reeves has in the past vehemently opposed “tax swap” increases in gasoline or sales taxes along with cuts, and has declined comment on whether he would support the House or Senate proposals with included tax increases. He has not publicly offered any specific plan of his own as lawmakers haggle.

Senate Finance Chair Josh Harkins said he and Lamar exchanged text messages Thursday morning, and Lamar indicated a motion to concur might be coming. Harkins sees the motion to reconsider as a procedural hurdle, and that the Senate bill wouldn’t change.

“I think they passed the negotiated version, I think that’s the final version that you’re going to see. That was a product our talks and discussion,” Harkins said. “I’m pleased that they concurred on the changes that we made and came up with through discussions. They’ve got one more hurdle to clear with tabling the motion to reconsider, and then it will be more final than it is right now.”

In  their conversation on Thursday, Harkins said Lamar was excited about getting a final product across the finish line: “I think he was relieved after a lot of work on this over the last several years,” Harkins said. “Their goal was elimination, and they got a plan to eliminate.”

Rep. Karl Oliver, a Republican from Winona who is part of House leadership, held the bill on a procedural motion, meaning lawmakers could still debate and work on the proposal before it goes to the governor’s office for consideration. This would be a somewhat odd move if the Republican House leadership wanted to move the bill on to be signed into law.

The proposal would decrease the 4% income tax rate by .25% each year from 2027 to 2030 and leaves it at 3% in 2030. After it reaches 3%, the income tax would be reduced with “growth triggers” or at a proportional rate depending on the difference between the state’s revenue and spending plans that year. 

The proposal also would reduce the sales tax on groceries from 7% to 5%, increases the 18.4-cents-a-gallon gasoline tax by 9 cents over three years and change benefits for government employees hired after March 2026 to a more austere retirement plan.

Gov. Reeves and Speaker White, a Republican from West, have forcefully pushed lawmakers to eliminate what they refer to as the “tax on work.” Hosemann and the Senate had been reluctant on full elimination of the tax, urging caution in uncertain economic times and calling for only a cut to the tax instead. However, the Senate this week had passed a counter offer, that would eliminate the income tax over many years, provided economic growth “triggers” are met along the way.

The plan the House voted to send to the governor — pending the holding motion — on Thursday would increase the tax on gasoline by a total of 9 cents a gallon over three years, then increase along with road construction prices thereafter. The House had at first proposed a 5% sales tax on gasoline, then countered with a 15 cents a gallon increase.

The Senate had refused to entertain the House’s proposal to include an increase in the state’s sales tax. The latest House offer would have increased sales taxes from 7% to 8%. It’s original proposal would have increased it to 8.5%/

Mississippi is perennially among the most federally dependent states, receiving nearly a 3-1 return for every dollar in federal taxes it pays. Some Democratic lawmakers have said that, given the uncertainty surrounding the federal spending cuts, now is not the time to drastically rework the state’s tax code. Others had warned that a shift from income taxes to higher sales and gasoline taxes would help the wealthy and hurt those of more modest means and retirees.

The Senate’s “compromise” it passed this week — the first time the chamber had agreed to the House’s demands for income tax elimination instead of just cuts — barely squeaked by. It would have failed, due to a handful of Republicans opposing it or voting only present, had four Democrats not crossed the aisle and voted for it.

The Republicans opposed it primarily because it increases the gasoline tax. Four Senate Democrats crossed over and supported it for the same reason — they want a gas tax increase to pay for fixing roads.

The post House votes to send Senate income tax elimination plan to governor. But is debate really over? appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The mayoral candidates at the forum agreed: Poverty in Jackson is a reflection of how the government distributes its resources. 

Where they differed, however, was over where those resources should be targeted, if the city or state government is more responsible, and whether the current mayor, Chokwe Antar Lumumba, has been doing enough to create economic opportunity in the city. 

At the Mississippi Poor People’s Campaign forum on Wednesday night, poverty was the first of several topics discussed, including water, public safety, affordable housing and empowering the city’s youth. 

Six democratic mayoral candidates, who will face off in the April 1 primary against six others who did not attend, were asked about their specific plan to eradicate poverty in Jackson. They answered from left to right in the order in which they were seated, and their answers are listed here in that order. 

