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State Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, says it’s her mission to advocate for women as one of  few females in the Mississippi Legislature. Health Editor Kate Royals met with McGee to talk about her experiences as a lawmaker and her push to expand postpartum Medicaid coverage for new moms in Mississippi.

Editor’s note: This interview has been edited for clarity and length. 

Kate Royals: Tell me a bit about yourself – as a woman, a mom, a relatively new lawmaker. 

Missy McGee: I was born and raised in Hattiesburg. I have a bachelor’s and master’s degree from Southern Miss. I spent a few years in Washington, D.C. after college and came back to Hattiesburg. I worked in my family business, I was an adjunct instructor at Southern Miss, so I’ve been in that university environment. 

I’m married and I have two grown boys that are 24 and 21, and I sort of found myself here (as a legislator). You know, it’s a strange path and I think probably all of us would say the same, but I never expected to run for public office. I was always a behind the scenes person on issues that were important to me or candidates who I felt like were the ones I thought we needed to support. So, I enjoyed being a behind the scenes person. 

But it’s really been a great privilege and honor to get to represent my hometown, a city that’s been so good to me and my family. I was educated and raised in Hattiesburg. My children have been as well, so it’s meaningful work to get to come to the Capitol and advocate for my district which is my home, my lifelong home. But hopefully to also move the needle for the state of Mississippi. It’s been a great privilege and opportunity for me these past … this is my sixth session. 

Royals: You introduced a bill in the House to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for mothers in Mississippi from 2 months to 1 year. Why? 

McGee: You know, I just felt like there has never been a more timely opportunity than this session, in this post-Dobbs era especially – but it’s been important for longer than that to introduce a Medicaid postpartum bill that would extend coverage to 12 months. 

As a woman and as a mother, I couldn’t let this issue pass without advocating it and really trying to push it forward.

Royals: How do you think it would benefit the women in your area and also women across the state of Mississippi? (Editor’s note: This interview was conducted before McGee’s bill, House Bill 426, died without being considered in committee.)

McGee: I think it is the most impactful thing that we can do for women, moms and babies. So we know that … 36,000 babies were born in Mississippi  in 2019, and we know that 65% of the babies born in Mississippi are born to moms on Medicaid. That’s not hard math to figure out; that’s 23,000 women a year. That’s 23,000 women that this can impact, which is 23,000 babies, which is 23,000 families. 

I really think that it is a pro-family position, certainly a pro-life position, to take care of these moms who are carrying and delivering and bringing these babies into the world – because healthy moms equal healthy babies. They go hand in hand, so I really believe it’s currently the most impactful thing we can do for women and children. 

Royals: You’ve got a hospital and a big health care community in your area – and they are in support of this? 

McGee: Absolutely, they are. And it’s not just the pediatricians and neonatologists who take care of these preemies in the NICU (who support extending postpartum coverage). But the ER docs are for it because … if a woman does not have health insurance and she’s sick for whatever reason after having a child, she shows up in the emergency room. So ER doctors are supportive as well because they’re seeing them, too. 

I think it’s safe to say the entire health care community knows this is important for the well being of moms and, again, babies.  

Royals: It looks like Alabama and North Dakota were just approved by CMS for 12 months postpartum Medicaid coverage, joining half the states with approvals so far. Mississippi is at present 1 of only 2 states without extended postpartum coverage or Medicaid expansion. As someone very much in the middle of the lawmaking process, do you have any insight into why this may be? 

McGee: All I would say is that I hope that we won’t be going forward. I hope we will join those states in extending coverage to these moms to 12 months. That’s all I can say on that. 

Royals: According to the Center for American Women and Politics, you are one of 26 women in the entire state Legislature —26 out of 174. Can you tell me what that’s like? 

McGee: Yes, I believe I am one of 15 women in the House. So out of 122 members of the House of Representatives – and that number has changed a little bit. Well, you know, I feel like I have a greater responsibility to the women of Mississippi. We make up 50%, 51% of the state yet there are only 15 of 122 women in the House, so I do feel a greater responsibility to look out for the issues of women. 

That’s not my only concern, certainly, but I do feel an added responsibility to the women of Mississippi. Everybody comes to this job coming from their own frame of reference. As a woman, as a mom, I have experiences that my male colleagues don’t have, just like they have experiences I don’t. So on issues like this I feel like, not to be repetitive, I feel a higher responsibility to champion important causes for the well being of women in our state.

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FEBRUARY 4, 1913

Rosa Parks was born in Tuskegee, Alabama.

Although she is best known for refusing to give up her bus seat, she was active in the civil rights struggle long before. She and her husband, Raymond, became involved in the Scottsboro Boys case.

