Residents of Brandon have raised concerns about the environmental impact and safety of a data center planned for their city.
AVAIO Digital, a Connecticut-based company, announced Aug. 19 that it plans to build a data center in Rankin County. While some celebrated the $6-billion investment and the over $20 million in annual tax revenue it would bring, other residents worry about the data center’s water and power consumption and possible pollution. The 600,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed by 2027.
‘People genuinely just want answers’
When Nathan Rester first saw the news about the data center, he was immediately concerned. Rester grew up in Brandon and now lives there with his wife and toddler just a few miles from where the data center will be built.
Rester had followed reports about the air pollution that people in and around Memphis have reported, a result of XAI constructing gas turbines without pollution controls normally used for such turbines. He didn’t want to see what was happening in Memphis happen in Brandon.
His wife, Larkyn Collier, made calls but found the answers unsatisfying.
“ No one could really give a straight answer on how it was being built, what sort of precautions were being taken, whether or not there had been any sort of consideration for utility costs or pollutants or anything like that,” Rester said
In response, Collier and Rester started a petition on change.org that now has over 430 signatures. The petition asks Rankin County leaders to guarantee the data center will not cause such problems. So far they have not received any communication from Rankin or Brandon government officials.
Rester is not completely opposed to the data center being built but he wants the government to guarantee it won’t bring utility bill hikes or pollution.
“ People genuinely just want answers and transparency here. And they want safeguards in place,” Rester said.
The AI boom comes to Mississippi
At their most basic level, data centers store computing equipment. They have been around since the 1940s and power things such as cloud storage. But with the boom in artificial intelligence investment, companies are rapidly constructing data centers across the globe.
The investment bank UBS estimates $375 billion will be spent globally on artificial intelligence in 2025. While this investment has fueled economic and technological growth, data centers have faced skepticism in the communities where they’re built, largely due to the amounts of energy and water they consume and possible pollution they emit.
Mississippi has two large-scale data center projects underway – Compass Datacenters in Meridian and Amazon in Madison County. Including the AVAIO data center, the three will add up to over $26 billion in new capital investment, an unprecedented amount for the state.
Cities and states are embracing data centers because of the potential economic growth, new taxes and innovation they bring.
“This investment is poised to create a lasting, positive impact on the city and the wider region,” Brandon Mayor Butch Lee said in a statement to Mississippi Today. “The project represents a major step forward for Brandon, bringing high-tech jobs and economic growth that will resonate throughout Rankin County and beyond.”
When the property is on the tax rolls and fully up and running, the ad valorem tax will bring in an estimated $23 million in new revenue according to Rankin First, the county’s economic development group. Most of it will go to the local school district.
“ These are not here today. And if we didn’t win this project, we would never see those,” said Garrett Wright, executive director of Rankin First, about tax revenue from the data center.
Rankin First, similar to many economic development groups, is not part of county government and is hired to attract new investment and cultivate existing businesses. It owns the land that the data center will be built on, which has been vacant for around 20 years.
AVAIO is eligible for the state’s data center tax incentive and fee in lieu of property tax. Companies pay a negotiated fee for a set period of time instead of the full property tax. The incentive is designed to encourage economic development. It requires sign off from the county board of supervisors, municipal authorities and Mississippi Development Authority, the state’s economic development agency.
It’s estimated AVAIO will create 60 direct jobs and the Amazon data center 300-400 direct jobs. While data centers create relatively few permanent, direct jobs they create additional jobs in the community. A McKinsey and Company report found that for every direct data center job, approximately 3.5 more jobs are created in the community.
Some residents on social media have wondered whether the data center will negatively impact traffic. Traffic and grade separation of the rail lines have been key conversations as Rankin County has grown. Rankin First acknowledged that AVAIO’s presence will increase traffic but they see it as an opportunity to push for long needed infrastructure improvements.
Rankin First and Brandon have been working with AVAIO for two years and says the company is coming to Brandon, in part, because of the thriving community.
“ The company wants to be a community partner. We see that they’re going to get involved with the local community,” said Regina Todd, assistant director of Rankin First.
Brandon residents want answers
Bailey Henry has lived in Brandon for over a decade. She said that when she read about the new data center on social media, she became concerned.
“ I’ve lived in Mississippi the majority of my life and I was raised to leave things better than you found it,” Henry said. “ And I just don’t think that Mississippi is going to be better off from this.”
Henry is worried about the pressure the data centers will put on the city’s infrastructure, pollution and power demands.
She describes the announcement as “ brief and nonchalant as all the explanations have been. From politicians to people who work for Entergy. It has just been, ‘This is what it is. It’s going to be great. Don’t ask any questions.’”
Henry has made calls to and left voicemails with multiple government offices and has not heard back from any of them.
She’s skeptical, but she hopes she’s wrong.
Brandon concerns echo nationwide conversation
The biggest concerns from residents nationwide over data centers has been potential pollution and increases in utility bills. Across the country, there are stories about data centers driving up energy rates, worsening water shortages, polluting the air and creating a constant noise.
AI data centers demand massive amounts of electricity and run constantly. The average AI data center uses as much electricity as 100,000 households, according to a report from the International Energy Agency.
Another concern is water usage. Data centers need to stay at a specific temperature, and water is one of the most efficient ways to cool the servers.The IEA report found that the average AI data center needs about 528,000 gallons of water every day. For communities that already have water concerns, data centers can exacerbate the problems.
Some communities have blamed the increased demand from data centers for rising electricity bills. While part of these costs may be due to general inflation or paying for infrastructure upgrades, some states are trying to monitor or regulate how households are affected.
A data center’s impact can vary based on the design of the center. But by their very nature they consume a lot of power.
“ AI chips are very power hungry. We’re building a lot of computing capacity, so we need to power all of this,” said Ahmed Saeed, a computer science assistant professor at Georgia Tech.
