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.
One of the best-selling authors in the world put it succinctly on Wednesday night: Brandon Presley’s 2023 bid for governor feels different than the many Democratic Party losses of recent years.
“Every four years for a long time, Renee and I have been back here in Jackson raising money trying to get the Governor’s Mansion back,” John Grisham told more than 100 people gathered for a Presley fundraiser he hosted at Iron Horse Grill in downtown Jackson. “And every four years, we lose. But this is different. It is so different this year. There’s a great candidate, a great stump speech, a great story, a great family, and great ideas.”
Grisham has built a legendary career of thrilling readers with fiction set in Mississippi — stories rooted in backroom politics, moral justice and unexpected twists. But he sure wasn’t spinning a tale Wednesday night.
Anyone following Presley’s bid to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves the past few weeks knows the author is right about the difference this go-round. Presley this year has raised $5 million more than Reeves, one of the state’s best political fundraisers in history. Polling from Democrats and Republicans suggests Reeves is struggling to hit the 50% mark and has dismal favorability ratings, and Presley is within striking distance.
Republican Party leaders and surrogates have launched into an all-out blitz of get-out-the-vote efforts, expressing outward concern that Reeves is not drawing necessary enthusiasm from Republican Party voters.
“The way we end up with a liberal governor is that Republicans assume we win,” Republican consultant Henry Barbour told radio host Paul Gallo in September. “I’m talking to you on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi … We’ve got to run the score up down there because there are going to be other parts of the state, like the Delta, where Brandon Presley is gonna run the score up.”
Democratic Party forces, likewise, have activated in profound ways. Presley’s campaign has picked up an impressive level of grassroots support, and the millions of dollars pumped in from the Democratic Governors Association sure won’t hurt his ground game.
But even the Mississippi Democratic Party, for several years close to dormant, has sprung into action the past few months. Democrats have attracted high-profile politicians to help campaign from DeSoto County to Harrison County, working to turn out voters for Presley and others progressives down ticket. Congressman Bennie Thompson and other prominent elected Dems are working hard to turn out Black voters, who make up the base of the state Democratic Party and could easily vault Presley to victory.
And anyone who watched the first and only debate between Presley and Reeves on Wednesday night saw the difference firsthand. The candidates stood face-to-face in a cold television studio, but they may as well have been in a boxing ring. They didn’t literally swing at each other, but they got mighty close a few times.
Both took some big blows from one another, but Presley’s jabs of the governor were sharp, deliberate and immediate (it took him four seconds of speaking before lobbing his first criticism at Reeves). Presley landed more punches overall than Reeves, and the Democrat was clearly the better prepared. He weaved in bits of humanity and forward-looking policy ideas with the attacks.
Reeves froze up and tripped over words several times, repeated himself many times, and talked little about future ideas, instead choosing to dwell on many of the same successes he’s highlighted for several years.
Both campaigns afterward — as they always do — claimed victory, but Presley’s seemed most justified.
“Tonight, we showed the contrast in what the last four years have looked like and what the next four years will look like,” Presley told his supporters after arriving post-debate to the Grisham-hosted fundraiser. “(Reeves) came out there tonight needing a win, and he lost. He needed it and he didn’t get it.”
But despite the momentum, Presley still has a mountain to climb. He’s facing a Republican Party machine that hasn’t lost since 1999, a major name ID problem, attack ads painting him as an out-of-touch liberal beholden to out-of-state liberal interests, and a GOP electorate that adores former President Donald Trump, who endorsed Reeves this week.
Still, he’s trying to leverage his campaign’s recent wins and call his supporters to action.
“We’ve got five days left in this campaign,” Presley said to the room Wednesday night. “Bear Bryant won a lot of football games, and he was interviewed one time and asked, “Coach, how do you keep winning?’ He said, ‘We do the little things right, and we give it a little something extra.’ What I’m asking you to do between tonight and Tuesday night at 7 o’clock is to do the little things, and a little something extra…
“More importantly than anything else, please contact your neighbors and family. This race is tied … If everybody in this room talks to two people in the next five days, that’s 10 votes. This room could be the margin of victory Tuesday night. … We are going to win this election … We’re going to turn that Governor’s Mansion back over to the people.”
1) Where will Reeves and Presley spend the final five days of the campaign? The answer to this question may provide hints about what they’re worried about and what vulnerabilities might exist. Both candidates have been tearing up the campaign trail over the past few weeks, and this weekend is their last chance to meet voters where they are.
