The U.S. Secret Service is expected to be in Lincoln County today to investigate after gunshots were fired Sunday by an unknown person near the home of U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
No one was injured in the incident, and federal, state and local law enforcement are investigating, according to a statement from the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation.
On social media, Hyde Smith said Monday, “An incident involving a shooting occurred near the home of Sen. Hyde-Smith early Sunday afternoon. The senator and her family were not harmed. Sen. Hyde-Smith is grateful for the concern shown by many and the good work of federal, state and local law enforcement.”
The shots were fired from a 9 mm weapon, according to a law enforcement source, and were fired in the general direction of the vehicle of a family member of Hyde-Smith’s as the person drove up the driveway toward the house near Brookhaven in south Mississippi.
The incident occurred about 12:30 p.m. Sunday. After the shooting, a witness saw a vehicle speeding away.
Hyde-Smith was appointed to the U.S. Senate in 2018 to fill a vacancy. She won a special election later that year and won an election for a full six-year term in 2020.
Update 10-23-23: This story to add comments from Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith
Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
If you’ve wondered why the Democratic Governors Association has pumped a historic amount of money into Brandon Presley’s 2023 campaign, you might get your answer later today.
The Washington-based organization that works to get Democratic governors elected will publicly release a poll today that shows Republican incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves leading Presley by just one point, according to a memo shared with Mississippi Today.
The poll shows Reeves leading Presley 46% to 45%, with nearly 10% still undecided 15 days from the election. The poll also shows that among those undecided voters, 68% have an unfavorable opinion of Reeves, while just 2% view him favorably.
If accurate, the poll also shows both candidates well below the 50%-plus-one threshold needed to avoid a runoff. A third candidate, independent Gwendolyn Gray, dropped out of the race in early October and endorsed Presley, but her announced exit came too late to be removed from the ballot. She could earn enough votes to keep Reeves or Presley from reaching 50%, which would push those two candidates to a Nov. 28 runoff election.
The Democratic Governors Association has pumped at least $3.75 million into Presley’s campaign this year, which is an unprecedented Mississippi investment from a single group affiliated with the national Democratic Party. That sum helped Presley out-raise Reeves over the past three months — a feat that very few political observers expected.
To add some context to this year’s DGA investment, the same group gave Democratic nominee Jim Hood just $2.4 million in his race against Reeves four years ago. And this year in neighboring Louisiana, one of two other states with a 2023 governor’s election, the DGA invested about $300,000 total.
A word of warning about this poll and any others you’ll see between now and November: ‘tis the season for skewed polling leaks. Given their investment in one candidate in the race, the uber-politically affiliated DGA could very well have reason to release numbers that don’t tell a complete picture.
But here’s what we do know: The poll was conducted by Public Policy Polling, a reputable North Carolina-based firm that has an A-minus rating from the industry standard FiveThirtyEight pollster rating service. This pollster, according to the memo shared with Mississippi Today, surveyed 601 Mississippi voters via a mix of text message and phone calls from October 19-20, and the margin of error is 4%.
There are reasons to buy this latest poll’s numbers. This new poll, like others before it, shows Reeves underwater on favorability. Of the new poll’s total respondents, according to the memo, 51% have an unfavorable opinion of Reeves and just 33% view him favorably.
Presley, on the other hand, has a marginal favorable rating among all the poll’s respondents (36% favorable to 31% unfavorable), but the poll memo shows the Democratic nominee still has a major name ID problem — something that also mirrors other public polling released earlier this year. In all, 32% of the poll’s respondents are unsure of their opinion of Presley.
The poll that shows neither candidate particularly close to the 50% mark also tracks with buzz among Republican and Democratic politicos over the past week or two. Political operatives on both sides in Mississippi continue to openly speculate about the runoff possibility. And both campaigns, according to several sources, are said to be preparing for the possibility of a three-week November sprint to the runoff election.
Accurate or not, this new DGA poll will rattle the state’s political ground and attract even more national attention to the race. Just 15 days out, there’s plenty of drama.
