Eighteen years ago, Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Mississippi Gulf Coast. It seems like yesterday I heard someone yelling across the Clarion Ledger’s newsroom, “There’s water on the second floor of the Beau Rivage!” That was at 10:30 a.m. And that was the moment I knew the Coast would be changed forever. Even then, I could not have imagined the damage that the storm surge would cause. I also could not have predicted the incredible recovery the Coast would make. I’ve drawn a lot of live oak pictures over the years. The iconic coastal trees have survived so many storms over the years, including Katrina. Like the Coast, it must because of their deep roots.
Acclaimed author Walter Isaacson and distinguished historian Dr. Eddie Glaude joined Deep South Today supporters in June to share their thoughts on the dangerous divisions in our country, and the crucial role of local news in journalism and democracy.
Six Mississippi House seats feature runoff elections today after no candidate in the Aug. 8 primaries earned 50% of the vote.
Two House incumbents — Republican Rep. Nick Bain of Corinth and Republican Rep. Dale Goodin of Richton — face runoff races on Tuesday, and four other House seats across the state will select party nominees.
No runoffs were needed for state Senate seats or for statewide posts, though there will be additional runoff elections throughout the state for multiple county posts.
Polls close Aug. 29 at 7 p.m., when results of the races will begin trickling in.
Democrat Shuwaski Young’s abrupt Sunday announcement that he plans to drop out of the race for secretary of state for health reasons coincided with the Mississippi Elections Commission planning to meet in coming days to consider whether he was eligible to seek the office in the first place.
Young received a letter dated Aug. 15 from Logan Witcher, elections compliance officer in the Mississippi Secretary of State’s office, informing Young that the state Elections Commission would soon review whether he was eligible to seek the statewide post because of residency issues. The letter, obtained by Mississippi Today on Monday through a public records request, claimed Young was voting in California as recently as 2020.
The letter to Young, along with his announcement that he is dropping out for health reasons, raises numerous questions.
Under Mississippi law, the state Democratic Party could name a replacement for Young if he is dropping out for health reasons. But if he was ruled ineligible to seek the post because of residency issues, the party likely could not replace him. If he is dropping out for health reasons before being ruled ineligible for the ballot, it is not clear whether he can still be replaced by the state party.
In an interview on Monday afternoon, Young said he withdrew solely because of his health, and questions about his residency “100% absolutely did not” play a role in that decision. He declined further comments on residency questions.
“What basically happened is there was an incident where my blood pressure was really out of whack, sky high, but I was on top of it, saw doctors, had medication,” Young told Mississippi Today. But one recent day, he said, while out at lunch, he had an “incident.”
“That particular day, I was in a full suit, it was sunny, about 12 or 1 p.m. It was just too much,” he said. “… That’s when it hit me. I am just thankful to the emergency first responders, and folks at Golden Triangle Baptist Hospital where I had an overnight stay. It’s just been an up-and-down medical situation for me … I’m going to focus on my family and my health, and when the time is right I’ll make another run to serve the people of Mississippi.”
Young said he has talked with state Democratic Party leaders and would support anyone the party replaces him with in the race.
But the ultimate decision on whether the Democrat can exit the race lies with the three-member state commission, which is made up of Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch and Young’s opponent Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson. State law requires Young to submit an affidavit to the commission specifying his reason for withdrawing his name from the ballot.
If a majority of the commission determines Young’s health concerns are legitimate, they can vote to accept the affidavit. But they could also vote to reject the affidavit.
The state Elections Commission was scheduled to meet on Monday, Aug. 21, to take up questions concerning Young’s eligibility, according to the letter. That meeting was postponed and its rescheduling has not been publicly announced.
The Mississippi Secretary of State’s Office is tasked with checking the eligibility of statewide and legislative candidates and presenting those finding to the entire Elections Commission. Then the three members vote on candidates’ eligibility before approving the statewide ballot for November.
The fact that Young was challenging incumbent Watson, who is on the commission, adds another dimension to the unique situation.
Cheikh Taylor, chair of the Mississippi Democratic Party, told the Daily Journal on Monday that the party planned to name a replacement for Young to run against Watson sometime this week, though he did not name a specific person. Taylor did not address the issue of whether Young can still be replaced if he is not eligible to run.