2) How will the Trump endorsement of Reeves play? We’ve reported several times that Republican consultants are worried about Republican voter enthusiasm and turnout. Might Trump, whose favorability numbers do appear lower in Mississippi than they were four years ago when he visited Mississippi to campaign for Reeves, be the solution to that concern?
3) If you missed the debate, Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender has an excellent and pretty detailed summary. A big lingering question that we may never know the answer to: Did undecideds move because of what they saw and heard in the debate? Recent polls have shown between 7-10% are still undecided. That’s the difference in a close race.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves speaks with reporters following the televised gubernatorial debate with the Democratic nominee Brandon Presley, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Mississippi voters who tuned in Wednesday night were treated to the most heated gubernatorial debate in recent history, as Republican Tate Reeves and Democrat Brandon Presley accused each other of lying, corruption, lying, offering up bad policies and lying.
The two frequently talked over each other and the moderators — and loudly when their mics were shut off. Recriminations flew.
“When he qualified to run for governor he couldn’t make it an entire hour without lying to the people of Mississippi,” incumbent Reeves said early in the hour-long scrum. “And on this debate stage he couldn’t make it one full minute without lying to the people of Mississippi.”
Presley quipped: “I told somebody recently that asked me about negative ads, ‘If he’d quit lying on me, I’d quit telling the truth on him.’”
Post-debate, each camp and their party leaders claimed victory. Both candidates landed blows, dodged and parried. Neither appeared to offer any major new policy, platform planks or accusation against the other likely to sway undecided voters. Perhaps not surprising given their only debate happened just six days out from Tuesday’s election, the candidates mostly used talking points from their stump speeches and recent barrage of millions of dollars worth of ads attacking each other.
WAPT moderators Megan West and Troy Johnson, at times growing a little flustered, tried to keep the sparring politicians on topic with questions mostly sent in by the public, including a few video-recorded questions from Mississippians.
Mississippi’s health care and hospitals crisis, and Medicaid expansion as a possible solution
Reeves said that Medicaid expansion is “probably the topic that my team and I have worked on more than any other.” This might surprise some advocates, as Reeves has long been a major opponent of Mississippi accepting federal money to expand Medicaid coverage to working poor people as 40 other states have, and he’s appeared to eschew it out-of-hand with little discussion.
“At the end of the day, it does not make sense for the people of Mississippi,” Reeves said. “If you add 300,000 people, 100,000 would currently be on private insurance, so putting them on the government rolls doesn’t make any sense.”
Reeves said a plan he recently proposed to tax hospitals more and enable them to draw down more federal Medicaid reimbursement dollars is a better solution for hospitals. He has also repeatedly said he’ll focus on creating better jobs that offer insurance.
Presley has made Medicaid expansion a focus of his campaign. He said Mississippi receiving the $1 billion a year in federal dollars would help the large number of uninsured working Mississippians, help save struggling hospitals and create an estimated 16,000 new jobs.
“It’s past time to do it,” Presley said. “… The truth of the matter is, Tate, there’s a majority in the House and Senate of Democrats and Republicans right now that want to expand Medicaid, and you’re standing in the way of 230,000 working people that have jobs that you’re too good to do yourself that would benefit if we expanded Medicaid … A majority of Republican support expanding Medicaid. A majority of Mississippians support it … We have 34 hospitals on the brink of closure, and Tate Reeves didn’t open his mouth in this campaign about trying to help those hospitals until he got in a tight race and you saw the polls tightening, and then he came up with a scheme that’s going to actually tax our hospitals.”
Presley has in the past vowed to expand Medicaid, day one, if elected. Reeves said, “He doesn’t have the authority to do anything on the first day in office. But like everything else he proposes, he simply is lying to the people of Mississippi.”
“There are unintended consequences of expanding Medicaid to 300,000 Mississippians,” Reeves said. “The unintended consequence is moving individuals off of private insurance. And, by the way, that’s bad for rural hospitals as well because the fact is when you move them from private insurance, the reimbursement rates for those 100,000 people are actually lower when they go on Medicaid.” Reeves said Louisiana and Arkansas have both expanded Medicaid, and they also have rural hospitals facing closure.
Presley said that as governor, he could ask federal Medicaid for a waiver that would allow him to start Medicaid expansion. “I don’t know if the governor knows the authority of his job or not … Tate Reeves’ own state economist says that this program will pay for itself. Well, if he doesn’t believe his own state economist, he ought to fire him.”