The first to go, Marcus Wallace, a former mayor of Edwards, focused on what the city of Jackson could be doing to invest its $334 million budget in local businesses. Owner of a local construction firm, Wallace said he has been contracting with the city for 27 years, and it hurts him to see out-of-town companies taking work that could be done by Jacksonians. 

“We should do a better job in the city of protecting and preserving our businesses,” he said. 

Likewise, businesses should be incentivized to create more jobs in Jackson, said candidate Tim Henderson, a retired air force lieutenant colonel and U.S. Space Force consultant. He also advocated for raising the city’s minimum wage to $20 an hour. 

“We’ve gotta create those economic opportunities in south Jackson, as well west Jackson and northwest Jackson to give people an opportunity to make their money at home and not spend all their money traveling to Madison, Flowood and the other surrounding areas,” Henderson said.

Lumumba said that every city talks about incentivizing business, but he questioned whether businesses have the same care for the city, referencing the departure of Walmart-owned wholesale chain Sam’s Club.

“When Sam’s was in Jackson, they did very well,” he said. “The unfortunate thing was that they didn’t have value in our community, and they assumed when they moved to Madison that you would follow.” 

The city can also use revolving loan programs to invest in areas that banks won’t, he added. 

“The Fondrens, Belhavens and downtowns of the city of Jackson are considered ‘investor ready,’” he said. “It’s our communities that are often left in the fray.” 

Candidate Socrates Garrett, a longtime city and state contractor, spoke from experience when he said it is hard to build a business as an African American in the poorest city in the poorest state in the nation, even though a majority of Jacksonians are African American.

“If I was in Seattle, or if I was in Maryland, the whole opportunity would be tremendously different,” he said. “But in Jackson, Mississippi, it is twice as difficult, even though we are the majority in this city, and we’ve got to figure out why that is.” 

(Jackson is not the poorest city in the state by every metric, but its median household income of about $42,000 – which falls under a living wage – is lower than that of the state’s at $54,000.) 

“We don’t have an economy of Jackson, that’s the problem,” Garrett said. 

But the mayor can work to fix that, Garrett continued, by using his power to award city contracts to local minority-owned businesses. And Lumumba, he said, was not doing that enough. 

“Any contract under $50,000, this city has the ability to pick up the telephone and call three businesses of their choice,” Garrett said. “Without a bid, without anything other than just pick up the phone and call, and yet I don’t see no minority businesses.” 

The city can fund minority businesses even with a request-for-proposal process, he added. 

“It’s a puny contest. You choose who you want to do that work, and the mayor let folks get in his ears, started giving away the power of that office when he started going through his blind process,” Garrett said, referencing the city’s practice of scoring contract proposals without the names of the vendors attached. “We need a mayor that has his foot on what’s going on in Jackson and make sure that our people are working and that these contracts are benefitting them. Under my leadership, we will build and create our own economy with the dollars that we have.” 

In fact, much of Lumumba’s second term has been dominated by a battle with the city council over replacing the white-owned corporate behemoth Waste Management, who had long held the city’s garbage collection contract, with Richard’s Disposal, the Louisiana-based, minority-owned firm Lumumba’s staff selected. 

The mayor eventually prevailed with Richard’s Disposal receiving a 6-year, $64 million contract in 2024, Clarion Ledger reported.

Delano Funches, a personal injury attorney, talked about the power the federal government has to address poverty when he said Jackson should work with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to create more affordable housing.

In contrast, David Archie, former Hinds County supervisor, mostly focused on the role of the state. He asked if everyone in the room understood that while Jackson is a Democratic city, the state is run by Republicans.

“With the biggest bank of free money that goes all over this state other than to Jackson, Mississippi,” he said. “That’s the first thing that you got to understand.” 

Number two, Archie said, is that the jobs are in Jackson, but the congestion on I-55 in the mornings and evenings is proof that Jackson’s jobs are not going to Jacksonians. 

“They come to Jackson to drain us every day like a vacuum cleaner, and nobody is saying anything about it,” he said.

On rebuttal, Lumumba got a chance to respond to Garrett. He reminded the audience that the biggest contract in this city does, in fact, go to a minority business — Richard’s Disposal. 