In the letter to Young, the Secretary of State’s office said its research indicated that he was placed on the inactive rolls in his home county of Neshoba in early 2017.
Voter records indicated that Young cast ballots in California in 2018 and 2020, the letter said. The letter asks Young to provide documentation proving his citizenship.
The Mississippi Constitution requires a candidate for secretary of state to be “a citizen of the state” for five years “preceding the day of the election.”
Mississippi courts have historically looked at voting records as a factor to determine citizenship. According to the California Secretary of State’s office, to vote in California someone must be “a United States citizen and a resident of California.”
If Young actually voted in California as recently as 2020, it’s possible he does not meet the residency requirement. But earlier this year, Young told the Daily Journal he had maintained “joint residency” in Neshoba County while working in California.
Under state law, a candidate can drop out and be replaced because of health reasons or job-related conflicts. A candidate who dies before an election also can be replaced by the party.
In 2022, the issue of Young’s residency came up in his 3rd District congressional campaign against incumbent Republican Michael Guest. But a candidate for the U.S. House in Mississippi is not required to live in the state, so at that time the issue was not fully vetted.
Brandon Presley, the Democratic nominee for governor, alleged that when his political opponent Gov. Tate Reeves fired the attorney working to recoup misspent welfare dollars, it led to a spike in fundraising donations for the Republican official.
Speaking in front of the Governor’s Mansion in downtown Jackson on Monday, Presley said that when state officials decided not to renew attorney Brad Pigott’s contract to claw back the misspent money, people affiliated with the University of Southern Mississippi began donating to the first-term governor’s reelection campaign.
“When he ran for lieutenant governor, he said a watchdog is exactly what I’ll be,” Presley said of Reeves. “And we know he’s never been a watchdog. He’s been a lapdog. A lapdog for lobbyists, a lapdog for special interests, a lapdog for the monied interests in Mississippi.”
Clifton Carroll, a spokesman for the Reeves campaign, called Presley’s Monday press conference an act of “mental gymnastics” because, in essence, he is “trying to say any supporter of Southern Miss must be disavowed.”
“The bad actors in this case have been sued by the Reeves administration, and calling all Southern Miss supporters corrupt is offensive and, frankly, exactly what you’d expect from a campaign run by the DNC — not Mississippians,” Carroll said.
A former federal prosecutor, Pigott filed a July 11 subpoena on the University of Southern Mississippi Athletic Foundation about the $5 million it received in federal welfare dollars it received to build a volleyball stadium on its campus.
Roughly a week after Pigott filed the subpoena, leadership with the Mississippi Department of Human Services, an agency directly overseen by Reeves, decided not to renew the attorney’s contract.
Pigott believed his sudden termination was politically motivated because Reeves’ office wanted him to block the USM Athletic Foundation from scrutiny. But MDHS leaders and Reeves said the contract was terminated, in part, because a larger law firm was needed to ramp up the evidence collection process with the civil lawsuit.
MDHS leadership later contracted with the Jackson-based branch of Jones Walker, a New Orleans-based law firm, to take over the civil litigation to recoup the misspent money. The law firm has since added the USM Athletic Foundation to its lengthy list of defendants in the civil suit.
Two Mississippi House incumbents will be fighting for their political lives in Tuesday’s primary runoff elections, and four other legislative seats across the state will have party nominees.
State Rep. Nick Bain of Corinth, who was first elected to the House in 2011, will face Brad Mattox in the Republican primary in District 2, which encompasses most of Alcorn County in northeast Mississippi.
And in southeast Mississippi in District 105, consisting of portions of Perry, Greene and George counties, first-term incumbent Rep. Dale Goodin faces a Republican primary runoff challenge from Elliott Burch.
In total, there will be runoff elections today in six House districts. Runoffs occur under Mississippi election law when no candidate garners a majority vote in the first election. No runoffs are slated for Senate seats or for statewide posts, though there will be additional runoff elections throughout the state for multiple county posts.