Brandon Presley, the Democratic nominee for Mississippi governor, speaks with reporters following the televised gubernatorial debate with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2023, in Jackson, Miss. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
Corruption, particularly Mississippi’s massive welfare scandal, attack ads and the influence of campaign donors
Presley pulled out the only prop of the night — paper copies of text messages — and said Reeves “has been ensnarled in the largest public corruption scandal in Mississippi history.”
“We found out (Reeves’) brother, we’ve got text messages for his brother,” Presley said as he pulled papers from his suit coat. “He was text messaging with Brett Favre about how to be a PR agent.
“Seventy-seven million dollars was diverted for things like Brett Favre on a volleyball court, for Tate Reeves’ personal trainer, $1.3 million dollars,” Presley said. “And what did Tate do? He fired the independent investigator. He delayed depositions 13 times indefinitely. He is at the center of the state’s largest public corruption scandal. And so what do crooked politicians do when they’ve been caught in a scandal like this? They try to throw some sort of accusations at somebody else.”
Reeves denied any involvement in the welfare scandal and, as he has done in campaign ads, accused Presley — who’s serving as a state Public Service commissioner — of accepting illegal campaign contributions from solar companies.
“You would have to believe in time travel to believe I was involved in the TANF scandal,” Reeves said. “It all happened before I was governor … He’ll lie about my family, lie about me, lie about what he believes or doesn’t believe because he doesn’t have any of his own beliefs.”
“Three public service commissioners have gone to jail in the last 30 years for doing the same thing Brandon Presley did,” Reeves said. “… He’s taken money from his solar panel buddies. He’s approved their ability to produce energy. That’s illegal in Mississippi (for a PSC commissioner to take donations from a regulated utility). The law is clear and Brandon Presley knowingly broke the law.”
Presley said Reeves’ claim is “a bald-faced lie.”
“And I’ll tell you why he knows it’s a lie,” Presley said. “The minute that the company involved threatened his campaign with a lawsuit for defamation, guess what he did. He changed the ad … These solar companies are not public utilities, and Tate Reeves knows that.”
Presley has made ethics reform and fighting corruption a major plank in his platform, and early in his campaign presented a detailed plan for reforms. On Thursday he accused Reeves of being “the biggest cheerleader for corruption, with pom-poms on … and if you think Tate Reeves will take on corruption, I’ve got some beachfront property in Nettleton to sell you.”
Each candidate accused the other of being bought and paid for by big-money campaign donors. Reeves said Presley has sold out to the national Democratic Party. Presley said Reeves has been bought off by big donors who get large state contracts in exchange.
“Eighty percent of the money that he is spending in this campaign has come from California, New York, Massachusetts and Washington, D.C.,” Reeves said. “And if you’re keeping score at home, that’s over $10 million in far-left radicals funding his campaign.”
Presley said to Reeves onstage: “The truth is, you’re a bought-and-paid-for politician, and you know it, and the people of Mississippi know it … He is the poster child of this broken, corrupt system … There’s a report out just yesterday about Tate Reeves’ pay to play scheme … his contributors benefitted over a billion dollars in state contracts. One guy gave him $25,000, and then about 48 hours later he became a gaming commissioner.”
The candidates’ jabs at each other on alleged corruption got so heated and drawn out a moderator urged, “Gentlemen, we need to move on. We have to move on.”
Tax cuts: eliminating the state income tax or tax on groceries
Both candidates have vowed to cut taxes, but each has a different focus. Reeves vows to continue a push to eliminate the state income tax. Presley vows to eliminate the state’s sales tax on groceries. They were asked how they plan to get this done and to replace lost revenue. Neither directly answered those questions.
“I’ve been a tax cutter as governor,” Reeves said. “I was a tax cutter as lieutenant governor. In fact, in 2016 we passed the larges tax cut in Mississippi history. In 2021 we passed an even bigger tax cut. Combined, we’ve cut taxes over $1.2 billion for the people of this state. I do believe that eliminating the income tax is the best public policy for the state.”
Presley said: “Look, I want to cut the sales tax on groceries. We have the highest sales tax on food of any state in the United States. If you go out tonight and buy feed for a hog or feed for a cow, you pay zero sales tax. But if you want to feed your baby or you want to feed your family, you pay the highest sales tax in America.”
Presley said Reeves has had 12 years to get income tax elimination done and that he “talks so tough but does so little.”
Reeves said: “If you earn income, if you make a living in this state, we’ve cut your taxes. You have more money in your pocket because of conservative leadership in the Legislature and the governor’s office. And if we turn Mississippi blue, we would never see another tax cut in the state of Mississippi.”
Public education, funding for schools and teacher pay
Reeves, as he has done many times on the campaign trail, touted public education achievements made over the last decade, teacher pay raises and increased spending for schools.