But Richard’s Disposal winning the contract was not about enriching individuals, he said. 

“I don’t have anything against a minority business that wants to do well, but my goal isn’t to make you rich, my goal is to make wealth generate in the community, right, and those are the things that we have to stand on,” he said. 

Timing of the years-long garbage conflict, in which Lumumba made bribery allegations against council members, seems to coincide with the FBI’s corruption investigation and undercover sting operation in Jackson that ensnared former Ward 2 Councilwoman Angelique Lee, who pleaded guilty, as well as outgoing Ward 6 Councilman Aaron Banks and Lumumba, both of whom pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial. 

“The reason we had to do a blind bidding process is people are more loyal to their political connections,” Lumumba said, “than to a process that gave legitimate opportunity.” 

The post Minority contracting plays role in combating poverty, Jackson mayoral candidates say appeared first on Mississippi Today.

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Bianca Jones is fired up about voting.

She attended a mayoral candidate forum hosted by League of Women Voters at Millsaps College Tuesday night. As a senior at the college, she organized a week-long voter drive coordinated by One Vote and Mississippi Votes. 

“Voting is extremely, extremely important because it represents our voice and our autonomy as people and as citizens,” Jones said. “We need to make use of our voice and we need to make use of the rights that we’re given before anyone tries to infringe upon them or take them away.”

Jones took a seat near the front of the nearly half-full auditorium. It was a formal event, with each candidate’s speech punctuated by the ring of a bell. The crowd itself seemed mostly attentive, though a couple of heads had started to nod off by the halfway point. 

The candidates had good ideas, Jones said, but she was left with more questions. 

“What I really look for in a candidate is concrete and focused plans, not like the generalized, ‘Oh, well, we’ll do this.’ Well, yeah, but give me more. I don’t want to settle for anything,” she said.

Thirteen of the 19 mayoral candidates participated in the event Tuesday night, laying out their platform and fielding questions on the Jackson Zoo and affordable early-childhood programs. 

Most laid out crime as one of the first items they would tackle in their first 100 days if elected as mayor. Others pinpointed the need for accountability within the local government. 

But a big campaign issue for Jones is accessibility of Jackson’s streets. She walks everywhere, she said, and crumbling streets and a lack of dedicated walking paths don’t make her journey easy. None of the candidates spoke about walkable streets.

“I think about everyone who doesn’t have a car, who doesn’t have certain privileges in Jackson, and they’re not even being considered,” she said. “I came here, tried to use the public transportation system. It wasn’t nothing. I had to walk at least an hour to get to where I was going from the bus.”

Jones said she’s looking for a risk taker, a candidate running to get things done for the people with a touch of empathy, not to line their own pockets.

“I think I respect politicians more if they go out and do right and earn nothing from it,” she said. “What does Jackson look like in comparison to your paycheck?” 

While Jones pondered about sidewalks, candidates tallied off ideas for how to fix Jackson’s Zoo. 

“Zoo’s gone. We’re not going to be wasting money on that,” said Kim Wade, a local radio host running as an independent. “No matter how emotionally you’re attached to it. If we wanted to have the zoo, we would have taken better care of it.”

Another independent candidate that stood out to Jones, child development director Lillie Stewart-Robinson, said that she would relocate the zoo northeast to Lefluer’s Bluff Complex, home to the Mississippi Children’s Museum and Museum of Natural Science. 

“The land that the zoo is now occupying, I would set up a theme park,” she said. “This would create jobs for our youth, and it will bring the community together. 

Businessman and Democratic candidate Socrates Garrett said that he wants to create an entertainment district anchored at the zoo. He also points to establishing educational programs so that Jacksonians can care for the animals. 

“I want Jackson State University to have a veterinarian program where we’re training veterinarians, not only at Mississippi State University, but we have all of these animals there at the zoo,” said Garrett. 

Jones said she appreciated Stewart-Robinson’s idea about creating a children’s entertainment plaza, moving the zoo to a space where kids are already gathering.

“That’s really important to me, because my first time going to the Jackson zoo, I remember being kind of, for lack of a better term, underwhelmed,” said Jones. “It was in a bad state.” 

