When Growing Up Knowing (also known as GUK) receives a request for one of our three signature programs, the first step is to match a Facilitator to the Community Partner. The person implementing the program must be a good fit for the youth and parents/caregivers being served. The roster of Facilitators is impressive. In preparation for this piece, a few of them shared their thoughts about presenting programs for Growing Up Knowing and why they are committed to the organization’s mission.
The chosen facilitators all spend their days already immersed in helping children and families across Mississippi – working in varying fields like psychology, social work, education, and medicine. Each one brings their unique experiences and professional knowledge to the families we serve. They are an impressive group, and the Staff and Board of Directors are most grateful to have them share their time and talents in advancing the mission of Growing Up Knowing.
With busy personal and professional lives, why share precious evenings and weekends with Growing Up Knowing? Belief, passion, and commitment. All these professionals are fiercely committed to improving the lives of children and youth across Mississippi by empowering them to make smart decisions regarding their bodies. Below is a small sampling of our recent conversation with GUK’s Facilitators.
Shonnie Cooley, who has been at Parents for Public Schools for 14 years, currently serving as Community Liaison, shared this thought: “Youth are losing their right to make decisions. Governors, Legislators, and School Districts are all taking away youth’s ability to think for themselves. They should be able to choose what they read, learn, and do.” Monique Mapp, an educator for Jackson Public Schools with over two decades of experience, had this to say, “The choices surrounding sex will not go away just because we avoid the conversation.” Tierra Fountain, Program Manager for We2gether Creating Change in Drew, MS, serves youth in the Delta. “(GUK) gives hope that our youth can make more healthy and rational choices that could help their future…it helps young students become more aware of their surroundings and recognize signs of abuse.” Cheequanda McDonald works in behavioral health with both geriatric and adolescents in Lauderdale County. She believes participation in all three of Growing Up Knowing’s signature programs is “…important for families to build communication skills. Parents learn ways to communicate with their child, (figuring out) what works best for their family.” Kristina Fields is a licensed Social Worker, with 10 years’ experience working with children and adolescents in a variety of settings: “As Growing Up Knowing continues to thrive, I hope families become comfortable with engaging in open dialogue in their homes, empowering youth to gain the confidence to set (healthy) boundaries.”
The Facilitators are an integral part of Growing Up Knowing’s mission. They are the ones who share the most important and sometimes delicate information with youth and their parents/caregivers. The connection they make with the families who are served is extremely important and often life-changing. Empowering Mississippi youth to take ownership of their bodies and sexuality is a big job. The Facilitators of Growing Up Knowing are definitely up to the task.
Growing Up Knowing is a Jackson based nonprofit that works with children and their parents/caregivers to help families understand the language of denial and consent, empowering youth to have agency over their own bodies. This is done through the implementation of three signature programs: My Body My Boundaries for Early Childhood, My Body My Boundaries for Elementary students, and The ‘Tween Talk: Comprehensive Sex Education for Middle School students.
Gov. Tate Reeves’ top campaign contributors netted $1.4 billion in state contracts or grants from agencies the governor oversees, a Mississippi Today investigation found.
Of the 88 individual or corporate donors who have given Reeves’ campaigns at least $50,000, Mississippi Today identified 15 donors whose companies received a total of $1.4 billion in state contracts or grants since he took office in 2020.
The investigation reveals how private companies, whose executives routinely donate large sums to politicians, can rake in hundreds of millions in Mississippi taxpayer funds while having the ear of powerful elected officials.
Reeves, one of the most prolific political fundraisers in state history, has set numerous annual and office-specific campaign donation records. But he’s been criticized by Republican and Democratic opponents as transactional — a politician who helps those who directly help him.
The $1.4 billion total in state contracts identified by Mississippi Today does not include dozens of additional contracts the Reeves donors have received from state agencies not led by the governor. For example, the Mississippi Department of Transportation awarded the governor’s top donors at least $552 million since 2020.
The total also doesn’t include millions in incentives and tax breaks many of his top donors have received, and it doesn’t include any state contracts that Reeves donors who have given less than $50,000 may have received.
Unlike many other states, Mississippi has no general “pay-to-play” prohibition, restrictions or special reporting requirements for campaign contributions from people or companies doing business with state government.
In fact, it’s common for owners or executives of companies that reap millions of dollars a year from Mississippi taxpayers to be among the largest donors to the state’s top public officials.
And it’s not just Reeves.
The governor’s campaign has accused his Democratic challenger Brandon Presley, who has served 15 years on the Public Service Commission, of illegally accepting campaign contributions from companies that had business before the commission. One company highlighted in Reeves’ public complaints gave Presley at least $16,500 in campaign donations.
Presley did vote to grant the company approval for a project, but he and others — including one of his Republican colleagues on the commission — maintain accepting the contributions did not violate state law.
Examples of donors whose companies received state contracts
Centene
The second largest campaign donor to Reeves is also the single largest state contract recipient — and one that recently had to settle a lawsuit claiming it overcharged state agencies.