“The Mississippi miracle — that’s what the New York Times called it, and the New York Times is very rarely nice or generous to Mississippi,” Reeves said. “… We passed conservative reforms in 2013 and 2014 that laid the groundwork for the best educational achievement levels in the history of Mississippi.”
Reeves noted marked improvements in fourth-grade reading and math, and higher high school graduations rates, and “the largest teacher pay raise in state history … $6,100 more per year.”
Presley said he’s being supported by teacher groups including the Mississippi Association of Educators. He said he would push for full funding of the state’s adequate education formula, “that we have not fully funded education but two times in the entire existence of our school funding formula.”
“It’s evident who educators in this race support and know will really have their back,” Presley said. “… They looked at Tate Reeves’ record. They looked at my record and looked at my platform and they chose to endorse me over him … He brags about teacher pay raises. I think we’re measuring wrong on teacher pay … Instead of bragging about getting to the Southeastern average, we ought to bet teacher pay to the national average.”
Reeves said the educators supporting Presley are from teacher unions, with ties to national liberals “who led the effort to shut down our schools during COVID-19.”
Presley provided an anecdote of a teacher he talked with last week in north Mississippi, who told him “she netted out about $23 a month” from the teacher pay raise Reeves touted. Some teachers have recently reported their take-home from raises ended up shrinking because of increased insurance and other costs.
Reeves responded to Presley: “There is no possible way that a teacher netted $23 a month on a $6,100 a year pay raise. Brandon Presley can’t do math. He lies really well, but he can’t do math.”
The candidates accused each other of being out of step with rank-and-file Mississippians.
“He wants to talk about California and New York,” Presley said. “Let me tell you this, governor, how about you talk about Caledonia and New Hebron? You’re obsessed with California and New York. I ain’t been to California — I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”
Reeves said: “Can I just say something about Caledonia?”
Presley, who has visited all 82 counties in his campaign, said: “Have you been there?”
Reeves said: “Yes. I went to breakfast in Caledonia last Monday morning and I’m gonna tell you something, Brandon, you’re gonna get more votes in California than you get in Caledonia.”
Incumbent Republican Delbert Hosemann, seeking a second and final term as lieutenant governor, faces Democratic challenger D. Ryan Grover.
Hosemann, 76, is a native of Vicksburg, an attorney who served three terms as secretary of state before being elected lieutenant governor in 2019.
Grover, 34, of Hattiesburg, is a business owner and consultant and newcomer to state politics.
Hosemann has vowed, if reelected, he would continue to cut Mississippians’ taxes. He said this is feasible because of conservative policies and spending he pushed in his first term.
“We cut the state’s debt by about $500 million — about 12%,” Hosemann said. “We did something that’s never been done before: We made the largest tax cut in state history while we paid off $500 million in debt … In the last four years we have done the most extraordinary thing ever in state government — we have run it like a business. It will pay dividends not just through the next election, but for the next generation.”
Grover said he’s running “to create an efficient state government that is of the people and works for the people.”
“Being a native Mississippian I have a great love for my state and am tired of seeing it fail in every respect,” Grover said. “While it is not easy running a political campaign, the only real qualification needed to run is to think you can do a better job than the current person in that position. I know I can do a better job than the incumbent, so I am compelled to run for Lieutenant Governor and help Mississippi recover from the past 20 years of severe neglect.”
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley will square off Wednesday night in their first and only debate before the Nov. 7 gubernatorial election.
Presley publicly challenged Reeves to multiple public debates this year, but Reeves refused to debate more than once. After much back and forth, the candidates agreed to tonight’s debate — a one-hour, no commercial breaks affair.
The debate will be broadcast live Wednesday, Nov. 1 at 7 p.m. by WAPT-TV (Channel 16 in central Mississippi) and on the station’s website WAPT.com. It will be simulcast live on Mississippi Public Broadcasting’s TV stations, radio stations and MPBonline.org.
Note: If you’re in the Jackson metro area, 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 how to register. We hope to see you there!
Here’s what Mississippi Today’s political team is watching for during the debate.
How will Gov. Tate Reeves perform under pressure?
Reeves, who has participated in several televised debates, has publicly made light of the fact that he’s not the strongest public speaker. In previous debates, he’s held his own and landed some jabs, but he is prone to become visibly flustered when pressed hard.
How will Presley do in his first major debate?
The Nov. 1 debate is Presley’s first public debate of this magnitude. Privately, he’s been telling supporters he’s been waiting for this moment “for years.” Outside of a traditional debate setting, he’s always been quick to challenge his opponents’ assertions and seems to relish public speaking opportunities. But will the pressure get to him when the studio lights go on?