Because Jones walks to work at the Children’s Museum, the idea of having more attractions within a stone’s throw appeals to her. 

“I appreciate candidates who think that way, who think about what resources we don’t have in Jackson,” said Jones. “It’s easy to be like ‘Oh, you can drive there.’ But what if you can’t, or what if you don’t have transportation? How can we best support the people of Jackson within their accessibility to resources instead of having to go out to the city next to us?”

The post ‘Give me more’: One voter seeks more than ideas from mayoral candidates appeared first on Mississippi Today.

For the last 10 years, north Fondren resident Patricia Ice has called private investment advisor Ashby Foote, the lone Republican on the Jackson City Council, her councilman.

But after the city redrew its ward maps last year due to population declines, the shape of the voting district Ice used to live in, Ward 1, shifted east, meaning she now lives in Ward 3. 

With that came a new city representative, and from appearances, a polar opposite one: Democrat Kenny Stokes, a 33-year veteran on the council known for eccentric quotes delivered in a thick Southern accent. “The mayor must stop smoking that dope,” he said to the local TV station in 2022.

But because of an error that was later corrected, Ice and dozens of her neighbor’s addresses were initially left out of the move, resulting in Ice casting an invalid Ward 1 ballot in this year’s municipal primary election.

For some, the snafu has caused anxiety surrounding an election that, with 19 candidates in the mayoral race alone, has already proven difficult for residents to navigate. 

“So when we vote, will our votes count or matter, since the ballots will be erroneous? Sounds like it could turn into a mess,” one of Ice’s neighbors wrote in a group messaging app.

In February, the Jackson City Clerk’s Office sent out some 6,000 letters to people who, like Ice, experienced a ward change, notifying them ahead of the April 1 primary Election Day which council race they would be voting in.

Ice’s neighbors on bordering streets received the mail confirming they’d been switched to Ward 3. They discussed it in the group chat. But Ice’s letter never came.

Ice called the city clerk, Angela Harris, and the Hinds County Circuit Clerk, Zack Wallace. She recited to them her Kings Highway address and they told her she still lived in Ward 1 – disregarding the published maps that showed her house inside Ward 3. Since Ice is over 65 years old, she had the opportunity to cast an absentee vote.

“That’s when I went to vote early because I said, ‘I’m going to see what’s on my ballot,’” Ice said.

On Mar. 7, Ice cast her vote in the Democratic primary election for Ward 1. Her preferred Ward 1 council candidate is an independent, so on the Democratic ballot, she wrote in her own name for that race. Harris told Mississippi Today Wednesday that Ice was the only person from the impacted section of Kings Highway to vote absentee.

The Secretary of State, which oversees elections, directed questions about this story to the local clerk, but told Mississippi Today that “any errors in redistricting that allow a voter to vote in the wrong district may result in an elections challenge.”

The 2020 U.S. Census found Jackson’s population fell by about 20,000 since 2010, with the decline especially affecting Ward 5 and 3, WLBT reported. The 1964 Voting Rights Act requires that the city’s population be evenly distributed among the districts, with no ward deviating in size by more than 10%, and requires governments to reevaluate every 10 years after the census.

The city commissioned the Central Mississippi Planning and Development District to help it redraw the lines and held public hearings to discuss the changes, which were adopted last August. Part of the hope was that in redrawing cleaner lines, the city could cut down on the number of split precincts, that is, the polling places that serve people of different wards and must manage handing out different ballots on Election Day.

Harris told Mississippi Today that she gave the new maps to the city’s GIS department, which culled the list of addresses that changed wards. Harris gave that list to Wallace, who was responsible for updating the voter registration database and pulling the names of residents who would need to be notified. But Wallace said the two-block section of Kings Highway from Meadowbrook to Northside Drive was left out of the spreadsheet of addresses he received.

“So those 50 something people are still right now in Ward 1,” Harris told Mississippi Today last week, not indicating a change would be made before the election.

If true, those Kings Highway residences would represent an island of Ward 1 voters inside Ward 3. Legally, wards must be contiguous, City Attorney Drew Martin said at a hearing last year.