1) How low, exactly, is Republican enthusiasm? The concern is there among many politicos, but can Reeves leverage his many millions on ginning up the GOP base?
2) What will enthusiasm look like on the Democratic side? Presley is clearly targeting Black voters — the base of the Democratic Party. In the last three weekends, he’s gone to three different HBCU tailgates (Alcorn State two weeks ago, Jackson State last weekend, and Mississippi Valley State this weekend).
3) Can Presley win broader support in northeast Mississippi than Jim Hood did in 2019? It’s a region of the state that Trump won definitively and Reeves won handily four years ago. The Democratic nominee campaigned Sunday in northeast Mississippi.
In this edition of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large Marshall Ramsey sits down with the talented David Rae Morris.
Morris is a photographer, documentarian, father and the son of writer Willie Morris. He talks about his career, talent and what it is like growing up with a famous father. A master storyteller, Morris gives a thoughtful interview.
Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
Just five nights before the 2019 governor’s election, about 10,000 Republicans packed into the BancorpSouth Arena in Tupelo to hear a rambunctious President Donald Trump plead with Mississippians to vote for Tate Reeves.
It was borderline baffling that an immensely popular Republican president had to fly down to a strong Republican state in the eleventh hour and campaign for a well-known Republican candidate. But Reeves was struggling to reach the 50% mark in polling against longtime Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, and Democrats smelled blood in the water.
“Wait a minute, how is this guy … I can’t believe this is a competitive race,” Trump acknowledged from the podium that night. “I’m talking to Mississippi, I can’t believe it. I don’t think (Hood) is going to be the right guy. I think the right guy is Tate Reeves. He will be a great governor.”
More than a few prognosticators still believe that rowdy, high-energy Trump rally won Reeves the 2019 race. Advisers close to Hood said they had internal polls going into the last two weeks of the election that actually had the Democrat leading Reeves. But on Election Day five days after Trump’s Tupelo visit, Reeves won with 51.9% of the vote.
Four years later, much is the same. Reeves is again favored at the top of the ticket for governor. But yet again, he’s struggling to reach the 50% mark in polling against another tough Democratic challenger, this time longtime Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley.
But not all is the same this year. Trump, of course, is not the president. Instead of jetting off to political rallies to boost Republican allies across the country, the former president is tied up in numerous legal proceedings at both the state and federal levels. Late this week, two of his closest allies accepted plea deals and appeared to turn on him in those deliberations. And a judge slapped him with a $5,000 fine on Friday for violating a gag order in his New York fraud case.
Trump, who clearly has other things on his mind than Reeves’ chances in November, has not weighed in yet on the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race, and it’s not clear if he will. It’s also not clear if it would mean nearly as much to Mississippi voters if he did.
A Mississippi Today/Siena College poll conducted in September showed an even favorable/unfavorable split among Mississippi voters on Trump — a much more negative overall view of the former president than in previous years’ polling.
With Republican operatives buzzing about GOP enthusiasm and turnout concerns, Reeves likability concerns, and a Democratic campaign that is making some strides, is another Trump visit on the horizon?
And if not, is there another silver bullet Reeves can load into his chamber?
1) Presley announced a statewide bus tour to close out his 2023 campaign. The campaign said the tour will make 55 stops across the state in the final weeks of the election.
2) Reeves spent his Friday in southwest Mississippi, visiting McComb, Liberty and Woodville. Interestingly, Amite and Wilkinson counties — home to about 21,000 people between the two — got visits from both Reeves and Presley this week. Presley visited the counties Thursday to officially fulfill a promise to visit all 82 counties this year.
3) It’s linked in the headlines above, but Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender settled any questions or debate today about how many gubernatorial debates there will be. Pender reports: “It appears (Nov. 1) will be the only gubernatorial debate, not the first. It also would appear Reeves agreed to the single debate just days before the election to defang Presley’s claim — and campaign fodder — that he was dodging and ‘hiding’ from the voting public, not because of Reeves’ strong desire to debate.”
Mississippians in counties with Uber services can request free rides to their county health department appointments starting next month.