In 1943, she became secretary of the Montgomery branch of the NAACP, working on voter registration and investigating a series of sexual assaults of Black women that went unpunished in Alabama.

She, too, was the victim of an attempted rape by a white neighbor. “I was ready to die, but give my consent?” she said. “Never. Never. Never.”

After refusing to give up her bus seat, she became a worldwide icon and driving force for the civil rights movement.

“I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear,” she said. “Knowing what must be done does away with fear.”

After her 2005 death, she became the first woman to lie in state at the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. On the 50th anniversary of her courageous act, transit authorities in New York City and some other cities left the seats behind the bus drivers empty to honor her.

In 2013, Congress added her statue at the U.S. Capitol, making her the first Black woman represented in Statuary Hall. Before her death, she noted that “racism is still with us. But it is up to us to prepare our children for what they have to meet, and, hopefully, we shall overcome.”

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FEBRUARY 3, 1956

Overcoming racism and threats, Autherine Lucy became the first Black student to attend graduate school at the University of Alabama. She had previously been accepted to the university, only to be rejected when university officials discovered she wasn’t white.

The NAACP’s Thurgood Marshall represented her on the appeal, and she worked in the meantime as an English teacher in Carthage, Mississippi. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in her favor, and she entered the university as a graduate student in library science.

Despite riots and violence, she continued to attend. Three days later, the university suspended her “for her own safety,” prompting the president there to resign in protest.

Feeling dejected, she opened her mail soon after to read a letter from Marshall: “Whatever happens in the future, remember for all concerned, that your contribution has been made toward equal justice for all Americans and that you have done everything in your power to bring this about.”

Her case played a key role in desegregating schools in the South, including the University of Alabama, which admitted its first Black students in 1963. A quarter century later, the university overturned her expulsion, and she entered the graduation program in education a year later.

She graduated with a master’s in 1992. The university named an endowed scholarship in her honor and unveiled a portrait of her in the student union, with an inscription that reads, “Her initiative and courage won the right for students of all races to attend the University.”

In 2010, the university unveiled the Autherine Lucy Clock Tower, which honored those who desegregated the university. When a special marker at the College of Education honored her, she returned to speak.

In 2019, she attended the university’s graduation ceremony, where she received an honorary doctorate. “My response to fear is: do it anyway,” she said. “Let nothing stop you. You have to push forward.”

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Sen. Chris McDaniel’s first financial reports for his lieutenant governor campaign and a political action committee he runs leave voters in the dark about where hundreds of thousands of dollars came from and raise questions about whether some donations violated campaign finance law.

McDaniel’s PAC reported it raised nearly $474,000 before it was officially created, failed to list the source of that money, and accepted $237,500 from what’s been described as a “dark money” nonprofit corporation that dumps millions of anonymously sourced funds into campaigns nationwide.

McDaniel’s opponent, incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, on Thursday called for McDaniel, who in the past has called for campaign finance reform and transparency, to “practice transparency as he preaches and release his PAC donor list today.”

“My opponent’s PAC failed to disclose from whom he received more than $473,000,” Hosemann said. “He did disclose that he raised $237,500 from a Washington nonprofit corporation.”

McDaniel this week, the day after announcing his Republican primary run against Hosemann, reported having raised $710,000 last year and having $713,000 cash on hand for his 2023 campaign.

McDaniel’s largest donor to his campaign was the PAC he created in June 2022 called Hold the Line. It contributed $465,000 to McDaniel’s campaign.

McDaniel and Dan Carr, a pastor and political consultant from Gulfport, filed paperwork with the secretary of state’s office in June of 2022 creating the Hold the Line PAC. PACs are required to file organization papers with the secretary of state within 48 hours after they raise or spend more than $200.

Candidates and PACs were required by Tuesday to file their annual finance reports showing donations and expenditures from calendar year 2022.

But despite having been created only in June of 2022, McDaniel’s PAC in the report it filed this week showed a prior year’s balance of $473,962.38. There was no accounting of where this money came from nor an explanation of how the PAC raised money before it was created.

Hold the Line reported that it then raised $244,310 for 2022, and that its largest contribution was $237,500 in August from a nonprofit called American Exceptionalism Institute. The PAC report showed no contributions to account for the nearly $474,000 balance for the prior period.

American Exceptionalism Institute, based in Alexandria, Va., is a nonprofit corporation that says its mission is educating people about national security, the protection of life and tax and spending issues. It’s been described as a “dark money” nonprofit that dumps millions in anonymously sourced funds into campaigns nationwide, often through other nonprofits or PACs.