AVAIO promised “sustainable design,” including rainwater collection and solar panels that would “minimize power demands.” But it’s still unclear what, if any, impact the new data center will have on Rankin County residents.
“ Having clarity on the impact of data centers within the community where they’re building is important,” Saeed said. Saeed believes data centers are here to stay and are key for innovation. But he also thinks there’s a need for more government regulation.
“ They’re not necessarily a negative thing, but on the flip side, in order to make sure that they’re net positive it’s hard to ensure that without some regulation,” Saeed said.
Rankin County’s administrator declined to comment for this story. AVAIO and Brandon Water did not respond to requests for comment.
When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast on August 29, 2005, it wiped out the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people. But one industry thrived by necessity in the aftermath: demolition, debris removal and construction — the building trades in which men comprise 96 percent of the workforce. By contrast, women, who made up the majority of the tourism and hospitality services that were hit hardest by the storm, saw precipitous drops in employment.
Gender inequalities were amplified. Before the storm, many women — particularly Black women and single mothers — were trapped in low-wage jobs, and they didn’t have the necessary resources to get back on their feet post-Katrina. And with child care and school systems wiped out across the region, they also struggled to find a place to send their kids while they looked for work.
Carol Burnett, then-executive director of Moore Community House, a nonprofit in Biloxi, Mississippi, which provided child care to low-income women and single mothers, watched firsthand as this dynamic played out. Her own organization was nearly destroyed in the storm, and she immediately went to work securing funds to rebuild the free child care program, which was funded by Head Start.
Burnett saw a need for better employment opportunities for the single moms who relied on Head Start. In Biloxi alone, thousands of jobs were lost at the casinos and hotels that dot the shore. So when a D.C.-based nonprofit reached out to see whether she would be interested in hosting a job training to help women enter tradeswork, she jumped at the opportunity. After all, it wasn’t that there weren’t jobs, it was that they were all going to men.
With a small amount of initial funding, she launched the program and found projects in the neighborhood where the women could gain experience in construction and demolitions. Twenty percent of the city had been destroyed by the hurricane, and the houses surrounding Moore Community House were decimated.
“The hands-on training came from just being there with these teams to help rebuild homes after Katrina.”
— Carol Burnett, former executive director of Moore Community House
“We were involved in a coalition of nonprofits all pulling together to try to rebuild and recover,” Burnett said. “The hands-on training came from just being there with these teams to help rebuild homes after Katrina.”
In the nearly two decades since, the program has expanded and updated its curriculum to meet the needs of the industry. This year it graduated its 117th class and boasts a 70 percent employment rate for graduates in trades or related jobs.
“It’s a proven strategy for making a difference in the lives of single moms,” Burnett said.
A neighborhood in D’Iberville was completely destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Credit: Geoff Pender photo for the Sun Herald
Despite its success, the program lost a crucial piece of funding this spring when Elon Musk’s so-called “Department of Government Efficiency” abruptly cancelled the two-year Women in Apprenticeship and Nontraditional Occupations (WANTO) grants, which support training women in construction trades. The reason given in letters to grant recipients was that the programs no longer aligned with the Department of Labor’s priorities, particularly as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The cancellation has imperiled the future of the program, which has provided a way for low-income women and single mothers — some of the most vulnerable to disasters due to poverty and their roles as caregivers — to achieve financial security.
Women like Brianna Crusoe.
In 2018, the single mom was struggling to make ends meet while raising two young children and working at a call center when a cousin told her about the women in construction program.
At 23, she was exhausted from working in customer service, something she’d done since she was 15. The call center didn’t pay well, wasn’t flexible with its scheduling, and she had to work weekends and nights.
With nothing to lose, she decided to enroll in the pre-apprenticeship program. The program paid for her two children’s child care and provided a weekly stipend, both of which made it possible for her to participate.
For eight weeks, she learned the ins and outs of the construction trades like workplace safety and how to use basic tools and equipment that might be found on a jobsite. She also learned about the benefits of working in the trades, including a $30 per hour salary — over double what she was making at the call center.
Bolstered by the experience, she applied for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union apprenticeship, a multiyear training that would pay her while she learned the skills of the trade. To her surprise, she got in.
“They literally guided me through every single step of the way.”
— Brianna Crusoe
“It blew my mind, because I didn’t believe in myself at the time. But because I had all these credentials through women in construction, I was a high priority candidate on the list,” she said.
Because Moore Community House offered child care for a full year, she started the apprenticeship without having to worry about what to do with her kids, and she also was given money to buy textbooks, tools and personal protective equipment. The nonprofit also helped her prepare for her apprenticeship interview.
Brianna Crusoe was able to learn construction trades like workplace safety and how to use basic tools and equipment that might be found on a job site through a workplace training program. Credit: Courtesy of Brianna Crusoe
“They literally guided me through every single step of the way,” she said.
Seven years later, she now works as a test electrician after being the only Black woman in her graduating class. She’s since moved into a two-story home in a neighborhood with better schools for her children. “That has always been my goal, is to put them in a good educational school,” she said. And because she no longer has to work weekends, she can take vacations with her family.
“It changed my life tremendously,” she said. “I’m happy about going into work. I’m no longer stressed as far as doing my job.”
Branden Forshee, the current executive director of the nonprofit, said even for those women who don’t go on to work in the trades, the training they receive can open doors to better paying jobs. “Just having a forklift license makes a world of difference,” he said. The nonprofit also has partners in the shipbuilding industry, and with some of these basic certifications, women have an opportunity to break into that career, too.
Moving women into these better paying jobs addresses what’s known as occupational segregation, a term used to describe the disproportionate concentration of women and people of color in low-wage jobs.
“There was no warning, there was no notice.”
— Branden Forshee, executive director of Moore Community House, on federal funding cuts
“These women are working; they’re just working a job that pays terrible wages and has no benefits and doesn’t have any flexibility,” Burnett said. “If they’ve got a kid, they can’t do anything if there’s a daycare problem because their employer will fire them.”