As the state’s health care crisis persists and Mississippians may increasingly rely on county health departments for care, the new program is aimed at making transportation more accessible for rural Mississippians, and in turn, decreasing “no shows” at health department appointments.
The one-year emergency contract, which Mississippi Today obtained through a public records request, says the Mississippi State Health Department will pay Uber Health up to $1 million for non-emergency services transporting patients to their health department appointments, to the pharmacy if needed and then returning them home. Though the contract is retroactively effective to September, rides will start being offered in November.
The rider will not be charged, and the health department will schedule transportation. It’s not clear exactly how those rides will be scheduled, and Mississippi Department of Health officials couldn’t provide details by press time and did not make anyone available for an interview about the initiative.
Agency officials also said the funds were from a federal grant but did not specify which one.
Uber’s responsibilities include assessing its coverage area within Mississippi, collaborating with the health department’s Office of Health Equity to spread awareness of the initiative and helping create a marketing plan to support driver availability, according to the contract.
“We now officially have a contract in place to provide transportation to and from the county health departments for those who lack transportation resources,” State Health Officer Dr. Daniel Edney said at the October State Board of Health meeting. “That is a major issue, it’s a major social determinant of health that impacts people getting anywhere they need to go.”
Transportation issues plague rural Mississippi — it’s a major barrier to accessing health care for many. According to one survey, more than 1 in 5 people without transportation missed or skipped a medical appointment in 2022, and people of color and people with low incomes were more affected.
Mississippi county health departments currently experience a 50% no-show rate, according to Edney.
“It’s fairly routine that at the last minute they just can’t get to us,” he said.
However, it’s not yet clear how effective the program will be.
Though it’s meant to ease transportation issues in rural parts of the state, it’s only available in counties with Uber services, which some rural areas don’t have. Also, some studies show that rideshare availability doesn’t have a significant impact on missed health care appointments.
“With Mississippi being a rural state, this initiative will also allow the opportunity for community and economic development by creating jobs,” said Victor D. Sutton, the State Health Departments chief of community health and clinical services, in an email to Mississippi Today.
Edney told Warren County supervisors in the spring that he hopes the program will increase jobs and Uber availability in parts of the state that don’t yet have it.
Uber Health is already being used by more than 3,000 health care customers, according to a statement from January 2022.
Edney said at the October board meeting that the state’s contract with Uber is worded in a way that would allow other states to use it as a template. Health department officials say Mississippi is the first state agency to enter into a contract with the company, to their knowledge.
Uber launched the platform in 2018 to allow health care workers to book rides for patients to and from medical appointments. Since then, it’s expanded to include other services, including prescription delivery.
In recent years, rideshare services have taken interest in expanding to the health care market. Lyft was the first rideshare company to create a non-emergency medical transport program in 2016.
Despite vowing back in September that he and challenger Brandon Presley would have gubernatorial “debates” — plural — it appears incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves has agreed to participate in only one. It will take place on Nov. 1, just before the Nov. 7 election.
“I am letting the campaign team work on that,” Reeves said at a Sept. 21 press conference. “But I am sure we are going to have debates. We have always had debates.” He said he relished the chance to debate Presley and set the record straight with voters and “dispelling lies.”
In his first run for governor in 2019, Reeves debated his Democratic opponent Jim Hood twice.
In early October, when Reeves announced he had accepted a WAPT TV invite for a televised debate against Presley on Nov. 1, Reeves referred to it as “the first gubernatorial debate.” But it appears it will be the only gubernatorial debate, not the first. It also would appear Reeves agreed to the single debate just days before the election to defang Presley’s claim — and campaign fodder — that he was dodging and “hiding” from the voting public, not because of Reeves’ strong desire to debate.
The Reeves campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment about debates on Friday.
Presley had accepted five invitations by various media and organizations for gubernatorial debates during October. He had vowed to debate Reeves anywhere, any time.
Presley this month has attended the agreed-to events that were still held sans Reeves, even bringing an empty chair and taping a photo of Reeves up in mock debate.
On Thursday, Presley’s campaign declared “Empty Chair October,” as Presley attended what had been pitched as a gubernatorial debate in Natchez.