Centene, a St. Louis-based health care company that ranks 25th on the Forbes list of top 500 companies, is the nation’s largest Medicaid managed care company. Through its subsidiary company Magnolia Health, it is the recipient of a $1.2 billion managed care contract.
Centene LLC has contributed $318,000 during Reeves’ political campaigns, including a single check for $100,000 in 2023. The Centene PAC has contributed another $44,000 over the course of Reeves’ career.
In 2022, Centene was among three companies selected by Reeves’ Division of Medicaid to continue to provide managed care services to Medicaid patients. The contracts were awarded through a blind bidding process. It is estimated the total cost of the latest Centene contract is around $1.2 billion, though those numbers are fluid based on various factors, such as the number of people enrolled in Medicaid.
Magnolia, the Centene subsidiary, has a long relationship with the Mississippi Medicaid program. Since 2017, Magnolia has received state contracts totaling more than $9 billion. Those contracts were awarded before Reeves was governor, though they came while he was lieutenant governor and serving as the presiding officer of the Senate.
Centene received its most recent contract extension after settling a lawsuit filed in 2021 by the state of Mississippi. That settlement — $55 million — came after state Auditor Shad White and Attorney General Lynn Fitch accused another Centene company of overcharging the state for prescription drugs for Medicaid patients.
In 2022, after the Centene lawsuit settlement, Republican state Rep. Becky Currie of Brookhaven offered and passed a House amendment that would have prohibited Centene from receiving another state contract. While the amendment passed the House, it died later in the legislative process.
“I am doing away with doing business with the company who took $55 million of our money that was supposed to be spent on the poor, the sick, the elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled,” Currie said of the Centene contract at the time. “Last year in 2021, Centene brought in a $126 billion profit. They are in other states, that’s not just from us. But that’s all taxpayers’ money. They don’t make anything, they don’t take care of anybody, they don’t do anything, they just get taxpayers’ money from states.”
Centene officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Rob Wells, the CEO of Ridgeland-based YoungWilliams law firm that receives one of the state’s largest contracts, has contributed at least $173,500 individually to Reeves going back through his political career.
Since Reeves was elected governor, the Mississippi Department of Human Services, which Reeves oversees directly, awarded YoungWilliams a $135 million state contract to collect child support payments.
In late 2020, Mississippi Today published a story revealing Wells’ contributions to Reeves and other politicians as well as questions about YoungWiliams’ contract with the state. After the article was published, Wells stopped donating individually to Reeves. But he has still found a way to get his personal political contributions to the governor.
Wells donated $120,000 to a newly formed political action committee called the MS Build PAC, according to records filed with the Secretary of State. The PAC has since diverted at least $80,000 of its funds to Reeves’ campaign.
And before Reeves’ governorship, when the Department of Human Services was overseen by former Gov. Phil Bryant, YoungWilliams had received a $58 million state contract.
Reeves was presiding over the Senate as lieutenant governor when legislation was passed to allow the child support program to be privatized, thus opening the door for the contracts received by YoungWiliams.
According to the Transparency Mississippi web page, the latest YoungWilliams contract was awarded through a competitive bidding process.
Wells did not respond to requests for comment.
Neil Forbes and Horne LLP
Neil Forbes, one of Reeves’ top political donors, is the managing partner of Horne LLP, a Ridgeland-based accounting firm that has dozens of contracts with numerous state agencies.
Since Reeves was elected governor, Horne has received at least $13 million in contracts from agencies Reeves directly oversees.
When COVID-19 gripped the state and gutted the economy, the Mississippi Department of Employment Services was overrun with unemployment requests. The federal government had appropriated millions to Mississippi and other states to supplement their own existing unemployment funds. With tens of thousands of Mississippians out of work and a huge pot of money available to assist them, the state’s employment agency needed help.
In April 2020, Forbes, on behalf of Horne, signed a $10 million contract with MDES to establish a call center and workflows to help the state with the surge of unemployment requests. Forbes signed a second contract with MDES in April 2021 that was worth $2.2 million for the same purpose.
In both cases, Reeves signed emergency orders allowing the state’s employment agency to enter into no-bid, emergency contracts with Horne. Outside those two COVID-related contracts, Horne also received an additional $455,000 in state contracts from other agencies Reeves oversees.
Forbes, who was made a managing partner of Horne in 2021, had never donated to Reeves’ campaigns before the massive COVID-era contracts came. But on Aug. 25, 2021, Forbes cut Reeves a first campaign check for $2,500. The next month, in September 2021, Forbes wrote Reeves a $10,000 check. In two separate checks in 2022, Forbes wrote another $20,000 to the governor.
Then in February of 2023, just two weeks after Presley announced he would challenge Reeves’ bid for reelection, Forbes wrote Reeves a $25,000 check.
While Forbes began writing checks to the governor, so did his wife. Avery Forbes wrote Reeves a $5,000 check in July 2022 — also her first to the governor. And on April 27, 2023, she wrote Reeves a $25,000 check.