But what’s allowed women to make the leap is the fact the program offers wrap-around services like child care and a weekly $100 stipend, something made possible after receiving a federal grant in 2017.
The abrupt cancellation of their grant came “out of nowhere. There was no warning, there was no notice,” Forshee said. The program stopped offering the child care benefit this year and cut the stipend in half. He said it’s made an immediate impact on who is able to take the class. They usually have between 20 to 25 students. There are just five participants in the current cohort.
“It’s never happened before,” he said. “There’s obviously the disappointment that comes with seeing a class that small and the frustration behind understanding the importance of those supportive services and not being able to provide them,” he said.
Crusoe said it was devastating to hear the news.
“Child care is a big necessity for us single mothers, and so them taking away that child care stipend is basically putting single mothers back at a standstill,” she said.
Moore Community House recently reapplied to the same grant that was cancelled in the hopes that they could once more depend on federal funds to continue offering some of these services.
Single mothers are disproportionately impacted by disasters, according to researchers. They are more likely to live in poverty, in public housing, and are often taking care of children and the elderly. All of these are factors which make it harder to recover from a natural disaster. Because the majority of disaster relief funding goes to property owners, they also miss out on assistance to rebuild their own lives when housing has been washed away.
“It’s gendered in a context of what was available pre-storm, and what was available during those three years of really intense recovery,” said Pamela Jenkins, a retired professor of sociology who authored numerous academic papers on post-Katrina recovery.
“For marginalized women, the storm only made their lives worse.”
— Pamela Jenkins
“For marginalized women, the storm only made their lives worse,” she said. “Remember, most of these people … they worked two or three jobs just to get by. The restaurant jobs, the nursing jobs. All those jobs were gone,” she said.
But Jenkins, who lives in New Orleans, said women weren’t just victims of the storm, they were also the ones coming up with solutions. She met many women through her research who, like Burnett, were working on the community level to plug the holes in social services that appeared after the storm.
They spearheaded efforts to bring child care back to the city, expanded homeless shelters for women and families and helped women flee domestic violence.
Now, 20 years after Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Jenkins fears that a lot of the progress made to address the needs of women after a natural disaster is evaporating under the Trump administration.
“One, the government is not going to respond the way that it did, even under [George W.] Bush,” she said. “And two, this kind of misogyny that’s being allowed across the country is going to influence how women are affected by the next storm,” she said.
“This kind of misogyny that’s being allowed across the country is going to influence how women are affected by he next storm”
— Pamela Jenkins
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has lost thousands of employees since Donald Trump returned to office. On Monday, former and current agency staff wrote a letter to Congress titled, “the FEMA Katrina Declaration,” warning that a downsizing of the agency and shifting of responsibility to states could affect the country’s ability to respond to the next major disaster.
In the case of the women that Moore Community House works with, the grant cancellations mean less economic security before the next disaster hits.
“If you’re a single mom, stuck in a low wage job. How do you pay for recovery?” Forshee asked. “The work that we do is important because we provide a place for their kids to go while they participate in the training that puts them on a pathway to earning higher wages.”
“In the context of rebuilding, it helps them start to rebuild their own lives, but also help others in beginning to rebuild theirs.”
This story is republished by The 19th. Jessica Kutz is the The 19th’s climate and gender reporter.
The Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, a national Democratic Party-affiliated organization that supports statehouse races, announced Wednesday that it will help five candidates competing in Mississippi’s special legislative elections this fall.
The five Democratic candidates the organization is supporting are:
Theresa Gillespie Isom (Senate District 2)
Reginald Jackson (Senate District 11)
Dianne Black (Senate District 19)
Johnny DuPree (Senate District 45)
Justin Crosby (House District 22)
“The DLCC is proud to support these five Mississippi Democrats running strong campaigns to challenge the toxic GOP power in their state,” said Heather Williams, president of the DLCC.
Isom and DuPree are the Democratic nominees seeking to win newly redrawn Senate districts with no incumbent in the race. Black and Crosby are trying to topple Republican incumbents. Jackson is a Democratic incumbent attempting to ward off a Republican challenger.
It’s unclear how much money the organization will funnel to the five candidates, but one of the group’s goals is to signal to potential donors that these Democratic nominees are competitive.
In 2023, the organization also promoted a slate of Democratic candidates seeking to defeat incumbent Republicans in Mississippi. None of those candidates were successful. But this year’s special elections could be more consequential because of a federal court order that determined state lawmakers diluted Black voting strength when they redrew state legislative districts in 2022.
Scott Colom, a Democratic district attorney in north Mississippi, announced today that he will run for the U.S. Senate next year against incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Colom’s entrance into the race is likely to spark a long and expensive battle for the seat, with both national parties expected to spend millions on the race in the Magnolia State.
Chuck Schumer, the Senate’s Democratic leader from New York, told the New York Times he wants to help elect a Democrat in Mississippi. But the Republican Party is almost certain to defend its ironclad grip on Mississippi, a state where both U.S. Senate seats have been held by the GOP since 1989.
In an interview with Mississippi Today ahead of his announcement, Colom said he intends to cast Hyde-Smith’s voting record as prioritizing “D.C. politics” instead of hard-working Mississippians, including her vote for the “One Big Beautiful Bill” that slashed social safety net programs and provided tax cuts for the wealthy.
“Mississippi needs a senator who’s going to put Mississippi first,” Colom said.
But Colom faces an uphill battle. He’s a Democrat running in Mississippi, with one of the most reliably conservative electorates in the nation.
Mississippi last elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate in 1982, when it reelected John Stennis. A majority of Mississippians have voted for the Republican nominee for president since 1980.
Still, Colom said he can crack the GOP’s stronghold in the state because he has experience with pitching moderate and progressive solutions to a more conservative electorate, as he did when he defeated long-serving incumbent Forrest Allgood, an independent, for district attorney in 2015.