“It’s been 27 days since Mississippians started (absentee) voting and Brandon continues to debate while Tate Reeves hides,” the Presley campaign said in a statement.
Presley said: “No matter how hard Tate Reeves works to hide, I will be out there, answering questions and talking to Mississippians who are ready for a new day in Mississippi come November.”
The Nov. 1 debate will not only be the only debate for this gubernatorial race, but the only one for a statewide office this cycle. Several challengers have accused Mississippi incumbents of debate dodging.
The “Commitment 2023: Mississippi Gubernatorial Debate” will be a partnership between WAPT TV in the Metro Jackson market and Mississippi Public Broadcasting. The hour-long debate will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. on Nov. 1 from WAPT’s studio by the outlet and also will be broadcast live on MPB’s radio and television stations statewide and on the MPB app.
Voters are asked to submit questions for the candidates via email to info@mpbonline.org.
Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
Longtime Republican politico Henry Barbour, about a month ago in a radio interview, might as well have lit a fuse tied to the backsides of every political operative in Mississippi.
“The way we end up with a liberal governor is that Republicans assume we win,” Barbour told radio host Paul Gallo on Sept. 14. “I’m talking to you on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi … We’ve got to run the score up down there because there are going to be other parts of the state, like the Delta, where Brandon Presley is gonna run the score up.”
Barbour, the nephew of a founding father of the modern Republican Party and a well-connected lobbyist who certainly knows a thing or two about what it takes to win a governor’s race, continued.
“So we need big turnout, we need people to get fired up, to lean on their neighbors and friends. The best way to get someone to vote is not a TV ad or a radio ad, heaven forbid. It’s peer to peer, it’s talking to somebody they know like their neighbor and encouraging them that hey, we’ve got to run because this is important. It’s about the future of our state and our children.”
The speculation Barbour’s comment stirred in mid-September among the Jackson political class was loud and sustained, but the consensus among them: Reeves, facing at least a decent challenge from Democrat Brandon Presley, might not have this governor’s race wrapped in a bow like his allies had been projecting for months.
If Reeves struggles on Nov. 7, it’ll almost certainly be because, in large part, Republican voters weren’t excited about heading to the polls. That shouldn’t necessarily read as support for Presley or for his positions, but the Democrat sure could benefit from lackluster turnout in GOP strongholds — and especially in the three Gulf Coast counties.
Another longtime GOP operative put it this way this week: “I can’t remember a statewide election cycle when a Republican had a tough challenge and so few Republican voters seemed to care.”
So why the dull feelings for Republican voters this go-round? Well, it’s not just this go-round for Reeves. To put it bluntly, it might just be that voters don’t like him all that much.
For three-plus years, Reeves has polled as one of the most unpopular governors in the nation. He got just 51.9% of the vote in 2019 in ruby red Mississippi against Democratic challenger Jim Hood. For reference, Republican President Donald Trump earned 57.6% in Mississippi the very next year. For even further reference, former Republican Gov. Phil Bryant earned 61% of the vote against Democrat Johnny Dupree in 2011 and 66% against Democrat Robert Gray in 2015.
As Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender and Taylor Vance have reported, Reeves has been sharply criticized in his first term by both the political left and the political right. Here’s what two of Mississippi’s most prominent far right conservatives have said about Reeves’ 2023 candidacy in recent days:
Chris McDaniel, the state senator who unsuccessfully ran three times for statewide or federal office: “There is an overall unease about everything. There’s some dissatisfaction out there, but not necessarily with (Reeves) but just the political climate … There is a chance that could equate to lower turnout (of conservative voters). Low turnout would be trouble for everyone. Our models are usually based on having good turnout.”
Robert Foster, who unsuccessfully ran against Reeves in 2019: “While most conservative Christians I know have forgiven (Reeves) for his emotional rather than rational actions during the COVID hysteria, we haven’t forgotten how he mishandled it. He issued many unconstitutional mandates and gave tiny tyrants all over the state unbridled power, and they abused it. They used it to hurt small businesses. They used it to hurt our elderly in nursing homes and our helpless children in schools and daycares. They even used it to close churches for a short time. I for one think a public apology is not only due but possibly necessary for many to consider voting for him to be our governor again and not skipping the race altogether on the ballot in November.”