“They cannot have islands or donuts within them,” Gray Ouzts, Principal Planner for the local planning and development district, told Mississippi Today.

After Mississippi Today spoke to Foote about the error last week, he added an agenda item to discuss the issue at the council’s Tuesday meeting. Then Harris took action, sending Wallace a list Monday of the Kings Highway addresses that had been left out. Wallace quickly updated the voter registration database to reflect their correct ward and letters went out to those residents the same day.

Another impacted Kings Highway resident, Jennifer Baughn, spoke to Mississippi Today before the correction was made. It may not have made a difference on the outcome of the race, but to Baughn, the error threatened to lock her out of the democratic process. Baughn concluded that if she’d received a Ward 1 ballot, she’d have voted for someone who wouldn’t actually represent her. 

“That’s the essence of disenfranchised. And yet, there’s no acknowledgement from the city clerk … It’s ridiculous,” Baughn said before her voter registration was corrected. “I wasn’t super happy about being moved, but now I’m feeling like we won’t be getting representation from either (council member), because the Ward 1 candidate is going to know that we’re not going to be voters the next time, so why put the effort into our street? And we have major issues.”

Baughn said a new nightclub opened up within a block of her house, and the music and traffic have kept her awake into the wee hours of the night.

She said she’s also run into similar ambiguity about which of the separate police forces in Jackson are there to serve her. Take a noise complaint, for example. She said when she calls Jackson Police Department, an employee has told them she is in the jurisdiction of Capitol Police, and when she’s called Capitol Police, they’ve told her they don’t deal in city ordinance enforcement.

“We have no one to call. We call the police and they say, ‘Oh you need to talk to your council person,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay who is our council person?’” Baughn said.

Though he hasn’t made contact with his new constituents yet, Stokes is apparently up to speed on the issues residents in that area are facing, bringing up nightclubs unprompted. “I ride, I ride my whole ward,” Stokes said. “I ride, I look, I observe, and I pay attention to the different patterns that’s taking place.”

Abigail Hartman, president of the Fondren North neighborhood association, said her community was generally pleased when they learned they would be represented by Stokes, who they feel is more responsive to constituents, rather than Foote. 

While Foote tinkers away in his office on maps he had made of all state-owned tax forfeited property in Jackson, a driver of blight across the city, Stokes appears at community events he’s organized, shaking hands and wearing his signature black hat with white serif font reading, “STOKES”.

Ironically, despite their quite different tacks, constituents of Stokes and Foote currently receive very similar representation on the council since the two men nearly always vote together, particularly on items where they have a chance to oppose Mayor Chokwe Lumumba. 

“Politics makes for strange bedfellows,” Foote said. “We’ve both had differences with the mayor.”

In 2022, during a spat over selecting a new garbage contractor, Lumumba accused both Foote and Stokes of taking bribes from one of the vendors, which they both denied. (Hence, Stokes’ “smoking dope” quote).

Later, at the end of Foote’s term as council president, the Ward 1 councilman had replica black and white ball caps made for himself and all the other council members spelling their own names in “the Stokes lettering,” Foote said.

From hurling taunts like “Yo mama” or suggesting Black leadership “throw rocks and bricks and bottles” at suburb police to calling out Lumumba, who was eventually indicted by federal prosecutors, “Stokes has evolved a lot over the last eight years,” Foote said.

“I think he’s seen more as a voice of common sense now,” Foote said.

There are a total of 52 candidates running for either mayor or council this year, including Lumumba and 11 challengers in the Democratic primary for mayor April 1. Foote chose to run as an independent as a way to encourage his supporters to participate in the Democratic primary, which commonly determines the winner for mayor. Foote, who represents a whiter, wealthier part of the city in northeast Jackson, will face two challengers in the general election – the Democratic nominee and one independent. Four are running for Ward 1 in the Democratic primary.

So the north Fondren residents who moved from Ward 1 to Ward 3 have a little easier decision this election. Stokes does not face a challenger until the General Election in June, when he runs against one independent. 

But once Hartman learned some residents in her association were told they’d still be voting in Ward 1, “We’re having to research double the amount of candidates,” she said.

“I’ve never had to work so hard in an election season,” Hartman said.

