Incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves faces two challengers, John Witcher and David Hardigree, in Tuesday’s Republican primary election. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat Brandon Presley, who is unopposed in the primary, on November 7.
Lieutenant Governor
Incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann faces two challengers, Chris McDaniel and Tiffany Longino, in the August 8 GOP primary election. The winner of the Republican primary will face Democrat D. Ryan Grover, who is unopposed today, on November 7.
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House and Senate races
Hundreds of both Republican and Democratic candidates are running for House and Senate races in the August 8 primaries elections. Republicans enjoy a supermajority control of both the House and Senate, and that is not expected to change in the November general election. Use the drop-down menus below to toggle between individual House and Senate races for primary election results.
Commissioner of Agriculture & Commerce
Incumbent Republican Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson is running unopposed in the August 8 Republican primary election. But he will face the winner of today’s three-way Democratic primary between Terry Rogers, Robert Bradford and Bethany Hill in the November 7 general election.
Insurance Commissioner
Incumbent Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney faces challenger Mitch Young in the August 8 Republican primary election. The winner of that race will face Democrat Bruce Barton, who is unopposed in today’s primary, in the November 7 general election.
Public Service Commission
There are two contested primaries for the three-member Public Service Commission. For the northern district seat, Tanner Newman and Chris Brown face off in the Republican primary. The winner of that race will run unopposed in the November 7 general election.
For the southern district seat, incumbent Dane Maxwell and Nelson Carr will face off in the Republican primary. The winner of that race will run unopposed in the November 7 general election.
For the central district seat, incumbent Republican Brent Bailey is running unopposed in today’s primary and will face Democrat De’Keither Stamps, also running unopposed in today’s primary, in the November 7 general election.
Editor’s note: Election results are gathered by The Associated Press.
Earlier this year, Amanda Bell and her family planned a visit to Nanih Waiya.
Located in southern Winston County between the Crystal Ridge and Bogue Chitto Choctaw communities, the Nanih Waiya mound is “the heartbeat of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians,” said Bell, who is manager and Choctaw archivist of the Chahta Immi Cultural Center in Philadelphia.
The trip to the mound was meant to be a moment for reflection and family, but it quickly devolved into a horrific and saddening day instead.
As they arrived at the site in February, Bell and her family found destruction: donut tire tracks on and around the mount, litter and bottles of alcohol strewn around the sacred site.
The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians Department of Public Safety posted photos of the vandalism, along with a request for information on Facebook after Bell and her family discovered what happened.
“Nanih Waiya Mound is a sacred and important landmark of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians,” the post reads. “It is an area that should be respected by all people who visit. We are saddened to hear that our sacred Mound grounds was vandalized recently.”
Months later, the search for the vandals continues.
Photo of Nanih Waiya vandalism taken by MBCI Department of Public Safety.
‘The Mother Mound‘
Nanih Waiya, which means “leaning hill,” is 25 feet high, 618 feet long and 140 feet wide, roughly matching the earliest recorded descriptions of the site.
Originally, the mound also included a ramp, which has now been destroyed. While Nanih Waiya itself has received only minimal damage across the centuries, the entire site has not been as fortunate. Several small burial mounds, which have now been nearly leveled by plowing, are several yards from Nanih Waiya, while a raised embankment and a moat once circled the site.
Nanih Waiya is prominently featured in the two Choctaw creation stories.
In one, each of the Southeastern Indigenous nations emerged from Nanih Waiya. After spending some time near the mound, they eventually went in their various directions, becoming the Creek, Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations. The Choctaw were the last to emerge from the mound. Once they did so, unlike the other nations, they saw that the “Mother mound,” had birthed them in a good place. They decided not to leave.
In the other legend, Choctaw ancestors came from the West, looking for a place to resettle. Each night of their travels, a Miko, or chief, placed a pole in the ground. The group would continue on in the direction in which the pole leaned the next day. When they reached Nanih Waiya, the pole remained upright, thus it was determined by the Choctaw ancestors that this is where they would remain.