Mississippi limits corporate donations — including those from nonprofit corporations such as AEI — to candidates or PACs that donate to candidates to $1,000 per calendar year. Individuals, limited liability corporations and PACs can give unlimited contributions to Mississippi candidates.

Speaking generally about campaign laws and not McDaniel’s reports, Secretary of State Michael Watson said on Thursday his office has frequently fielded questions like, “Can you give corporate money to a PAC, and that PAC turn around and give the money to a candidate?”

Citing a 1990s state attorney general’s opinion, Watson said, “I think that would be a violation in my mind,” if a corporation gave more than $1,000 to a PAC, then the PAC gave more than $1,000 to a candidate. He said using a PAC simply to dodge corporation donation limits would possibly be a criminal violation. He said most such enforcement would be up to the attorney general’s office or local district attorneys.

McDaniel on Thursday told Mississippi Today he knows scant details about the finances of his PAC or his campaign.

“I can’t even write a check out of my account,” McDaniel said. “That’s just for safety reasons and so no one can ever question anything.”

McDaniel deferred any questions about Hold the Line PAC finances to Carr. Reached by phone on Thursday, Carr gave confusing answers.

“We registered (the PAC) in June, then some money came in in August, then we filed a report January 1. Correct, January 31. I’ll have to get back with you on that (the prior balance of $474,000). We had a clerical error,” Carr told Mississippi Today.

Carr said the report “clearly states” where the prior balance came from. But when challenged that the report does not list where the $474,000 came from, and asked for details of the clerical error, Carr referred further questions about the PAC to a man named Thomas Datwyler. Carr said Datwyler “filled out the report for me,” despite Carr’s electronic signature being on the PAC report filed to the secretary of state.

McDaniel also deferred questions about his campaign account to Datwyler, despite McDaniel’s signature being on the report and another person listed as the contact.

No one answered calls or responded to a message left at the number Carr gave for Datwyler.

A Thomas Datwyler, a national Republican operative and campaign finance consultant, has recently been in the news. After U.S. Sen. George Santos’ campaign treasurer resigned amid the candidate’s campaign finance problems, Santos said Datwyler would be taking over as treasurer. Datwyler’s attorney countered that he told Santos he would not be taking the post.

Also this week, Carr sent out an email fundraising solicitation for McDaniel titled “I AM ALL IN.” It is a letter from McDaniel asking voters to click links to donate $25, $50 or $100 to help him in his race for lieutenant governor. The solicitation, sent from dan@danqcarr.com, says it is “paid for by Committee to Elect Chris McDaniel.”

But no such committee has been registered with the Mississippi secretary of state’s office.

Besides his PAC, McDaniel is one of the largest donors to his own campaign, having contributed $53,000.

Hosemann this week reported having raised $1.33 million for the period, and having $3.5 million in his campaign account.

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An amendment to Mississippi’s medical cannabis act passed by the House would keep reports of marijuana businesses breaking regulations from the public — but the health department has already put a freeze on releasing those documents before any changes to the law have been made.

Mississippi Today filed a public records request seeking copies of reports regarding three cultivators that have been cited by the Department of Health’s cannabis program last week. One of the cultivators faced having massive amounts of his cannabis destroyed in penalties.

Department of Health spokesperson Liz Sharlot responded to Mississippi Today’s request saying the agency is “withholding all documents in our ongoing investigative files” pending a decision from the state’s Ethics Commission on “certain exemptions.” 

Ethics Commission Executive Director Tom Hood, however, said his office currently has no complaint open regarding whether investigation reports and other related materials from the medical cannabis office are subject to public record laws under the current cannabis act. 

Mississippi Today asked the Department of Health what language in the current cannabis bill pointed to possible exemptions. The agency did not immediately respond Thursday. 

Mississippi Today had already received citation records regarding Mockingbird Cannabis through a public records request in the fall. A Jackson-based blog – Jackson Jambalaya – posted a copy of records it obtained from the health department in December showing cultivator Southern Sky faced the possibility of having to destroy upwards of $700,000 in marijuana plants for not tagging them properly. 

Mississippi Today was denied copies of that same report; a copy of the corrective action plan made with Mockingbird; and the citations made against a third cultivator. 

Rep. Lee Yancey’s proposed amendments to the cannabis act were passed in the House on Wednesday. Among his suggested tweaks was explicit language to keep investigative reports in-house at the health department. 

“Any investigation, fine, suspension or revocation by a licensing agency shall be considered confidential” and exempt from the state’s public record laws, the amendment says. 

Yancey did not return a request for comment. 