Adding to the confusion, campaign signs and mailers for Ward 1 candidates began popping up in Hartman’s neighborhood, causing residents to wonder who exactly was mistaken.

“If anything, it should have been caught. It’s sad that it took some of the individuals in the neighborhood to dig into this and find the information for themselves,” Hartman said.

Ice received a letter Tuesday notifying that her vote had been voided and she’d have to go back to City Hall to cast a new absentee ballot for Ward 3. But unlike some of her neighbors, she wasn’t too bothered. “I don’t mind going down there to vote again,” she said.

“I was never that worried about it,” Ice said. The only thing she’s sought from the council was, years ago, for them to add some speed bumps to her street, which never materialized.

The longtime immigrant rights attorney is much more concerned about what’s happening on a national level, the new Trump administration’s dismantling of federal programs and threats towards democracy, which she described as a coup d’état.

The local election ordeal did, however, remind Ice of the impression she had when she moved to Mississippi from her hometown of Detroit in 1998. She’d heard of Mississippi’s notorious history of voter intimidation and disenfranchisement, a legacy still visible today through the state’s attachment to some of the most restrictive voting laws in the nation. When Ice registered to vote in Mississippi for the first time, she said she was required to get the signature of a sponsor in her area. 

“This is really true,” she remembered thinking, “they really do have a hard time voting here.”

The post A Jackson resident of Ward 3, due to city error, votes in Ward 1 primary  appeared first on Mississippi Today.

The conservative 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on has ruled that it would not change its prior decree that Mississippi cannot count mail-in absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day.  

The order means that Mississippi’s law allowing election workers to process mail-in ballots for up to five business days after the election will be suspended for all federal elections. The law only allowed the workers to count ballots postmarked by Election Day.

The ruling does not impact state or local races, including Mississippi’s upcoming municipal elections. Mississippi’s next federal election will be the 2026 midterm, where all four of Mississippi’s U.S. House members are up for reelection, as well as U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. 

The recent order affirms an October ruling from a three-judge court that sided with the Republican National Committee and the Libertarian Party of Mississippi, who sued Secretary of State Michael Watson’s office because he administers the state’s elections.

The order stated that Judges Jennifer Elrod, Edith Jones, Jerry Smith, Priscilla Richman, Catharina Haynes, Don Willet, James Ho, Stuart Duncan, Kurt Engelhardt and Andrew Oldham voted for denying the rehearing.

Judges Carl Stewart, James Graves, Stephen Higginson, Dana Douglas and Carrillo Ramirez dissented with the majority and voted in favor of a rehearing. Judges Leslie Southwick and Cory Wilson did not participate in the rehearing consideration. 

Judge Oldham, writing for the majority, said the law that the Legislature enacted in 2020 to allow election workers to count mail-in ballots that arrived up to five days after the election conflicts with federal law because Congress had not explicitly granted states the authority to process ballots after Election Day. 

“The question presented to the panel was whether, in the absence of any federal statute authorizing any deviation from the uniform Election Day requirement, States nonetheless have freedom to accept ballots for as long as they would like,” Oldham wrote. “The panel held no.”

It’s unclear if Secretary Watson’s office will appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. Both Watson and Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office told Mississippi Today they are reviewing the court’s decision. 

In a dissent, Judge Graves, a former Mississippi Supreme Court judge, wrote that the overwhelming majority of existing case law grants states the ability to regulate the finite details of federal elections. 

“Simply stated, federal law does not mandate that ballots be received by state officials before Election Day’s conclusion, and the panel’s contrary holding is erroneous,” Graves wrote. 

The ruling also comes during the dwindling days of the 2025 legislative session, where lawmakers could try to address the issue. If legislators pass a measure that removes the five-day timeframe, the litigation would be moot. 

Senate Elections Chairman Jeremy England said he doubts the Legislature will address the issue this session, meaning the only way for the state to address the ruling is to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.  

The post Federal appeals court affirms Mississippi can’t count late mail-in absentee ballots for federal elections appeared first on Mississippi Today.

We cover a busy Mississippi scene in both hoops and hardball with a little Jaxson Dart to the Saints projection thrown in for good measure.