Nanih Waiya represents not only the MBCI’s history but its resiliency. Despite its status as a sacred site — one Choctaw people fought to protect and retain even as early European settlers took more and more of their land — the U.S. took Nanih Waiya, along with about 11 million acres of what is now Mississippi, from the Choctaw people in 1830 with the signing of the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek.
After eight previous treaties between the Choctaw and the United States, the Treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek was the last. It was also the first removal treaty, carried into effect under the Indian Removal Act, sparking the Trail of Tears. In exchange for their home, the Choctaw received about 15 million acres in what is now Oklahoma. About 15,000 Choctaws left Mississippi for Oklahoma.
But not all Choctaws participated in the Trail of Tears.
Several thousand stayed in Mississippi and, in doing so, experienced decades of retaliation and intimidation. In 1945, those who stayed behind formed the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, the only federally recognized American Indian tribe in Mississippi. In 2007, with one nay vote in the House, the Mississippi Legislature passed SB 2732, returning Nanih Waiya to the MBCI after nearly 200 years.
Miko Beasley Denson and 17 Tribal Council members signed a proclamation in 2008, saying that the mound was never to be taken from the Choctaw people again, Bell said. In celebration of this, the MBCI celebrates Nanih Waiya Day the second Friday in August.
Photo of Nanih Waiya vandalism taken by MBCI Department of Public Safety.
‘I hope they learn their lesson’
Once they arrived at the site, Bell said they noticed tire tracks in the shape of a donut on the left side of the mound. In one area, it seemed as if someone had attempted to drive up the side of the mound. Trash, including a cardboard box, liquor bottles, beer cans and cigarettes, were scattered about the sacred site. The “Mother Mound” seemed to have been used not for ceremony or contemplation, but for debauchery.
Months later, Bell is still seeped in sadness when recalling the vandalism.
“How could they disrespect this sacred site? To this day, they haven’t found the person or persons that committed that,” she said.
But Bell is hopeful that the story doesn’t end there.
She hopes that bringing attention to the harm the vandals caused will prevent similar instances in the future, and that it will encourage all Mississippians to learn about the state’s first inhabitants.
“It was sad and a bit of a heartbreak,” she said. “The person that did this, well, they’ve gotten away with it. I hope that they learn their lesson that this is a sacred site … I hope it will open eyes to others that it needs to be respected. It’s not just a hill, it’s a mound. It’s the Mother mound and a sacred space where the early Choctaws settled.”
Note: If you have any information about the vandalism, contact the Choctaw Police Department at 601-656-5711 or the Attorney General’s Office at 601-656-4507. You can anonymously share information by calling or texting 844-601-1308.
Mississippians will go to the polls Tuesday with an opportunity to vote in races on the county level such as for supervisor, and in races on the state level such as for governor and legislators.
The most high profile statewide race on the ballot Tuesday will be for the office of lieutenant governor. Incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann of Jackson is facing state Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville in a contentious Republican primary. Hosemann and McDaniel for weeks have flooded mailboxes and statewide airwaves with bitter attacks about one another.
Lesser-known candidate Tiffany Longino of Rankin County is also on the ballot in the Republican primary for lieutenant governor.
The winner of that primary will in November face political novice D. Ryan Grover of Hattiesburg, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
Incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves, who is seeking reelection, faces two lesser known candidates on Tuesday in the Republican primary: John Witcher of Flowood and David Grady Hardigree of Jackson.
The winner of that GOP primary will face Brandon Presley of Nettleton, a four-term northern district public service commissioner who is unopposed in the Democratic primary for governor.
Three Democrats are on the ballot for the office of commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce to face incumbent Republican Andy Gipson. They are Robert “Brad” Bradford, Bethany Hill and Terry Rogers II.