Presley would argue that low potential GOP turnout on Election Day is not just about Tate’s general likability on the right. The Democratic nominee has spent millions pointing out Reeves’ ties to the very well-known welfare scandal, Reeves’ inaction on the very well-known hospital crisis, and Reeves’ refusal to expand Medicaid to provide at least 200,000 working poor Mississippians with health care. All three of those issues have polled off the charts in Presley’s favor this year.
Meanwhile, Presley is getting what appears to be unprecedented support from Black Democrats across the state. Much will be written about this in the coming days, but Black voters are the base of the Mississippi Democratic Party, period.
If the recent coordinated work of Black political leaders, pastors and community activists produces the results they’re hoping, and Republicans stay home for whatever reason, the evening of Nov. 7 might be a long one for Reeves.
1) Regarding that potential Gulf Coast problem: Reeves on Thursday announced funding for 15 new projects for the Gulf Coast. Reeves’ administration manages a huge pot of federal settlement funds the state received after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill gutted the Gulf Coast. And in his first term as governor, he has doled out hundreds of millions of dollars for specific Coast projects. It should be noted that any governor would have the power to do this, and Coast-based projects have to receive the funding. But Reeves has masterfully played these “look what I’m doing for the Coast” cards many, many times over the past few years, and it undoubtedly helps him with everyday Coast voters.
2) What’s the extent of runoff preparations being made by the campaigns? Click this link to read about the potential runoff and how it’s being discussed currently, but having to prepare for a runoff while in the homestretch could certainly be a huge distraction for already stretched-thin campaign teams.
3) What about debate prep? Reeves may take the strategy of setting low expectations. In his Neshoba County Fair speech in late July, he actually directly took a self-deprecating approach about his less-than-stellar public speaking skills. Presley, on the other hand, is known in political circles as an effective communicator. How much might debate prep time ahead of the Nov. 1 throw-down on live TV keep the candidates off the trail?
Baptist Memorial Health Care, one of the state’s largest health systems, and Meridian-based Anderson Regional Health System will merge in January.
The two faith-based health systems announced the move in a press release Wednesday, though officials did not disclose the reasoning behind the decision. Baptist CEO Jason Little said in the release that he was “excited to join forces.”
“Both organizations are proud of the exceptional care we provide. ARHS has a proven track record of success in this region, and we’re very experienced in delivering care in all types of Mississippi communities,” Little said. “Together, we have more than two centuries of combined health care experience, and we want to use this knowledge and expertise to bring a new level of care to this community.”
According to the release, the partnership will allow Baptist to serve more than half of Mississippi’s population.
The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Hospitals across the state have been forced to make similar moves to stay open. Nearly half of the state’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, according to one report.
Little’s justification of the merger to Mississippi Today contained no specifics.
“A merger will further strengthen both organizations’ ability to advocate for and invest more into patient care and our team members,” he said in a statement. “We believe everyone in the communities we serve will benefit from our alignment with an organization that shares our commitment to Christian values and quality health care. Finally, it will help us preserve care in another Mississippi community and remain resilient in the face of constant change in our industry.”
Baptist, based in Memphis, currently operates 22 hospitals in Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi. The not-for-profit health system is the state’s fourth largest employer and was recently deemed qualified to host a burn center and deemed a Level III trauma and primary pediatric center.
Anderson is one of east Mississippi’s most comprehensive health systems, and operates two hospitals, a regional cancer center and a network of clinics.
“As part of our strategic plan to strengthen the mission of ARHS, a partnership with a larger health system provides a number of benefits for patients, physicians and employees,” said John G. Anderson, president and CEO of Anderson Regional Health System, in the release. “By joining Baptist Memorial, ARHS will be stronger and more equipped to meet the needs of our patients for many years to come.”
Anderson will maintain operations with local leadership after the merger.