“At the time, people didn’t think I could win the DA’s race,” Colom said.
A native of Columbus, Colom is the elected district attorney of the 16th Circuit Court District, which includes Lowndes, Oktibbeha, Clay and Noxubee counties. He is the first Black DA for the district.
He first won that election by casting his opponent as an incredibly harsh prosecutor who was more concerned with obtaining stiff sentences for convicted criminals than true rehabilitation. After Colom took office, he said he focused his office’s efforts on tackling violent crime and promoting alternative sentencing for nonviolent offenders.
“I have faith that the truth always sees through if you get the message out, speak with conviction and lead with your values,” Colom said. “That’s my plan. I want to speak with my values.”
For example, Colom said he would push for legislation that raises the nation’s minimum wage and exempts law enforcement officers and public school teachers from paying federal income taxes.
This may be the first time the two have competed head-to-head, but it will not be the first time Colom and Hyde-Smith have butted heads. Former President Joe Biden in 2023 nominated Colom to a vacant federal judicial seat in northern Mississippi, but Hyde-Smith thwarted the nomination.
U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith speaks to supporters during her reelection campaign launch at the Mississippi Agriculture Museum in Jackson, Miss., on Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
Despite support for Colom from Roger Wicker, Mississippi’s senior U.S. senator, Hyde-Smith was able to block his nomination because of a longstanding tradition in the U.S. Senate that requires senators from a nominee’s home state to submit “blue slips” if they approve of the candidate.
Hyde-Smith never returned one of these slips for Colom. If both senators don’t submit a blue slip, the nominee typically does not advance to a confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“He thought he was going to be a federal judge, and I blocked him,” Hyde-Smith said to applause.
Colom is the first Democrat to announce his candidacy for the Senate seat. Ty Pinkins, an unsuccessful Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in 2024, has declared he’s also running for the Senate again in 2026 as an independent.
Four days after starting his second administration, President Donald Trump floated the idea of ” getting rid of ” the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which manages federal disaster response.
But at a meeting last week, the 12-person review council he appointed to propose changes to FEMA seemed more focused on reforms than total dismantlement.
FEMA must be “reformed into an agency that is supporting our local and state officials that are there on the ground and responsive to the individuals that are necessary to help people be healed and whole through these situations,” said Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, who co-chairs the council. But, she added, FEMA “as it exists today needs to be eliminated.”
However, the meeting Thursday in Oklahoma City offered hints of what types of reforms the council might present to Trump in its final report. Members mainly focused on conventional and oft-cited opportunities for change, such as getting money faster to states and survivors and enhancing the capacity of local emergency managers.
But some moves by the administration in the last several months have already undermined those goals, as mitigation programs are cut and the FEMA workforce is reduced. Experts also caution that no matter what the council proposes, changes to FEMA’s authority and operations require congressional action.
A Republican-dominated council
Trump created the FEMA Review Council through a January executive order instructing the group to solicit feedback from a “broad range of stakeholders” and to deliver a report to him on recommended changes within 180 days of its first meeting, though that deadline has lapsed.
Former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant Credit: AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
The 12-person council is co-chaired by Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and vice-chaired by former Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. It is made up of elected officials, emergency managers and other leaders mostly from Republican states.
Trump “believes we should be in a disaster-response portfolio and footprint,” Noem said at Thursday’s meeting, “but the long-term mitigation should not be something that the federal government is continuing to be involved in to the extent that it has been in the past.”
Noem attended virtually, citing efforts toward “bringing some peace to the streets of Washington, D.C.”
Members on Thursday presented some findings collected in listening sessions conducted in multiple states and with Native tribes. Much of the discussion touched on the need to get money to states more quickly and with more flexibility. Trump and Noem have both supported the idea of giving states federal block grants quickly after a disaster instead of the current reimbursement model.
Members have spent “hours, maybe even days, exploring ways to accelerate local recovery through direct funding for public and individual assistance,” Guthrie said.
Making plans beforehand
Several members emphasized improving preparedness and mitigation before disasters hit.
“Mitigation saves lives, it protects property, it reduces cost of future disasters,” said Guthrie, but added that more responsibility should fall on individuals and state and local governments to invest in mitigation.
States like Texas and Florida have robust, well-funded emergency management agencies prepared for major disasters. Members acknowledged that if other state and local governments were to take on more responsibility in disasters, they still needed training support.
Methods for governments to unlock recovery dollars without relying on federal funds also came up, such as parametric insurance, which provides a rapid payout of a previously agreed-upon amount when a triggering event occurs.
The meeting focused less on individual survivor support, but Bryant brought up the need to reform — and protect — the National Flood Insurance Program, calling it “vital.” That program was created by Congress more than 50 years ago because many private insurers stopped offering policies in high-risk areas.
The rhetoric around FEMA is evolving
The conversation signaled a departure from some of the more aggressive rhetoric Trump and Noem have used in the past to describe their plans for FEMA. As recently as June, Trump suggested ” phasing out ” the agency after the 2025 hurricane season.
Michael Coen, who held FEMA posts under three presidential administrations, said after three council meetings, recommendations remain vague.
“Council members provided their perspective but have not identified the challenge they are trying to solve or offered a new way forward,” Coen said.
Coen also cautioned that any significant changes must go through Congress. Lawmakers in July introduced a bipartisan reform bill in the House. The so-called FEMA Act echoes some of the council’s priorities, but also proposes returning FEMA to a Cabinet-level agency.
“Most current proposed FEMA legislation strengthens FEMA,” said Coen.
Actions sometimes contradict words
Some of the administration’s actions so far contradict council members’ emphasis on expediency, mitigation and preparedness.
Noem now requires that she personally approve any DHS expenditure over $100,000. That policy led to delays in the Texas response, according to several reports, though Noem and acting administrator David Richardson have refuted those claims.