Republican Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney is being challenged in the Republican primary by Mitch Young.
In the primary elections, a candidate must garner a majority vote to avoid a runoff three weeks after Tuesday. So, in any election with more than two candidates, a runoff is possible.
Voters will have to decide whether they want to vote in the Republican or Democratic primary. They cannot cross over to vote. In the November general election, people can cross over and vote for a gubernatorial candidate of one party and a candidate for lieutenant of another party.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. People with election questions can call their local circuit clerks.
Based on early numbers, the turnout could be high. The number of absentee ballots requested and returned, meaning the person requesting the ballot has voted and the ballot has been returned to the local circuit clerks, already exceeds the numbers for the 2019 primaries. Political observers often equate higher early voting or absentee numbers to overall higher election turnout.
Through the weekend, 45,199 absentee ballots have been requested and 40,698 already have been returned to the local circuit clerks. This compared with the final numbers in the 2019 party primaries when 42,096 were requested and 38,237 were returned.
Absentee ballots must be postmarked as of Election Day to be counted.
An independent analysis of the absentee numbers compiled by the office of Secretary of State Michael Watson indicate high interest in the Republican primary. According to reports, there is high interest in a number of local races as well as the lieutenant governor’s contest between Hosemann and McDaniel.
According to those compilations, as of Monday, the return of absentee ballots in the Republican primary is 129% more than the total early voting count in 2019. And, of course, people still have time to return their absentee ballots, though it is too late to request an absentee ballot.
A Jackson-based LGBTQ+ organization is withdrawing its volunteer support from this year’s Mississippi Book Festival due to the addition to a panel of former Vice President Mike Pence, a current Republican presidential candidate who is known for opposing the rights of gay and transgender people.
In a press release, the Capital City Pride board of directors wrote that Pence, whose long track record of anti-LGBTQ+ actions includes opposing same-sex marriage and federal funding for some HIV/AIDS prevention, “directly contradicts” the inclusive values the nonprofit advocates for in Mississippi.
“Our mission revolves around fostering an environment of equality, diversity and understanding, and we believe that supporting voices that promote hate and intolerance is antithetical to these goals,” the press release reads.
Since it was founded in 2019, Capital City Pride has staffed the “writer’s breakfast” at the Two Mississippi Museums, an event for the writers and panelists, said Jason McCarty, the nonprofit’s consulting director.
But after Pence was announced as a panelist, McCarty said he received dozens of calls from volunteers who were concerned about his anti-LGBTQ+ views. Now, about 25 volunteers with Capital City Pride will no longer staff the breakfast or an LGBTQ+ panel called “Out in Focus.”
Though McCarty said he has a great relationship with the Mississippi Book Festival, it did not seem appropriate for the nonprofit, which advocates for safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people, to contribute to an event Pence might attend.
In 2015, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence announced that the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services had approved the state’s waiver to try a different approach for Medicaid. Credit: Photo courtesy of Indiana University Health
Pence is slated to discuss his autobiography “So Help Me God,” which is about how his evangelical Christian values have shaped his personal life and politics, at 2:45 p.m. in Capitol Room 216. Former U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper will moderate.
It was Harper’s suggestion to invite Pence, said Ellen Daniels, the festival’s executive director. Every year, the former congressman invites a guest with the board’s approval. Harper has also been a fiscal sponsor of the festival.
Though she respected Capital City Pride’s decision and thought the press release was “pitch perfect,” Daniels said that ultimately the Mississippi Book Festival’s goal is to be a big-tent event. She urged people not to boycott.
“I want to put this into a kind of perspective,” she said. “Mike Pence and his session — he is one person out of over 160-plus authors appearing at the festival this year. Many of those authors have had their books banned. He is one hour out of a day with 47 hours of panel opportunities.”
Daniels also noted that last year, the festival faced pushback for refusing to rescind its invitation to Alice Walker, the acclaimed author who faced criticism for praising a book by an antisemitic conspiracy theorist. Other controversial authors at prior festivals have included Joyce Carol Oates and Karl Rove.