In total, the Forbeses, who had never given to Reeves before Neil Forbes became managing partner at Horne in 2021, have given the governor’s campaign $87,500 in contributions.
Neil Forbes did not respond to requests for comment.
Covington Civil & Environmental
Covington Civil and Environmental, an engineering consultant firm with offices in Gulfport and Mobile, is one of Reeves’ largest donors.
The company has donated more than $66,000 to his campaigns. Company officials and related LLC’s have also given thousands more to Reeves.
Covington, despite having little experience at the time in environmental restoration, garnered contracts worth $36 million from former Gov. Phil Bryant’s administration from the state’s $2.2 billion settlement over the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster in 2010.
Under Reeves’ administration, Covington has gotten $792,000 in contracts, including a $500,000 no-bid contract from Reeves’ Department of Finance and Administration to help supervise the state’s federally funded broadband internet expansion efforts.
Covington did not respond to requests for comment.
Other states limit political donations from contractors
Some states, including California, Connecticut, Hawaii, Kentucky, New Jersey, Ohio, South Carolina and West Virginia, have prohibitions or strict limits on campaign donations by government contractors to politicians. Others, including Maryland, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island have special campaign donation reporting requirements for companies and their officers who contribute to candidates.
In the early 2000s, numerous states and large cities considered or enacted pay-to-play restrictions or prohibitions. Often these were in reaction to scandals or corruption.
But since the 2010 U.S. Supreme Court Citizens United ruling, there has been less of a push for such limitations. In that case the high court held First Amendment freedom of speech prohibits the government from restricting independent expenditures by corporations on behalf of political campaigns. Some state courts followed suit. For example, in Colorado, a constitutional amendment passed by voters prohibiting sole-source state contractors and their families from contributing to campaigns was struck down as unconstitutional by the state’s Supreme Court.
Reform supporters say unregulated political contributions present a real danger of corruption, or at least the appearance of corruption, in government contracting. Opponents of such laws say prohibitions or restrictions on campaign contributions by government contractors limit their freedom of speech.
Mississippi’s campaign finance, lobbying and ethics laws and reporting requirements are notably weak, and contained in a piecemeal patchwork of confusing — and some conflicting — laws passed over many years. But even if Mississippi had stricter campaign finance laws, it’s unclear who might enforce them.
The secretary of state’s office and Ethics Commission have for years said they lack enforcement or investigative authority. The secretary of state’s office is responsible for receiving campaign finance reports but serves mainly as a repository, with no real investigative or enforcement authority. The Ethics Commission, after some changes to laws in recent years, appears to have some authority, but it’s unclear.
“It’s a mess,” state Ethics Commission Director Tom Hood said recently of Mississippi’s campaign finance laws. “Changes (to the law) have been made multiple times over multiple years, and it’s like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle that doesn’t fit.”
Attorney General Lynn Fitch, as the state’s top law officer, runs the only state agency with clear authority to investigate and prosecute campaign finance violations. But Fitch, like her recent predecessors, has shown little interest in investigating or prosecuting complaints and enforcing campaign finance laws.
Mississippi attorney general actions on campaign finances or lobbying over the years have been so rare that, when they do happen, they bring outcry of selective enforcement.
Most often, campaign finance violations go unchecked, leaving the state political system open to the corrosive influence of special interest money.
Mississippi’s system also lacks transparency. For instance, unlike all neighboring states, Mississippi’s campaign finance reports are not electronically searchable. They are PDF files, and some politicians still submit hand-written reports. One in recent years submitted hers in calligraphy.
Mississippi allows politicians (except some judges) to take unlimited campaign contributions from individuals, LLCs and PACs. While there is a $1,000-a-year limit on corporate donations, this is easily sidestepped by corporate officers or lobbyists donating large amounts.
State lawmakers for many years have been loath to enact meaningful reform, transparency or oversight of the intersection of politics and money. This leaves the door wide open for corruption.
Numerous complaints about Mississippi money in politics
This year’s statewide campaign cycle has seen numerous complaints about alleged campaign finance violations, in several races besides the gubernatorial one. Earlier this year, out-of-state dark money groups pumped more than $1.4 million into the Republican primary race for Mississippi lieutenant governor, in support of unsuccessful GOP candidate Chris McDaniel. Incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann filed legal complaints with the AG’s office.
There have been other questions about Public Service Commission candidate campaign finances this election cycle. PSC candidates face stricter campaign finance laws, enacted by state lawmakers years ago after past scandals and corruption with the utility regulating authority. PSC candidates are prohibited from taking contributions from officers of public utilities whose rates the commission sets.
The Magnolia Tribune in June questioned a donation to gubernatorial candidate Presley from a regulated utility. Presley returned the $500 donation, saying it was mistakenly accepted. The publication also questioned donations to Presley and Central District Public Service Commissioner Brent Bailey from a law firm that represents the PSC, with its fees paid by Entergy, a regulated power company.