The first primary was held Aug. 8. In that election, Bain captured 48% of the vote compared to 35.1% for Mattox. And Goodin garnered 29.8% of the vote and actually trailed Burch, who captured 46.2%.
The winner between Goodin and Burch will face Democrat Matthew Daves in the November general election. The Bain-Mattox winner will be unopposed in November.
The other four House runoffs slated for Tuesday are:
District 105 in Harrison County for the seat currently held by retiring Rep. Randall Patterson: Republican Zachary Grady, who earned 46.8% of the vote in the Aug. 8 primary, faces Felix Gines, who earned 37.7%.
District 66 in Jackson for the seat currently held by Public Service Commission candidate De’Keither Stamps: Democrat Fabian Nelson, who earned 42.6% in the Aug. 8 primary, faces Roshunda Harris-Allen, who earned 31.3%.
District 69 in Jackson for the seat currently held by retiring Rep. Alyce Clarke: Democrat Tamarra Butler-Washington, who earned 48.5% in the Aug. 8 primary, faces Patty Patterson, who earned 29.8%.
District 72 in portions of Hinds and Madison counties for the seat formerly held by Debra Gibbs: Democrat Justis Gibbs, who earned 40.8% in the Aug. 8 primary, faces Rukia Lumumba, who earned 30.7%.
The polls on Tuesday will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. and will be open to any voter who lives within one of those six districts. If you voted in the Aug. 8 primary, however, you may only vote in the runoff of that same party. If you did not vote on Aug. 8, you can vote in either party’s runoff.
Gov. Tate Reeves hands out a free laptop to a student last week as Comcast celebrated a project that connected 1,700 homes to broadband internet service in the Bolton-Edwards area.
Gov. Tate Reeves grinned and high-fived a young student as he handed him a new laptop as the news cameras clicked and rolled last week at Bolton-Edwards Elementary/Middle School.
Reeves issued a statement: “This broadband expansion and tremendously generous laptop donation by Comcast are a fantastic boost to the community in Bolton and Edwards. The investment will help provide critical broadband access and support educational opportunities for Mississippi families.” He shared grip-and-grin photos of himself giving out laptops and posing with school officials and posted platitudes on social media.
It was a perfect photo op as Republican Reeves runs for reelection — hopping on a wave of goodwill as Mississippi spends well over $1 billion to run high-speed internet access into the rural hinterlands.
But Reeves for several years has mostly just been along for the ride on broadband internet expansion. And this photo op came as his campaign’s statewide television ads blast “Biden, Bennie and Brandon” — three people arguably most responsible for rural Mississippi’s coming entrée into the internet age — as spendthrifts.
The broadband largess is from President Biden’s $1 trillion infrastructure plan, of which U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson helped Mississippi get $1.2 billion for broadband. Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, Reeves’ Democratic gubernatorial opponent in November, has for years championed broadband expansion in Mississippi long before it was on most others’ radar, and he helped pass transformational state law.
This wasn’t lost on Democratic Rep. Thompson, who was in attendance at the event in his hometown last week but wasn’t included in Reeves’ social media photos.
“For (Reeves) to criticize President Biden in terms of his being out of touch with his approach to addressing problems, then come to the Bolton-Edwards school and praise broadband expansion is at best disingenuous on his part,” Thompson told Mississippi Today. “… This is typical fashion for the governor to show up like he did in Bolton. That’s not leadership when you have not shown any support for the program.
“He’s a politician running for reelection, and I’m sure anywhere more than 10 people are assembled he’ll show up,” Thompson said. “But the record speaks for itself, and he runs ads criticizing politicians who are bringing this money to the state.”
Candidate Presley was likewise critical of Reeves’ efforts to campaign on broadband expansion.
“He was completely missing in action when we were working on broadband,” Presley said.
Presley, after years of work including crisscrossing the state with town hall meetings, successfully lobbied the GOP-majority state Legislature to pass a bill in 2019 to allow electrical cooperatives to supply broadband internet to rural Mississippi and help the state access federal money. He worked closely with Republican House Speaker Philip Gunn, who authored the bill. But Presley said then-Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, who was overseeing the Senate, was not initially on board.