“We are a free speech festival,” Daniels said. “There is something for every type of reader at the festival, and we do not censor or ban books or authors.”
McCarty said that while Capital City Pride abhors Pence’s views, the nonprofit is trying to walk a line between not staffing, but still attending, the festival.
“It’s kind of a gut punch but it’s also like he is not going to run us off an event that we’ve always participated in,” McCarty said.
Capital City Pride is now asking people to attend Pence’s panel, which will be broadcast on C-SPAN, and wear attire supporting the LGBTQ+ community.
In the year since Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch received exclusive responsibility to prosecute law enforcement-involved shootings, her office has moved forward on only a fraction of the nearly 50 cases.
To date, Fitch is pursuing charges against six former Rankin County officers who beat and tortured two Black men in January. She has also sought an indictment for the Oct. 6, 2022, shooting of 15-year-old Jaheim McMillan in Gulfport. In three cases, the attorney general’s office reviewed the shootings and found that officers’ actions were justified.
Since July 1, 2022, when the law went into effect, through the end of July 2023, 23people have died in shootings by law enforcement, according to records from the Department of Public Safety. Those fatalities account for half of the officer shootings in the year.
Investigation into these law enforcement agencies starts with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, which shares its findings with the attorney general’s office. The attorney general’s office then is supposed to present the case to a grand jury in the county where the shooting happened, and if the jury chooses to indict, the office would prosecute, according to the law.
Fitch’s prosecution of the five former Rankin County sheriff’s deputies and a former Richland Police Department officer came only after an investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and the officers pleading guilty in federal court.
“This brutal attack caused more than physical harm to these two individual victims; it severed that vital trust with the people,” Fitch said in a Thursday statement. “This abuse of power will not be tolerated.”
She added that the men who committed the heinous acts are an exception, rather than the rule, and that most law enforcement officers put their lives on the line to protect the community.
Meanwhile, the attorney general’s office declined to prosecute threetimes anddid not secure an indictment for one officer-involved shooting case that happened between July 2022 and July 2023. The majority of cases – fatal and nonfatal – remain under investigation by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation or the AG’s office, said spokesperson Debbee Hancock.
“The Attorney General’s Office is committed to justice in these and all cases, and upon completion of MBI’s investigation, we undertake a thorough review of all facts and law to determine if use of force was appropriate in the individual instance,” Hancock said in a statement.
The attorney general’s office presented the Oct. 6, 2022, shooting of McMillan to a grand jury, which in February declined to indict and find criminal conduct for the Gulfport police officer who shot the teenager outside a Family Dollar store.
“As such, no further criminal action will be taken by this Office in this matter,” the office said in a February statement.
Katrina Mateen has called for answers and accountability for her son’s death following the shooting and since the grand jury ruling, the Sun Herald reported.
The attorney general’s office also reviewed the use of force in three cases and declined to prosecute:
July 14, 2022: A Forrest County sheriff’s deputy shot 45-year-old Corey Maurice McCarty Hughes, a Black Hattiesburg man, whose family was trying to get him into mental health treatment.
Aug. 22, 2022: A Biloxi police officer shot 41-year-old Mable Arrington, a Black woman, outside a housing complex.
Oct. 19, 2022: Lafayette County sheriff’s deputies responding to a domestic call shot 44-year-old Jason Smith in Oxford.Smith argued with a woman and her children were barricaded inside their room, WTVA reported.
Family members of McCarty Hughes, the Hattiesburg man, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against 10 unnamed sheriff’s deputies and the county.
Other than the January Rankin County incident, there have been no reviews or indictments for the other 18 officer shootings that happened this year. Community members have called for answers and the release of any existing body camera footage in several of those incidents.
District attorneys can handle cases of law enforcement officers whose use of force results in death, but these indictments are not common in Mississippi or around the country, especially as officers are legally able to use lethal force if they fear for their lives, Mississippi Today previously reported.