Both Bailey and Presley have denied their questioned contributions fall under the PSC campaign finance prohibition. A solar company that donated to Presley is threatening to sue Reeves over ads he is running saying its donations to Presley were illegal.
In the Southern District PSC race, challenger Wayne Carr — who defeated incumbent Republican Commissioner Dane Maxwell in the primary — claimed Maxwell took $18,000 in illegal contributions from PSC-regulated utilities or affiliates and failed to report thousands in campaign spending. Maxwell denied any wrongdoing, but returned some of the donations, saying he unknowingly accepted some he shouldn’t have.
The complaints of legally questionable spending and reporting prompted calls for Fitch to investigate, and for reform in state campaign finance laws.
Both incumbent Republicans Hosemann and Secretary of State Michael Watson have vowed to push campaign finance reform in the 2024 Legislature. Presley has made such reform a main plank in his platform during his 2023 gubernatorial campaign.
One area that will likely be debated by lawmakers is what elected official or agency would investigate and enforce campaign finance complaints and regulations. In numerous other states, ethics commissions or special commissions oversee such operations. In some states, elected officials such as secretaries of state have such responsibility.
Hood recently said he’s not pushing lawmakers for large increases in funding or authority for the Mississippi’s Ethics Commission. But he would like for laws and responsibilities to be clearer, particularly with campaign finance issues.
“Somebody needs to have clear authority and responsibility to enforce the law — that would be a good first step,” Hood said.
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Republican Gov. Tate Reeves’ bid for reelection, likely giving the incumbent governor a needed boost less than a week from the election.
In a video, Trump says President Joe Biden is “absolutely destroying our country” and that Presley is the Biden’s chosen candidate.
“Joe Biden’s people are funding Brandon Presley’s campaign,” Trump said in the video, which was first reported by Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s Will Stribling. “They own him. He’ll do whatever they want him to do. It’s really bad for Mississippi. I’m asking you to make time to vote. You’ve got to vote for Gov. Tate Reeves, and he has my total and complete endorsement.”
As of Tuesday night, the Reeves campaign had not publicly shared the video or touted the endorsement, but the campaign posted the video to its YouTube page and labeled it “unlisted.”
Presley in a statement did not address the Trump endorsement, but said he was proud of the “coalition of Republicans, Democrats, and independents” supporting his campaign that he believes will result in his victory in the general election next week.
“Some of my strongest supporters are Republicans who voted for and donated to Tate Reeves four years ago and now have jumped ship and are supporting me,” Presley said.
The Trump endorsement comes at perhaps a critical time for Reeves. Several in-state Republican operatives have been publicly warning that GOP voter enthusiasm appears low ahead of the Nov. 7 election, and that low turnout could jeopardize Reeves’ chance of winning. Several Republican operatives have also told Mississippi Today and others that Reeves’ polling is lackluster, showing in some cases the governor failing to secure enough to win an outright majority and Presley within striking distance.
If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote on Nov. 7, the top two vote-getters would advance to a Nov. 28 runoff election. Mississippi Today has reported that both the Reeves and Presley campaigns are preparing for the possibility of a runoff.
The Trump video is a marked contrast to Trump’s involvement in Reeves’ 2019 campaign for governor. Just five days before the November 2019 election between Reeves and Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, then-President Trump flew to Tupelo for a rally in a key battleground region of the state. Some Democratic and Republican operatives contend that eleventh-hour Trump visit got Reeves over the hump, ultimately leading to a Reeves victory with 51.9% of the vote.
As of Oct. 31, Reeves’ campaign has not announced a Trump visit ahead of the 2023 election.
Democrat Brandon Presley has outraised Republican Gov. Tate Reeves by more than $5 million to date in the 2023 statewide election cycle, according to campaign finance reports filed on Tuesday night.
Presley reported raising $11.2 million since January, and Reeves raised $6.2 million during the same timeframe. And the two gubernatorial candidates in this year’s campaign have remained neck-in-neck with spending, with Reeves spending $10.9 million and Presley spending $10.7 million.
“As Brandon’s campaign continues to sprint into the home stretch, Tate Reeves continues to have dismal fundraising numbers because he is the hospital closure governor caught up in the largest public corruption scandal in state history,” Presley campaign manager Ron Owens said in a statement.
With one week remaining before the election, Reeves has $3 million in cash remaining — but nearly $2 million of it is in a “legacy” account grandfathered under old campaign laws. Presley has $1.2 million cash on hand.
This marks the third straight reporting cycle where Presley has outraised Reeves, who has built a reputation for raising significant amounts of money. The Democratic challenger raised $3.4 million during the month of October, while the Republican governor raised $1.1 million.
“Brandon Presley has the backing of the entire national liberal donor base and all of Joe Biden’s biggest allies,” Reeves campaign spokesman Clifton Carroll said in a statement. “It is no surprise that they are continuing to pump in money to try and flip Mississippi blue.”
This is the last comprehensive report campaigns are required to file before the election, but if they receive a donation between now and Nov. 5, the campaigns are required to list the individual donation within 48 hours of receiving it.
Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, a Memphis lawmaker who gained national notoriety after his Republican colleagues expelled him from the legislature, will campaign with Mississippi Democratic leaders in DeSoto County on Wednesday.
Pearson will join civic leaders, Democratic candidates and community activists in the area to encourage voters to participate in Mississippi’s upcoming statewide election.
He’s expected to join community and faith leaders at an Olive Branch restaurant on Wednesday morning and speak with students at Rust College, a private historically Black college in nearby Marshall County.
The Tennessee lawmaker’s visit to the Memphis suburb is notable because DeSoto County has long been viewed as a GOP stronghold in the Magnolia State. However, Pearson’s visit and a national progressive organization targeting a legislative seat in the area could signal the state party is looking to make inroads into the suburban area.
Pearson was one of two lawmakers expelled from the Tennessee statehouse chamber in April for violating decorum rules during a gun control protest on the House floor. But the Shelby County Board of Commissioners unanimously voted to reappoint him to the legislative seat.
Since the expulsion and reinstatement, Pearson has become a leader of a movement of Democratic opposition in the face of aggressive Republican leadership in the Deep South. The lawmaker is visiting the state as a guest to the Mississippi Democratic Party and not a specific Democratic candidate.
Last month, the Mississippi Abortion Access Coalition launched an Abortion Patient Bill of Rights designed to educate Mississippi constituents on their abortion options post-Dobbs.
Tyler Harden, a longtime activist and organizer, is the Mississippi state director of Planned Parenthood Southeast – one of a dozen organizations that joined forces to create the coalition, dedicated to ensuring Mississippians have access to safe and legal abortion.
The Abortion Patient Bill of Rights is intended to address misinformation around abortion and was modeled after the Know Your Rights Campaign created by American Civil Liberties Union and other Black Lives Matter groups, according to Harden.
The bill outlines, for constituents, what they can do in Mississippi and where they can go out of state to seek abortion help, and for health providers, what they can say in Mississippi and where they can direct patients out of state.
This comes after Attorney General Lynn Fitch told the Biden administration in a letter back in July that Mississippi authorities need access to information about residents who obtain abortions out of state.
Harden spoke with Mississippi Today on the state of Planned Parenthood post-Dobbs in Mississippi.
Mississippi Today: From where you’re standing, what has the past year looked like post-Dobbs?
Harden: The past year has been one filled with confusion for a lot of people. Through my work in MAAC (Mississippi Abortion Access Coalition) and with PPSE (Planned Parenthood Southeast), we found that a lot of people didn’t know that even if abortion is illegal in Mississippi, with two exceptions, they could still travel out of state and receive care.
So, for a lot of people there’s confusion about what they can and can’t do, what they can and can’t say. And we also, as advocates and activists, have had confusion, as well – just a lot of confusion about ‘how can we show up for people without putting them at risk?’ and things like that.
We have grown to a place now, through my work at Planned Parenthood, I’ve been able to see people grow to a place where this is more real for them. They’re understanding the tangible outcomes of what it means to not have abortion access.
We’ve talked to people who have shared stories about having to, unfortunately, have stillbirths, because they weren’t able to access abortion care even though the doctors and the care providers said that they needed it. So, you know, this isn’t theory anymore for folks, it’s really something tangible that they can see and experience.
MT: You’re the Mississippi state director at Planned Parenthood. What does care at Planned Parenthood look like post-Dobbs?
Harden: Care in Mississippi is really centered on continuing the work of making sure people have access to contraceptives and information they need to plan their health outcomes.
We are now a Title 10 provider, so for the first time in our history of Mississippi, our Hattiesburg health center is able to check in Title 10 patients, to provide even lower-cost health services.
We’re also able to check in with teens and young folks in a different way than we had been. Mississippi has a statute that doesn’t allow teens to access contraceptive care without the permission of their parents – unless they go to a Title 10 provider. And so now that we’re a Title 10 provider, we’re able to connect with young people in a different way.
In the coming year, we’ll be able to have dating ultrasounds, so that people who may need access to abortion care are able to know exactly how far along they are in their pregnancy, and be able to travel out of state, get the information they need, and be able to access the care that they need.
MT: The Abortion Patient Bill of Rights launched last month. What is the main problem the initiative is designed to address?
Harden: Misinformation. It was modeled after the Know Your Rights Campaign started by ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) and other folks leading the Black Lives Matter movement. But there was a lot of confusion, again, about what people could do and what people could say. And especially for Hispanic communities and young people in particular, they’ve been inundated with false claims telling them that the questions and information they wanted to have access to they no longer could. We wanted to give people something a little bit more digestible and easier to read and understand.
MT: How are you seeing misinformation or lack of access to information about abortion negatively impacting people in Mississippi?
Harden: We’ve seen what happens when people aren’t given correct information or accurate information. The Time article that covered the seventh-grader in the Delta who needed care. We know that when people don’t have access to what they need that they aren’t able to make decisions and lead healthy lives, and we know that Mississippians know how to take care of themselves.