How nasty and personal will it get?
If you’ve watched television in the past three months, you’ve seen plenty of attacks from both campaigns. Reeves has called Presley “a liar” who is well-funded from “California and New York.” Presley has called Reeves corrupt and drawn attention to the governor’s ties to the state’s massive welfare scandal. The attacks should be plentiful, but can the candidates also talk substantively about policy ideas?
How might the candidates speak to undecided voters?
Public and reported internal polling from the past week or so has shown that between 5-10% of voters are still undecided . That percentage of voters absolutely could swing the election one way or another. If the voters haven’t been convinced yet by the attacks of the other, it’s logical to assume they want to hear ideas for how the two candidates would govern over the next four years.
How will Reeves defend his opposition to Medicaid expansion?
Presley has hammered Reeves all year for blocking a policy that would provide health coverage to at least 200,000 working Mississippians. Expansion is popular among voters, and hospitals have begged for it as they struggle to keep their doors open.
How will Presley address Reeves’ attacks of being aligned with national Democrats?
This line of attack has, in the modern era, aided Republicans greatly. Presley outraised Reeves during this election cycle, largely due to the Washington-based Democratic Governors Association. Can Presley level with voters who are concerned he’s tight with national Democrats?
In such a short total airtime, how much ground will WAPT cover?
It was a coup for WAPT to land this debate, given they are the smallest reach in the Jackson media market and no statewide affiliate partners. The debate will be moderated by WAPT anchors Megan West and Troy Johnson, who have a difficult task ahead of them. Can they touch on the major issues and keep the candidates from deflecting or filibustering?
The Mississippi high school football playoffs, which will wind up in Oxford later this month, are underway. The Clevelands talk about all the possibilities in play this year and who some of the favorites are. We also talk college football and the local Fox affiliates’ decision to not show the New Orleans Saints. Hint: We did not like it.
Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
Just a week out from Tuesday’s general election, the number of absentee ballots requested by Mississippi voters is less than 69% of those requested last statewide election cycle.
Low absentee balloting typically portends a low turnout for an election.
In 2019, voters requested 52,380 absentee ballots, and a little over 48,000 were cast and counted.
As of Monday, Oct. 30, only 35,946 absentee ballots had been requested.
A look across Mississippi’s 82 counties shows 10 counties at or above their number of requested ballots four years ago, but most are well below, including some larger counties. For instance, Hinds County was at 80% of the previous election’s numbers and Forrest was at 76%. Rankin and Jackson counties were at 59%. Jones County was at 55%, Hancock at 53% and Simpson was at 45%.
Counties with high absentee requests so far include Sunflower County with 223%; Humphreys with 138%, DeSoto with 138%, and Harrison with 133%. Madison County was at 97% of absentees compared to the previous statewide election.
The lowest numbers were in George and Quitman counties, each at 32%, Smith at 22%, and Tallahatchie and Issaquena counties at 19% each.
Some of the low absentee interest can be chalked up to a lack of competitive races down-ticket from gubernatorial. The other seven statewide office races are not considered competitive, and many legislative and local races were determined during the primary.
The August primary in Mississippi saw the lowest turnout since 2007, according to the secretary of state’s office, with just 30% of registered voters casting ballots.
Voters can cast an absentee ballot in person at their local circuit clerk’s office through Saturday, Nov. 4. These offices will be open Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon for final in-person absentees.
Those returning absentee ballots by mail must have them postmarked by Nov. 7. Mississippi’s process for applying for, receiving and returning an absentee ballot by mail is rather arduous and time consuming and has likely run out for those who haven’t already applied for one. The process can be found here.
1) Donald Trump endorsed Tate Reeves, the Reeves campaign announced on Tuesday night, Mississippi Today’s Taylor Vance reports. The endorsement likely gives the incumbent governor a needed boost less than a week from the election. The Trump endorsement 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.
2) Ground game/GOTV. At this stage in the election cycle, there are fewer undecided voters to sway. Campaigns are shifting focus to getting their supporters out to the polls. This requires manpower and shoe leather, hundreds of paid staffers and volunteers getting out, knocking on doors, manning phone banks and getting people out to vote.
3) 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. This is incredibly notable given Reeves’ political fundraising prowess. Mississippi Today’s Taylor Vance has the story.
DON’T MISS: The first and only debate between Reeves and Presley will be broadcast tonight, Nov. 1. If you’re in the Jackson metro area, 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!
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.