On Aug. 25, more than 180 current and former FEMA staff sent an opposition letter to the FEMA Review Council and Congress, warning that the agency is so diminished that a major climate event could lead to catastrophe.
Mississippi Delta socialite Tonia Sims-Bush was escorted by an aunt and friends as she walked up the white marble steps of the Leflore County courthouse. Her burlap-hued dress billowed in the hot wind, carved wooden disc earrings swayed from each lobe, and black mascara lent her stony expression considerable intensity.
She was there Aug. 11 for a hearing that could change the outcome of what she perceived as a great personal tragedy: her daughter’s loss of a homecoming queen election.
“We want the truth,” Sims-Bush wrote on Facebook. “The district is fighting to keep the facts surrounding the results hidden.”
Indianola’s Gentry High School, where Sims-Bush’s daughter is a student, has been holding elections for homecoming queen, or Miss Gentry, since 1954. Recent celebrations included programs printed on metallic foil, two grand thrones moved to the center of a gymnasium festooned with candelabras and chandeliers, rented luxury cars to ride through the annual homecoming parade and a military salute performed by the JROTC befitting a monarch of a lesser but no less grand principality. All this to say, contestants “show out,” in the words of a former school administrator.
But it still came as a surprise to current administrators, when they were sued for $100,000. The accusation against them: stealing a homecoming election for a beloved teacher’s daughter.
Sims-Bush had previously lent her event-planning talent to the school. She decorated a loft space with silver balloons and floats inspired by awards shows for last spring’s prom.
Seven years ago, Sims-Bush transformed the school gymnasium into a medieval courtyard with hedges, gold-colored chairs, sod and a fortress cutout. It was for her elder daughter’s homecoming queen coronation. In 2023, she had changed the gymnasium into an enchanted forest with jungle vines, jewel-toned chairs, fake myrtle trees and a backdrop reminiscent of the forest from “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
For 10 years, Sims-Bush has run her event-planning company in the Mississippi Delta. She has hosted galas requiring black tie attire for male attendees and floor-length gowns for female guests. At one of her more recent events at Harlow’s Casino in Greenville, hundreds of guests crowded into a banquet hall for Havana Nights, which featured a cigar bar and performances by fire dancers and contortionists. Guests included local mayors and university administrators.
Her social media account conveys the impression of a well-connected and highly organized professional.
“She appears to have it all,” said one current teacher on staff, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation at work.
But not quite all.
‘Who will win the throne?’
At Gentry High, the morning announcements in late April heralded the call for nominations for homecoming court. Teachers and administrators gave out handouts with nomination guidelines. Students probably had been mulling a run for homecoming queen much earlier, though. For the confident few, it meant ordering campaign banners and forming a winning strategy with parents and friends since at least February.
“Who will win the throne? What can you do to stand out from the rest! Well … this year we shall see! WELCOME to an unforgettable year of campaigning. Below are the guidelines for this year’s battle,” read Gentry’s handout for 2025 homecoming court elections.
Between hosting Thirsty Thursday, Wine Down Wednesday and more banquets for adults, Sims-Bush found the time to manage her younger daughter’s campaign for the homecoming tiara.
In a professionally produced campaign video released May 12, Sims-Bush’s daughter struts by the campus’ exterior in three separate couture looks.
“A brand isn’t just a logo, a slogan or a catchy name,” she says. “A brand is a promise. I don’t want to just wear the crown, I want to carry the responsibilities that come with it. When you cast your vote, you’re not just choosing a queen, you’re choosing a brand of leadership that’s committed to you.”
Sims-Bush also posted reels from six past homecoming queens entreating followers to cast their votes for her daughter.
“That experience did not only give me the opportunity to wear a crown,” the 2016-2017 queen said in one. “It showed me the importance of character, respect and school spirit.”
Before school started on April 14, a pop-up shop went up in the gym. The bubble gum pink store with glass cases featured free custom hats, tote bags, reusable cups and goodie bags – all stamped with Bush’s homecoming campaign logo: a “V” and “K” in a sleek font reminiscent of luxury branding.
Sims-Bush arrived on campus each day of the campaign to help set up a new booth. Wednesday it was a Milan-inspired eatery featuring freshly made pizzas and a Kermit-green float. Thursday it was a Chanel-themed mixer with lunch boxes stamped with the designer logo and a shelf of pink-colored mocktails. Friday it was a “Breakfast at Tiffany’s”-inspired buffet. Dozens of strawberries and madeleines covered a table offering muffins from stands.
On the Friday before voting ended, students and faculty departed their classrooms to see homecoming queen candidates show their talent. A majority of contestants danced to popular music, gyrating in leotards and street wear.
Sims-Bush’s daughter hosted a fashion show with the help of at least 16 classmates. The event boasted a runway and two lines of chairs on either side for spectators. The bass thumped as the teen pageant queen hopeful sashayed down white carpeting in what appeared to be a pink ostrich feather skirt.
Students left school that Friday with goodie bags from her of hot fries and custom tees. Voting would continue through the weekend.
Sims-Bush said she felt Latoya Henry, the teacher monitoring the campaigns, and Lilly Hamilton, a popular Gentry High teacher, were too friendly. Hamilton’s daughter was the other leading contender.
She expressed her concerns in a series of emails she began writing on the second day of campaign week.
“For a parent to walk into a school and feel the hate is absurd. Henry called me ‘one sided brain’ and stormed out of a meeting because I asked her to provide a set timeframe for activities during campaign week,” Sims-Bush wrote.
“The expectation was for other parents to dumb down their displays to match the basic lackluster display of her friends,” she wrote. “We have been treated so ugly all because of thinking outside the box and campaigning.”
‘The national election doesn’t even take a week’
Gentry High School in Indianola, Miss., on Friday, July 11, 2025. The school is part of the Sunflower County Consolidated School District, which improved from an F to a B rating under the leadership of Superintendent Miskia Davis. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today
As early as Tuesday of campaign week, Sims-Bush said she began to doubt the integrity of the upcoming election.