MT: What has been the biggest misconception or confusion Mississippians have had over abortion in the last year?
Harden: Questions about whether abortion is banned throughout the entire country have been very common, and also questions about the different timelines and where their closest healthcare provider who provides abortion care – things around that have been very confusing for people.
Also, being able to expose people to information like abortion funds that are accessible, different hotlines that they’re able to call and get information about any legal concerns they may have. And in the case of networking, sometimes linking them to trusted organizations that can help them navigate what it means to learn more about self-managed abortions. So, the confusion has also offered a highway for us to give probably more information than people anticipated.
MT: Who is being hit hardest in Mississippi with misinformation about abortion?
Harden: We know that the Hispanic population is being hit super hard. We also know that young people are being hit super hard with misinformation, on top of not even getting proper information about sex and sex education in their schools – so, misinformation on top of information that they didn’t already receive.
And the Spanish-speaking population oftentimes is ignored in our state…so we’ve done a lot of work to make sure that our technical advice and all of that material is translated for folks who are in the Spanish-speaking community. And also making it digestible, accessible, for people who are young or on college campuses or grew up in parts of Mississippi where they didn’t have proper sex education – which is the majority of us.
MT: Are you seeing those who fall under the state ban’s exceptions – to preserve the life of the pregnant person or when the pregnancy was caused by rape – able to utilize the exceptions, or are those folks getting left behind?
Harden: Those folks are really getting left behind. The state purposely doesn’t make that statute easy to comprehend. So, a lot of times healthcare providers and their legal teams aren’t able to understand what they can and can’t do, and on the other side, they also aren’t making (the exceptions) known among everyday constituents.
And that’s intentional, it’s a fear tactic. So, people usually don’t know about those exceptions and that’s where we really dug in and made sure that we could put this as plainly as possible so that if you did fall under one of those exceptions, or knew someone, or may in the future fall under one of those exceptions, you’ll know what it means and you’ll be able to access care.
MT: What message would you give to Mississippians who are maybe struggling to grapple with the repercussions of the ruling?
Harden: We have always known how to take care of each other as Mississippians. I would encourage them to stay in it for the long-haul. It took us 50 years to get to this point, so it may take us even longer to get to somewhere better. But, we’ll definitely get there and Mississippi will lead the way.
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.
Everyone in Mississippi politics feels the momentum Democrat Brandon Presley has right now in his bid to unseat Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.
There are the finance reports that show Presley outraising Reeves, one of the most prolific fundraisers in state’s history. There are the public and private polls that show Reeves under 50 points and Presley within striking distance. There’s the mad scramble of Republican leaders begging voters to turn out on Nov. 7. Even Reeves himself has cranked up the intensity of his attacks against Presley in the past couple weeks.
The buzz among the political class — Republicans and Democrats alike — about the closeness of this governor’s race and the threat Presley poses to the incumbent has reached new heights. But some of the most experienced Democratic consultants in Mississippi are approaching the moment with caution.
To get a sense of their sentiments, Mississippi Today reached out to four Democratic consultants in Mississippi who have not worked for the Presley campaign this cycle. We offered them anonymity to frankly share what was on their mind one week from Election Day.
Their thoughts ranged from varying levels of optimism about the race to frustration about a lack of investment in the state party to knocks on Reeves’ and Presley’s strategy. (Warning: There’s some dirty language in these quotes.)
Consultant 1: “A big difference between 2019 and this year is that Jim Hood peaked in late August and then all the momentum was moving towards Tate after that. That doesn’t seem to be the case here. For Brandon to win, he needed to run a near-perfect campaign. And he’s done that. I honestly would’ve thought that Tate would be up by 6-8 points right now, but he certainly isn’t running like he’s up. Brandon started out further behind than Hood because of name ID, and the environment for Dems is not great right now. Biden is super unpopular, and the issue that has kept Democrats afloat in other states — Dobbs — isn’t relevant to this race … But I’ll say this, if Brandon does win, it’ll be because he actually, genuinely cared about winning Black voters.”
Consultant 2: “I am not being critical of out-of-state consultants. Lord knows there’s enough work here for everybody. But with the money being spent on TV, we could invest in local Democrats and people like (attorney general candidate) Greta Kemp Martin. It’s the money. We wait on national orgs to be excited enough for us to acquire the money and then we turn around and spend it how they see fit with no regard for the problems we know exist … as long as it’s machine versus machine, we risk falling short every time. Think about it like this: If the Mississippi Democratic apparatus had the funds it always needed, Brandon wouldn’t have had to spend all that money on TV to raise his own name ID after 16 years in office because that would have been done already. What we’re doing as Democrats is not sustainable. It’ll be Brandon this November, but it’s political malpractice that I can’t tell you in good faith who it’ll be in 4, 8, even 12 years.”
Consultant 3: “Does it feel different right now than it did four years ago? Yes. Do I think that means Brandon will force a runoff or win? Maybe. Brandon is a very good candidate. But if Tate decided that poor people should be able to see a doctor without going broke, I can’t imagine we’d all feel this level of uncertainty going into Election Day.”