Stream all episodes here.

The post Podcast: At the intersection of basketball and baseball… appeared first on Mississippi Today.

Jake Mangum, the all-time Southeastern Conference hits leader,, turned 29 earlier this month. He’s a young man, unless we’re talking about his baseball age. Baseball-wise, to use a golf analogy, he’s making the turn and heading to the back nine.

Mangum, perhaps the most popular player in Mississippi State history, now has played five seasons in the minor leagues for three different Major League franchises without getting a chance to play in a big league regular season game. The Tampa Bay Rays last November placed Mangum on their 40-man Major League roster, but they can only keep 26 to begin the regular season. Every projection I’ve seen does not include Mangum in that number. And, frankly, this long-time baseball observer does not understand why.

A switch-hitter, Mangum has hit at every level. He runs the bases exceedingly well. He is an outstanding fielder, who can play any of the three outfield positions with remarkable range and a strong, accurate arm. From all accounts, he is a team player, indeed a leader.

But Mangum is also walking, talking, line drive-hitting proof of how Big League baseball has morphed over the years. It is now all about power, all about the long ball. 

When I talked to Mangum Tuesday, he was enjoying only his second day off this spring training at the Tampa Bay Rays facility in downtown St. Petersburg. Ten days away from the Rays’ season opener, Mangum does not know whether he would begin the regular season with the Major League club – or back in Class AAA with the Durham Bulls.

“Obviously, I really hope to be in the Major Leagues on opening day,” he said. “But I don’t control that. If I’m back in Triple A, I’ll keep working, keep hitting and believing that good things will happen.” 

Know this: Mangum  has done everything within his power to make his Major League dream come true. Look at the numbers.

Yes, look at the numbers. As this is written, Mangum has hit .429, having played in 15 of the Rays’ 20 spring training games. He has hit safely in 12 of 28 at bats, with three doubles and two home runs. He leads the Rays in runs batted in with nine. And, yes, that’s a small sample size, but Mangum’s stats are far better than any of the projected Rays’ outfield starters. Center fielder Jonny DeLuca has hit .188 with no extra base hits. (DeLuca hit .217 with the Rays last season.) Mangum would hit better than .188 cross-handed.

Again, the knock on Mangum has always been that he doesn’t hit for power. (He has hit 24 home runs, 101 doubles and 21 triples over five minor league seasons.) But he has worked his tail off to build muscle and add pop. This past Sunday, Mangum smashed two home runs and drove in four runs in a victory over the Washington Nationals.

“First time I’ve homered twice in one game in my life, all the way back to little league,” Mangum said. “Best thing about it, I hit one to the pull side and the other to the opposite field.”

Mangum, dating back to his days at Jackson Prep and then Mississippi State, always has used the whole field from both sides of the plate. Pitch him inside, and he’ll pull it down the line for extra bases. Pitch him away, he’ll go to the opposite field. That hasn’t changed, except for the fact that he is added muscle and therefore bat speed.

“Every year, you get a little stronger,” Mangum said. “I’ve been training hard, working on my body. Look, baseball is hard, hitting a baseball against Major League pitching is really, really difficult.

“It’s such a challenging game, but I feel really good at the plate right now,” Mangum said. “I am not trying to hit home runs. I am just trying to hit the ball hard on a line as many times as I can. If I get under it a little and it goes out, that’s great, too.”

Mangum says he has a good relationship with Rays manager Kevin Cash, who he calls “a winner.”

And Cash has had good things to say about Mangum, praising his defense, his ntensity, his hitting and his persistence. “Those guys that stick at it, trying to get that opportunity to make their mark in the big leagues, it’s easy to root for them. It’s easy to pull for them,” Cash told Adam Berry, who covers the Rays for mlb.com. 

Said Mangum, “I’m doing what I love and I’ll do it as long as they’ll let me. I love baseball.”

Surely, someday, hopefully soon, baseball will love him back.

Updated 3/19/24: Shortly after this column published Wednesday morning, the Tampa Bay Rays optioned Jake Mangum to the club’s Class AAA team, the Durham Bulls.

The post What does Jake Mangum have to do to make the Major Leagues? appeared first on Mississippi Today.