“The voting system is as air tight as we can get it,” replied Superintendent Miskia Davis in an email. “No school or district staff member other than Mr. Jones, a 32 year old white guy from New Jersey has access.”
It was Dylan Jones, that 32-year-old white guy from New Jersey, that Tonia Sims-Bush figured was the mastermind of a scheme to defeat her daughter. She was wary of the Google Form used for the election and the tech-savvy data director monitoring the elections.
She wanted paper ballots.
“While we understand the desire for a process that feels traditional, the reality is that digital voting is vastly more secure, more transparent, and more auditable than paper ballots,” Jones, federal programs and data director, wrote in a handout to parents and staff.
Google’s security software would flag adults who tried to vote with a student email address by identifying the login address and device, he reassured parents in the handout.
Before 7 a.m. the Saturday after campaigning drew to a close, Sims-Bush emailed Davis detailing a conspiracy to steal an election for her daughter’s opponent.
“A 5 day voting window is insane,” she said in an email. “No one had given any good reason why a five day voting window over the weekend is necessary for a student campaign except to cheat.
The voting had been done on Google Form over the course of several days for at least the past two years.
She convinced Sunflower County Circuit Clerk Carolyn P. Hamilton to process votes in place of the Google Form method, which was already underway.
“Prior to the voting, she contacted me and asked if I could do the voting process instead of the students using Google [Forms]. I informed her that the timing would be tight but if I worked through the weekend I could get it done. I also told her that the School Board will have to approve it before I do anything,” she wrote in a statement to Mississippi Today.
“This would be a one-day process not five,” she stressed.
‘The Cadillac version of Google’
On May 21, an email announced a runoff election just after 5 p.m.
Sims-Bush’s daughter and Hamilton’s daughter tied. Chromebooks would be dispersed the next day in classrooms – and students would have an hour to vote.
The winner was announced one hour after voting ended.
It wasn’t Sims-Bush’s daughter.
The following morning, Sims-Bush alleged fraud in an official complaint to the school district and requested it look into whether anyone but a student had voted in the election.
“After the runoff election voting window closed, the superintendent published the certified results, naming the daughter of the faculty member, who had unrestricted access to student accounts, and the openly acknowledged bestie of the staffer facilitating the election process the winner,” she wrote in her complaint.
Mississippi Today could not verify whether Hamilton had “unrestricted access.”
Four years prior, a Pensacola, Florida, assistant principal and her daughter were charged with rigging a homecoming queen election. The mother and daughter had access to student emails. A teacher responsible for administering the student election saw that 117 votes were flagged as “false” by Election Runner, an app that runs secure student elections for the district. An investigation followed. The daughter was expelled and charged as an adult after coronation.
Sims-Bush said she found it suspicious that a runoff was called without the vote tally posted.
“As a participant’s parent, I reiterate my request for a review of the May 20th election results,” she added.
Within a week, Sims-Bush had retained counsel and submitted a public records request to inspect the voting records.
She wanted to examine the generated spreadsheet’s time stamps to see if votes were added after the official voting window had closed – and whether each voter was a student in the school by looking at “digital footprint.”
The school district refused.
In the district office’s conference room, between a plea for cooperation on an oral history project and the honoring of a former superintendent, Sims-Bush made her concerns known during the June 10 school board meeting. A video recording of the meeting was posted online by Mic Magazine, a Facebook page that covers locals news in the Mississippi Delta.
More soft-spoken, Sims-Bush, reading from prepared notes, rattled off complaints and spoke to the injustices her family faced.
“It has been horrible. What started as a campaign issue has unraveled so many flawed systems. All types of chaos,” she said. “The goal here is to get official documented results from the school leadership campaign. Dylan Jones made it clear that you pay $1,000 a year for the Cadillac version of Google. We have that recorded. So there shouldn’t be any reason why we shouldn’t be able to see the official results as opposed to something that someone just typed up. ”
She then looked up from her notes to address the board directly. The air conditioning churned.
“Thank you,” said Debra Jones, the school board member for District 3.
The rest of the school board offered no comment.
Two days later, Sims-Bush through attorney Dale Dean filed a lawsuit against Davis, the high school’s principal and Jones to compel them to allow inspection of the “digital footprint” of each voter and time stamps on the generated spreadsheet.
She also wanted $100,000 for “mental anguish,” the cost of filing the claim, loss of economic opportunity, past medical expenses and other enumerated damages.
“I have largely ignored you during this process, as I believe my God-given energy should not be wasted on foolishness,” assistant superintendent William Murphy wrote in his “final” email on the subject.
“This is clearly a sign that the election has gotten you completely outside of yourself.”
‘We are talking about high school students’
Eleven weeks after Hamilton’s daughter was declared the winner, Sims-Bush sat in a mostly empty Greenwood courtroom in the company of friends, family and counsel.
When Circuit Judge Richard A. Smith took his seat, whispers between counsel and client fell to a hush. The school district’s attorney began oral arguments.
“We are talking about high school students,” Mackenzie Price said.
She spoke of the potential for bullying should the metadata or “digital footprint” be made available for Sims-Bush to inspect.
“It would bleed into the hallways,” Price added.
Sims-Bush would have access to the addresses of students if they voted from home and to student names by even glimpsing at the initials listed on the generated spreadsheet. It would be a violation of the Family Education and Right Privilege Act.
The plaintiff wanted to know who her friends’ kids voted for, she interpreted. She was a “disgruntled parent.” Sims-Bush shook her head and looked to her aunt for support.
“The cloud over this matter” is why we’re here today, Dean responded. “All matters of unethical things” and “shenanigans” have taken place. Counsel has submitted “quite voluminous briefs” to “confuse the court.”
He held up case law that had since been overruled as justification for his client’s right to inspect the election metadata. Price noted that case law in asking for a summary judgment for the school district. The judge agreed.