Consultant 4: “We all kept saying it would require a perfect storm for Brandon to be competitive. And I don’t think any of us believed that those variables would align with the calendar in such a way that we would feel good a week out. But here we are, a week out, and god help me I feel cautiously optimistic? It’s terrifying. I’m impressed by the quick turn work the party itself has done to engage Black voters. I’m pleased that the Presley campaign has so visibly courted Black voters and the endorsements of high-profile Black political and faith leaders. But if I never hear ‘let’s go Brandon’ again, it’ll be too soon.”
1) The final campaign finance reports of the race are due today at 5 p.m., meaning Mississippi voters will get one last peek at how much money Reeves and Presley have raised and spent before the Nov. 7 election. The last report showed Presley outraised Reeves fairly substantially, though Reeves had more cash on hand to spend.
2) Milton Kuykendall — a very well-known DoSoto Countian who is the school’s former superintendent of education, a legendary high school basketball coach, and a Republican — endorsed Presley this week. DeSoto County has traditionally been a Republican stronghold, though a population boom over the past two decades (many people moving out to Memphis’ southern suburbs) is making the county more politically competitive by the cycle. The endorsement is a big get for Presley in a place that’s home to a whole lot of voters who could move the needle on Nov. 7.
3) The first and only debate between Reeves and Presley will be broadcast live on Wednesday, Nov. 1. If you’re in the Jackson metro area on Nov. 1, come to Hal & Mal’s for a free Mississippi Today watch party. Doors open at 6 p.m., we’ll stream the debate live at 7 p.m. on the big screen, and we’ll host a few minutes of live analysis as soon as it ends. Click this link for more information and to register. We hope to see you there!
The state’s first fellowship to train family physicians to care for pregnant and postpartum women is poised to start next July.
The proposed fellowship will train two to three family physicians a year in obstetrics, which the medical community hopes will provide rural and underserved areas with prenatal, delivery and postpartum care.
More than half of Mississippi’s counties are considered maternity care deserts, meaning there are no practicing OB-GYNs and no hospitals that deliver babies. For family physicians looking to practice obstetrics, the lack of training programs and difficulty getting affordable malpractice insurance coverage are challenging.
Aside from two hospitals that have been able to cut through the red tape and use family physicians in maternal care, nearly all pregnancies are handled by OB-GYNs, who are in short supply in Mississippi and mostly practice in urban areas.
The state is an outlier when it comes to how little it uses family physicians in obstetrics. Across the country, family physicians play a significant role in providing obstetric care to expectant mothers. Neighboring Alabama, for instance, boasts five fellowships in obstetrics for family physicians.
Family physicians deliver babies in more than 40% of U.S. counties, and “are the sole maternity care clinicians delivering babies in 181 (maternity care deserts) … serving more than 400,000 women” nationwide, according to a report by the American Academy of Family Physicians.
Dr. James Lee Valentine and Dr. Melissa Stephens of EC Health Net, a family medicine residency program in Meridian, are designing the new one-year training program to focus on increasing access to rural maternal care.
“The fellowship will train family physicians to be able to go into some of our rural, underserved communities, and provide obstetric care for these women close to home, who may have limited access and are facing challenges,” Stephens said.
University of Mississippi Medical Center is home to the only OB-GYN residency in the state, which graduates five or six residents each year. Of those, an average of two residents remain and practice in Mississippi.
On the other hand, a record 37 family physicians graduated in 2023 from residencies in Mississippi – more than any year in the past five years, according to the Office of Mississippi Physician Workforce.
Meanwhile, the state’s maternal and infant mortality rates are worsening. Valentine and Stephens see the fellowship as one way to combat that.
“These patients sometimes don’t get any (prenatal care) and they show up in the emergency room, delivering … that’s got to change,” Valentine said. “And I’m not saying that we ought to put family practice doctors out there doing all kinds of GYN surgeries and all that, but we got to deliver better prenatal care to our patients in the rural areas.”
The fellowship will set physicians up on three-month rotations between EC Health Net in Meridian, South Sunflower Hospital in Indianola, and Wayne General Hospital in Waynesboro. Valentine and Stephens hope to also add a stint at a larger hospital studying gynecological surgeries.
South Sunflower and Wayne General are the only two hospitals in the state currently using family medicine OBs, despite the bureaucratic challenges. The family physician OBs at these two hospitals are attending the majority of births in their counties.
Dr. Kelvin Sherman, the only practicing family medicine OB at Wayne General, delivers between 180 and 280 babies a year from Wayne County and some neighboring counties. In 2022, 256 babies were born in Wayne County, which has no practicing OB-GYN, alone.
Sherman, who did his obstetrics fellowship in Alabama, said in his experience, women who are farther from obstetrical care tend not to seek help when experiencing symptoms because they can’t justify the long drive or using the county’s only ambulance. Having a family doctor nearby can make a huge difference in pregnancy outcomes.