“The fear was it was going to die in the Senate because of Reeves and intense lobbying by the cable industry,” Presley said. He said the first time he went to meet with a top Reeves lieutenant on the broadband expansion bill, a cable lobbyist was there.
“We had to rally the troops and start putting pressure on senators,” Presley said. “… As with everything else when he was lieutenant governor, we were worried that whoever wrote him the last campaign check would be who he sided with.”
As he runs for reelection, Reeves has made other recent comments about how “we’re connecting Mississippians with the technology of the future by expanding broadband” and “attracting the jobs of tomorrow by improving our state’s connectivity today.”
Since he became governor in 2020, Reeves has not blocked any broadband expansion legislation and spending. But he hasn’t shown much support, either.
The Legislature passed four major bills in 2020 to speed up broadband expansion and allocate $315 million in federal funds. Reeves didn’t veto the bills, but let them become law without his signature — typically a protest move by governors to show they don’t support a measure even though they are unwilling to kill it with a veto.
“The appropriation bill for $75 million for co-ops and companies for broadband, he didn’t even sign, in the middle of a pandemic,” Presley said. “He needs to shut his mouth how he’s been for broadband. While mommas and daddies are having to sit outside McDonald’s to get internet service, he’s laid up in the Governor’s Mansion too lazy to even sign a bill … Now he’d have you believe that, like Al Gore, he invented the internet.”
Thompson said: “I wonder what he’ll say when the transportation money starts to kick in from this bill. I guess he’ll be going to the groundbreakings as he’s running commercials against the people who are bringing this money to the state.”
There was every reason to believe Jackson State football would regress badly after Deion Sanders took his glitzy show — and many of the Tigers’ best players — off to perform in the Rocky Mountains at Colorado.
Not only did Neon Deion depart, but he took much of his coaching staff and nine of his best players with him, including his son Sheddeur Sanders, already established as one of the greatest quarterbacks in SWAC football history. What’s more, 1,100-yard rusher Sy’veon Wilkerson, national No. 1 recruit Travis Hunter and safety Shiloh Sanders headed west to high country. Several other JSU Tigers scattered elsewhere.
Rick Cleveland
To Jackson State alumnus T.C. Taylor fell the daunting task of trying to remake the Tigers’ football roster. Given the mass exodus, the odds were far from favorable.
But guess what? The 2023 T.C. Tigers debuted Saturday night and frankly looked every bit as sharp as any of Sanders’ JSU teams, who won 23 of 26 games over the past two seasons. Taylor’s Tigers slobber-knocked South Carolina State 37-7 in, of all places, Atlanta. The score doesn’t begin to tell you how thoroughly JSU dominated. South Carolina State did not score until the waning seconds. Taylor was nothing if not benevolent. He could have made it 50-0 or worse, had he so decided.
Playing before a national TV audience on ABC, the Tigers were as efficient as they were impressive. They were fundamentally sound and they were exceedingly fast in accomplishing something Deion never did at Jackson State. And that’s to win in Atlanta. Sanders’ Tigers lost two straight times in Atlanta’s Celebration Bowl, first to South Carolina State 31-10 and then to North Carolina Central in overtime last year.
Making Jackson State’s trouncing of South Carolina State all the more impressive is that SC State defeated North Carolina Central 26-24 last season before NC Central defeated Jackson State in the bowl game.
Clearly, Taylor and his staff have done a masterful job of reconstructing the JSU roster. Start with quarterback where nobody in their right mind would expect anyone to come in and replicate Sheddeur Sanders’ brilliance. Enter Jason Brown, a transfer from Virginia Tech, who threw for 367 yards and three touchdowns without throwing an interception. Brown completed 26 of 33 throws. His decision-making was as excellent as his passing accuracy. Brown played sparingly at Virginia Tech last season, but you should know he quarterbacked South Carolina to victories over Florida and Auburn two seasons ago before losing the job.
Running back Irv Mulligan, a Wofford transfer, displayed remarkable balance and quickness in rushing for more than eight yards per carry and 109 yards and a touchdown. Spectacularly talented Travis Hunter may be gone, but Brown has several passing targets from whom to choose. He spread his 26 completions around to eight different receivers.