The proceeding was over within an hour.
“Parents now, and I’m guessing going forward, have to rely on the word of people in a district known for fraud, forgery and misconduct when it comes to student elections and other student issues,” Sims-Bush wrote in a comment on Facebook. “It’s sad.”
‘Money can’t buy everything’
She followed her counsel to the hallway outside the courtroom for a huddle. They were discussing strategy and a possible appeal.
“The district adamantly denies any allegations that it was involved in any politics regarding a student election,” said Carlos Palmer, attorney for Sunflower County Consolidated School District. “This particular suit that was filed completely lacked merit and was a waste of district resources that could’ve been better used educating the school’s students.”
The district’s insurance rate could be raised because of the lawsuit, he said.
In the 12 years he has represented school districts, he said he has never come across a lawsuit stemming from a homecoming queen election or any other student personality contest.
Asked to describe personal damages incurred from the alleged theft of the homecoming queen crown, Sims-Bush refused comment on three separate occasions.
Greenville Mayor Errick Simmons Credit: Larrison Campbell/Mississippi Today
On Aug. 17, Greenville Mayor Errick D. Simmons honored Sims-Bush for bringing “regional and national attention to Greenville” and for elevating “the Mississippi Delta as a destination for luxury weddings, sophisticated celebrations and world-class event design.”
When Sims-Bush exited the Leflore County courthouse, she had not let her counsel know whether an appeal would be filed. As of Monday, an appeal has not yet been filed.
“We don’t want student info, we want the truth,” Sims-Bush wrote on Facebook. “What started as a campaign issue is now an issue of moral and ethics.”
“August 20 will be three months and we still have no true results,” she recently posted.
But in town, locals had other ideas about what took place in the Miss Gentry contest in May. Mississippi Today was able to poll half a dozen local residents.
“Money can’t buy everything,” said Tawana, a Popeye’s employee in Indianola and a Gentry alum who wished to be identified by her first name because she has family that attend the school. “Loyalty is something, too. They voted correctly. That’s that situation. You can’t sue nobody for that, neither.”
Gentry High School’s homecoming is Oct. 17.
In conversations with three past Miss Gentry winners, Mississippi Today was able to confirm that the perks of the crown are traditionally limited to appearances at schoolwide events, riding on a float during the homecoming parade and free access to home games. The title carries no cash prize, no scholarship money and no keepsake except the crystal encrusted metal crown bestowed upon the winner. In some years, there is a scepter, too.
One Miss Gentry from 20 years ago theorized that the competition became more fierce and pricey when social media became part of homecoming court election strategy.
“It used to just be about fun,” shared a former Miss Gentry who won her tiara nearly two decades ago. “Parents were not involved. I sang badly to a gospel recording and won because I could make people laugh.”
Editor’s note: This Mississippi Today Ideas essay is published as part of our Brain Drain project, which seeks answers to why Mississippians move out of state. To read more about the project, click here.
It’s a familiar and daunting headline: Mississippi is bleeding talent. Our best and brightest—our kids, our neighbors, our future—are leaving for cities and states that seem more alive, more prosperous, more like the opportunity they are seeking.
According to data from the Mississippi Institutions of Higher Learning and Mississippi State University’s National Strategic Planning and Analysis Research Center (NSPARC), just 52% of our public university graduates are working in the state three years after earning their degrees and that number drops to 49% by year five. U.S. Census data shows we have lost more than 60,000 millennials, in a state of about 3 million, since 2010.
We’ve seen education reform, workforce programs and tax breaks, but we’re overlooking a game-changer right under our noses: tourism. It’s not just about visitors, but the quality of place and community tourism creates when done well. As one of Mississippi’s largest industries, tourism sparks entrepreneurship, creates vibrant communities and fosters pride of place. In short, it is one of our most effective yet underrecognized tools to retain and attract talent. It gives young people a reason to stay and a story worth telling.
Danielle Morgan Credit: Mississippi Tourism Association
I have seen firsthand how tourism can transform communities. I have watched a blues festival fill the air with music and the sidewalks with locals and visitors from around the world. Restaurants were packed, shops were busy and a once-quiet downtown was bustling. The festival wasn’t just an event. It was proof that a place once written off as “dying” could reinvent itself as a cultural destination.
Mississippi is rich with genuine, generous people who are the heart of our great state. Tourism, along with programs like Main Street, has been steadily developing communities worthy of our people. This work lays the foundation for attracting residents who want professional opportunity, quality of life and a sense of belonging.
Tourism’s role in reversing brain drain
Brain drain is not just about jobs. Young professionals want more than a paycheck. They want communities with character, cultural vibrancy and opportunities to connect. Tourism development builds these qualities.
When a town invests in assets like music, food, outdoor recreation and historic preservation, it is also investing in things that enrich life for residents. A hiking trail attracts tourists and gives locals a place to connect with nature. A festival fills hotels and creates experiences for the people who live there. A revitalized downtown becomes a place where residents want to shop, work and open businesses.
In discussing future plans with my millennial niece who lives out of state, I asked if she would ever consider moving back home. She said the lack of outdoor recreation opportunities was one of the main reasons she planned to stay where she was. As a Gen Xer, this surprised me as we followed jobs and built our lives around them. She is mapping her future around lifestyle amenities that are important to her.
As a tourism leader, her response was a gut punch, and it solidified how crucial it is to invest in quality-of-life assets if we want the next generation to live here. Mississippi has incredible natural resources, but we often lag behind other states in developing outdoor amenities that are accessible to visitors and residents.
Tourism doesn’t just create jobs and revenue; it creates reasons to stay.
A powerful economic engine in plain sight
In 2023, Mississippi welcomed a record 43.7 million visitors, generating $17.5 billion in cash-in hand economic development. Those dollars don’t just fill hotel rooms; they fuel small businesses. Recent data shows 37% of local spending in Q2 2025 came from visitors, more than one of every three dollars spent.