“If they’ve got some place to go that’s 15 minutes away, then maybe they go get something checked on and find out that ‘Yeah, you are in preterm labor, but it’s early and we can stop it, and we can prolong your pregnancy and you can have a healthier baby – a baby that goes home with you rather than having to deliver early a small baby that ends up in the NICU that stays sick a lot in the first few years of life,’” he explained.
Sherman is breaking ground not only as one of the state’s only family medicine OBs, but also by working closely with a certified nurse midwife, a rarity in Mississippi – a state with no certified midwife program. Opening the doors to certified midwives could increase the amount of care available to women.
Advanced nurse practitioners are also qualified to give prenatal care. But in Mississippi, restrictive and expensive collaboration agreements limit the care nurse practitioners can provide.
Sherman’s partnership with the certified nurse midwife is the kind that Wayne General CEO Andrew Porter hopes the new fellowship will facilitate.
“The FMOB (a family medicine physician who practices obstetrics) can really be a multiplier,” Porter said. “They can be the captain of a ship that has these other providers working under them and it just multiplies the amount of care that can be provided to patients.”
South Sunflower in Indianola has three family physician OBs on staff who average about 250 births a year in a county that had 263 live births in 2022.
Courtney Phillips, CEO of South Sunflower Hospital, poses for a portrait at South Sunflower County Hospital in Indianola, Miss., Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
The hospital has been using the family medicine OB model since it opened in the 1930s, according to hospital CEO Courtney Phillips. It’s a lifeline today, where the next closest hospital is 30 miles away, and even there, there aren’t enough OB-GYNs to take care of all the deliveries.
“So, even though the next closest hospital to deliver is 30 miles away, they may have to travel all the way to Grenada if we weren’t here, which is close to 80 miles away,” Phillips explained.
The family medicine obstetrics model is used sparsely because while family physicians receive an unrestricted license to practice medicine, the problem lies in getting insurance and privileges at a hospital.
“There’s a big difference between licensure and credentials,” Stephens, a family medicine physician at EC Health Net in Meridian, said.
While the licensure board allows physicians to practice according to their training without restriction, physicians also need to apply for malpractice insurance coverage, which requires proving competence to the malpractice carrier, and then proving competence to get credentialed by the hospital they are joining. Both became difficult in Mississippi after the explosion of liability insurance costs in the 1990s.
Medical liability premiums skyrocketed across the U.S. at the turn of the century, but particularly in Mississippi – known by 2001 as the “lawsuit capital of the world,” according to a 2011 case study by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists – and affected physicians’ ability to practice specialties like obstetrics or neurosurgery. Mississippi was “perhaps the hardest hit of the ‘red alert states,’” a term used to denote high medical liability regions, the case study said.
Valentine, who worked in obstetrics throughout the 1980s and had proven his competency to the board through documentation of all the procedures he performed and deliveries he attended, suddenly couldn’t afford his malpractice insurance premium when what he refers to as the “malpractice crisis” hit.
“My malpractice insurance went up about 180% premium-wise in a year’s time,” he said. “I couldn’t justify losing money to practice OB, and then take the risk on top of that. It was almost like they were trying to push us out.”
As it stands, Mississippi family physicians interested in obstetrics have few options: pursue an official training program in another state – which often results in those physicians deciding to either leave the state altogether or stay in the state and forego obstetrics – or train unofficially in Mississippi but without the guarantee of affordable malpractice insurance or a hospital that will grant them privileges.
South Sunflower Hospital in Indianola, Miss., Friday, Oct. 20, 2023. Credit: Eric J. Shelton/Mississippi Today
South Sunflower, according to Valentine, is able to utilize family physicians in obstetrics affordably because of its highly regarded staff that helps them get coverage and credentials.
“Places like Indianola, they have a track record,” he said. “Dr. Wade Dowell has been … a champion for family medicine, doing OB and doing general family medicine for years, and so he’s got a track record, and the doctors he’s trained there – they do a good job.”
Valentine and Stephens hope the new fellowship will offer a similar standard that will help family physicians receive credentials and coverage in obstetrics at an affordable rate – though it’s never a guarantee.
“Whether every hospital in the state of Mississippi will recognize that, whether every hospital will open their doors, I don’t know,” said Valentine. “But from the standpoint of being qualified … we want to make sure that our fellowship is substantial enough that when they leave our fellowship, whether it’s one year or two years, they’re ready to practice obstetrics at the level they’re trained to do that.”
The fellowship is one proposed solution to changing the maternal health landscape of Mississippi. But experts believe programs like it are critical in shifting the pendulum.
“It’s not going to be a cure-all for some of the obstetrics needs, and issues like infant mortality, but it’s a step,” Porter, the Wayne General CEO, said. “It’s people who are acknowledging that we have a crisis here in the state and are trying to do something about it. Here in Waynesboro, Mississippi, and the surrounding area of Meridian, and those in the Delta, we're trying to take the matter into our own hands and come up with some solutions.”