However, sometimes officers can face criminal charges for actions while on the job. In May, the Hinds County District Attorney’s office secured indictments against three former Jackson Police Department officers for the death of 41-year-old Keith Murriel. In a federal lawsuit, his family argues the officers used excessive force and failed to render medical aid.
And in a rare twist, Fitch is at odds with the Hinds County DA’s office, urging a reversal in the culpable negligence manslaughter conviction of Anthony Fox, a former Jackson police officer convicted a year ago in the 2019 death of George Robinson.
Diplomat Ralph Bunche was born in Detroit. He was a member of the “Black Cabinet,” which President Franklin D. Roosevelt consulted on minority issues.
After heading the Howard University Political Science Department for more than 20 years, he went to the United Nations and served as its mediator on Palestine. After negotiating the 1948 armistice agreements between Israel and the Arab states, he returned home to receive a ticket-tape parade on Broadway. In 1950, he received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Bunche took part in the civil rights movement for decades, served on the NAACP board and helped Martin Luther King Jr. lead the Selma to Montgomery march in 1965 in Alabama.
“To make our way, we must have firm resolve, persistence, tenacity,” he said. “We must gear ourselves to work hard all the way. We can never let up.”
Mississippi Today political reporters Bobby Harrison, Geoff Pender and Taylor Vance break down Tuesday’s election where party nominees will be selected for the Nov. 7 general election. Candidates from the county level to the state level will be on the ballot Tuesday.
In this episode of Mississippi Stories, Mississippi Today Editor-at-Large and Cartoonist Marshall Ramsey continues his series of author interviews leading up to the Mississippi Book Festival on August 19, 2023 at the State Capitol.
Vincent J. Venturini was baptized in St. Mary’s Catholic Church when South Jackson was still in that parish. His classmates and schoolmates at St. Joseph High School in the late 1960s included many of the Lebanese and Italian residents of West Jackson. He acquired an appreciation of West Jackson and its residents in those high school years. Venturini is the co-author with Doug Shanks of “One Direction Home: A History of South Jackson”. Venturini’s latest book, “Once We Crowned Royalty” tells the story of West Jackson’s history and touches on downtown Jackson’s retail past.
Current presidential candidate and former Vice President Mike Pence will come to Jackson on Aug. 19 to speak at the Mississippi Book Festival, according to the festival’s website.
The event’s website notes that Pence will speak with former U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper at 2:45 p.m. in Room 216 at the Capitol to discuss his recently published autobiography “So Help Me God.”
“We’re thrilled that he’ll come to visit us in Mississippi at this year’s Mississippi Book Festival,” Harper, who served with Pence in Congress, told Mississippi Today.
Harper said he intends to discuss the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol with Pence, who faced pressure from his ex-boss, former President Donald Trump, to abuse the vice president’s ceremonial role in certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.
“Vice President Pence and his families’ lives were in danger,” Harper said. “And I bring maybe a little interesting perspective in that when that happened, I was actually in the House chamber.”
The announcement of Pence’s Magnolia State visit comes at a time when Trump, his current opponent, is facing federal charges in connection to his role in the insurrection.
The annual festival is nonpartisan, and Harper, who represented central Mississippi in Congress for 10 years, said the former vice president is not planning to conduct any presidential campaign events during his visit.
“He is coming in special just for the book festival, and he’ll fly in and immediately fly out,” Harper said.
Pence has visited Mississippi before. He campaigned for Republican Gov. Tate Reeves in Biloxi during the 2019 statewide election cycle, and he visited the Magnolia State with former President Donald Trump to support U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith’s 2018 campaign during a special election.
The Mississippi Book Festival is an annual event that takes place each summer in and around the state Capitol in downtown Jackson. The event’s leaders call it a “literary lawn party” that features panel discussions about literature, food, art and politics.