Defensively, the Tigers just dominated, allowing only 201 yards with much of that coming after Taylor began freely substituting.
Nevertheless, the star of the first-game JSU show has to be T.C. Taylor, the Magnolia native who played high school ball for the venerable Greg Wall at South Pike before becoming one of Jackson State’s football greats. At first glance, Taylor appears the antithesis of Deion Sanders. Sanders is flashy; Taylor is far more subdued and even-keeled. At JSU, Sanders was always the center of attention and clearly liked it that way. Taylor prefers to deflect attention to players and assistants. Sanders was a JSU outsider; Taylor is as Jackson State as they come. When T.C. sings the words “Thee, I love” in the lovely Jackson State alma mater, he means it.
I first saw Taylor play quarterback — and play it well — for Wall at South Pike. He initially played quarterback at JSU, before the great Robert Kent won the job. So Taylor moved to wide receiver and as a senior caught 84 passes for 11 touchdowns.
Taylor may want to deflect attention, but JSU fans were having none of that in Atlanta Saturday night. They were chanting his name as the final seconds ticked down.
“This is just the beginning, but I am really excited about where this team in headed,” Taylor said afterward. “I’m not going to let us get complacent. The sky is the limit for this team.
“Yes, we had a lot of turnover on the roster, but we’ve got a lot of good players. These dudes really get along and they enjoy playing the game.”
One game — even a lopsided victory over a respected opponent on national TV — is no guarantee of future success. But, boy, it really was impressive.
Republican Rep. Mac Huddleston, a veteran lawmaker who represented Pontotoc County in the state House, died on Sunday, according to several state lawmakers and an obituary posted online. He was 79.
Huddleston died from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells, according to his wife, Dr. Flavia Huddleston.
During the past four years, Huddleston served as the leader of the House Ethics Committee and the House Universities and Colleges Committee, and he previously served as the vice chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee.
“I had the highest respect for him, and that is why, out of 122 members, I made him the chairman of the Ethics Committee,” House Speaker Philip Gunn said in a statement. “This reflects my view that he was a man of great integrity and character.”
Aafter representing the rural northeast Mississippi county in the Capitol for the last 16 years, Huddleston decided not to run for reelection this year and allow a new face to represent the rural northeast Mississippi county in the Legislature.
“I’ve had a good time,” Huddleston told the Daily Journal at the time. “I’ve had some health issues, but I’ve had some good friends to help me work through this.”
A veterinarian and Vietnam War veteran, Huddleston developed a reputation at the Capitol for helping newly elected House members.
“When I got to Jackson, I was a green as a gourd,” Republican Rep. Jon Lancaster of Houston told Mississippi Today. “He took me under his wing, and he taught me how to network and how to get things done for my district.”
Republican Rep. Sam Creekmore IV of New Albany had a similar experience to Lancaster. When Creekmore was elected to the House in 2019, Huddleston called Creekmore before the newly elected lawmakers had a chance to visit Jackson.
“When we were picking seats, I picked the seat closest to Mac Huddleston intentionally,” Creekmore said. “Any time there was an issue I wanted to talk through, I could go to him and discuss what was good for Pontotoc and Union counties.”
The four-term lawmaker was also well known for his military service. He flew a helicopter during the Vietnam War, earning the rank of Captain and receiving the Bronze Star and Distinguished Flying Cross medal.
Huddleston’s House colleagues last year honored him and Rep. Manly Barton, a Republican from Moss Point who also served in the Vietnam War, by passing a resolution, which garnered a standing ovation in the chamber.
“Mississippi lost a great one today,” Republican Rep. Missy McGee of Hattiesburg wrote on social media. “Rep. Mac Huddleston served his country as an army aviator in Vietnam and most recently, his state in the Mississippi House of Representatives. I’m honored to have served with him.”
Because his House seat is left vacant during an ongoing regular election, the governor will not have to call for a special election. Beth Luther Waldo, a Republican, was the only candidate who qualified to run for the House seat, meaning in January, she will begin representing Pontotoc in the Legislature for the next four years.