Tourism shapes Mississippi’s story
If we want to keep and bring back our best and brightest, we must leverage tourism to own and amplify our story.
For too long, much of the national narrative about Mississippi has been written by people who have never lived here. In 2019, state leaders created a dedicated funding model for tourism marketing, allowing Mississippi tourism to finally compete regionally and nationally. That investment has driven growth in GDP, tax revenue and economic development, but I believe our best is yet to come.
Tourists have been drawn to the Laurel Mercantile Co. Credit: Mississippi Tourism Association
Longwoods International conducted a study on the “Halo Effect” of tourism marketing. The study found that when people saw tourism ads and then visited a destination, their perception of that place improved dramatically across key economic indicators. Tourism leaders have long understood this connection, but the data confirmed that tourism directly influences how places are viewed as desirable locations to live, work and invest.
For Mississippi, this means our festivals, coastal trails and warm hospitality can rewrite outdated perceptions. Tourism doesn’t just bring revenue; it builds pride and possibility.
The front door to economic growth and development
In economic development, talent attraction is a constant priority. States invest heavily in courting companies and industries, but these efforts work best when paired with a thriving tourism sector.
No one moves or invests without first visiting.
It all starts with a visit, and the visit starts with us. Tourism is often the first impression Mississippi makes with future residents, business owners and investors. A positive visitor experience can plant the seed for relocation, business expansion, or a decision to return home.
A call to action
If we are serious about tackling brain drain, we must stop seeing tourism as “just” a leisure industry, but rather a strategic tool for workforce retention, talent attraction and community revitalization.
That means closer collaboration between tourism leaders, economic developers and policymakers. It means aligning strategies, sharing data and recognizing that investments in tourism infrastructure like improved public spaces and preservation of historic sites are also investments in our future workforce.
I think of my niece every time I pass a quiet river or empty downtown. She is not just one person; she is a generation we risk losing. But I have seen what tourism can do. It can turn a quiet downtown into a bustling main street, give a young person a reason to build their life here and change how the world sees Mississippi. This transformation is real and the result of intentional efforts by community champions.
Mississippi’s story is ours to write. At a time when we are competing globally for visitors and people, tourism may be one of our most powerful and untapped tools to write our story in a way that keeps our homegrown talent and welcomes new Mississippians.
Danielle Morgan is a lifelong Mississippian and has led the Mississippi Tourism Association’s advocacy, education and promotion efforts since 2021. She is a Yazoo City native and currently resides in Carrollton with her husband Brent and precocious rescue dog, Howard Street Howard. Morgan is a graduate of Delta State University and recently received her Certified Destination Management Executive (CDME) designation, the tourism industry’s highest individual educational achievement.
House Education Chairman Rob Roberson, on the heels of a first select committee hearing on school choice and other education policy, tells Mississippi Today that lawmakers should be open to discussions on school choice, consolidation or any other measures that might move the state’s education system forward. “The only people who don’t have school choice now are poor kids,” Roberson said. He said such issues need to be detached from partisan politics and viewed with open minds.
A historic community center in coastal Bay St. Louis will hold a free event this fall to help people reach across cultural and political divides by simply having fun together.
Organizers say the One Mississippi gathering at 100 Men Hall aims to “show the world what real community looks like.”
The Sept. 28 event will have food, live music and indoor and outdoor activities, including karaoke, storytelling, limbo contests, sack races and tug-o-war.
“One Mississippi” is a Sept. 28 community gathering in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Credit: Courtesy of Rachel Dangermond
“We’re calling it ‘where neighbors meet and compete,’ but really it’s where they play together,” said Rachel Dangermond, owner and director of 100 Men Hall.
Bay St. Louis was among the communities hit hard by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Organizers of One Mississippi say they want to promote unity and “not wait for a natural disaster to show our neighbors we’re with them.”
Dangermond said she was inspired by current political and social unrest to unite people across all differences. Though the hall strives to celebrate cultural diversity and inclusivity, One Missississippi is meant to bring in those who don’t normally attend the hall’s concerts or other events.
“We want everyone to feel welcome — we believe that everyone should feel welcome,” she said. “But I think that there is more and more, this division that’s happening in our society, and so a lot of people don’t feel comfortable here. And so we want to have an event that invites everyone in, to do things that everyone can do, that is for everyone.”
100 Men Hall has cultural and historical significance to Bay St. Louis.
Bought in 1922 by the One Hundred Members’ Debating Benevolent Association, the hall became a multipurpose space and a popular stop on the Chitlin Circuit, an informal network of entertainment venues for Black performers. Famous blues, jazz and soul entertainers including Etta James, Big Joe Turner and Ray Charles performed there.
A 2019 celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at 100 Men Hall in Bay St. Louis, Miss. Credit: Courtesy of Lionel Hayes
The original One Hundred Members’ Debating Benevolent Association disbanded in 1984, and the hall changed ownership multiple times. Dangermond bought it in 2018, and now runs it as a multipurpose space and cultural center. She also established 100 Women DBA, a nonprofit that supports the 100 Men Hall and provides scholarships and mentorships to local women of color.
“I thought, what we needed to do, most importantly, was to remind everybody in this community about who we are,” Dangermond said.
Credit: Courtesy of Rachel Dangermond
Dangermond describes Bay St. Louis as a small, artsy town. It is home to a variety of events, many of which are hosted at 100 Men Hall.
Honey Parker does marketing and advertising for One Mississippi and will host a story slam, where people can share five-minute anecdotes that fit the theme “Only in Mississippi.”
Parker hopes not only to celebrate those in Bay St. Louis, but also to be an example for other places.
“Hopefully, people who come to the event will see what we have here. We have such a fantastic community that is across the spectrum,” Parker said. “It’s to celebrate that, it’s to remind each other that, ‘Yeah, we have a heck of a community.’”