The decision to keep these reports out of the public eye is at odds with what the Board of Health’s own medical marijuana program committee recently recommended. Head of the committee, Jim Perry, said he hoped the program would post enforcement actions it has taken to its website during a meeting on Jan. 26. 

“Other regulatory agencies … they post online when there is an enforcement action,” Perry said at the meeting. “As much as we can, we should err on the side of transparency… because it will tell people what they can learn from the lessons of others.” 

Perry said it could help ease the onslaught of questions the health department is regularly receiving related to interpreting regulations. 

“I think that if there is a corrective action plan, it should be out there,” Perry said. 

A recent Mississippi Today investigation found that the cannabis office is still dealing with a massive backlog in applications and regularly takes weeks to answer questions. Cultivators told Mississippi Today that the type of structures being approved by the health department to grow marijuana were not being consistently regulated. 

Perry said posting the actions the agency takes to correct businesses in the program would also show that it is treating everyone fairly. 

The Senate must pass the cannabis act amendments before the bill is sent to the governor to be signed.

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You probably knew Mississippi produces more NFL players per capita than any other state. It has been that way for a long time.

What you might not have known is this: Mississippi will have more natives playing in the 2023 Super Bowl than any other state. And, as you may notice, there’s no mention of per capita there. The Magnolia State will have more players in the game than any other state. Period.

Eight native-born Mississippians dot the rosters of the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs, who will play Feb. 12 in Glendale, Ariz.

Texas, Georgia and Ohio all tie for second in representation in this year’s Super Bowl with seven players each. The figures were provided by BetMississippi.com, citing ProFootballReference.com.

What you should know about all that is this: Texas has a population of just under 30 million. Georgia and Ohio have populations of more than 11 million. Mississippi’s population is just under 3 million.

Florida, with a population of more than 22 million, has six players in the Super Bowl. The nation’s most populous state, California (over 40 million population) is next with five.

Mississippians who play for the Philadelphia Eagles include All Pro defensive tackle Fletcher Cox and running back Kenneth Gainwell, both of Yazoo City; quarterback Gardner Minshew of Brandon; wide receiver A.J. Brown of Starkville and linebacker Nakobe Dean of Horn Lake.

Mississippians who play for Kansas City include All Pro defensive tackle Chris Jones of Houston, Willie Gay of Starkville and linebacker Darius Harris of Horn Lake.

Amazingly, the towns of Horn Lake (population 28,000), Yazoo City (10,000) and Starkville (24,500) all boast two players each on football’s biggest stage.

All will follow in the footsteps of so many small-town Mississippians who have made their marks in the Super Bowl, including the likes of Jerry Rice, Walter Payton, Brett Favre, Lance Alworth, L.C. Greenwood, Kent Hull, Sammy Winder and so many more.

In addition, the Eagles’ Cameron Tom (Southern Miss by way of Baton Rouge), Quez Watkins (Southern Miss by way of Athens, Ala.) and Darius Slay (Mississippi State by way of Brunswick, Ga.) played college football in Mississippi.

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Democratic candidates have filed paperwork to challenge Republican incumbents for all eight statewide offices.

The deadline to qualify to run for office in the November 2023 elections was Feb. 1. Democrats, who have suffered an ongoing string of elections losses in Mississippi, have candidates to challenge all eight Republican statewide office incumbents.

But whether the Democratic candidates, who are mostly unknown statewide, can garner the voter support and financial resources needed to run competitive campaigns remains to be seen.

Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley of Nettleton announced last month that he would challenge incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves. Pundits believe Presley is the favorite to win the Democratic primary in August and advance to the November general election. But Presley will first have to defeat Democratic primary challengers Bob Hickingbottom and Gregory Wash, both of Jackson.

Reeves is being challenged in the Republican primary by John Witcher and David Grady Hardigree. Independent Gray Gwendolyn also will be on the November general election ballot for governor.

State Sen. Chris McDaniel of Ellisville already has announced he is challenging incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in the Republican primary. Also entering the primary will be Tiffany Longino and Shane Quick.

D. Ryan Grover of Hattiesburg has qualified to run for lieutenant governor as a Democrat.

For attorney general, Jackson attorney Greta Martin will challenge Republican incumbent Lynn Fitch.

In other races:

• Secretary of state: Democrat Shuwaski Young will challenge Republican incumbent Michael Watson.
• Treasurer: Democrat Addie Green will challenge Republican incumbent David McRae.
• Auditor: Democrat Larry Bradford will challenge Republican incumbent Shad White.
• Insurance commissioner: Democrat Bruce Burton and Republican Mitch Young are both vying against Republican incumbent Mike Chaney.
• Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce: Four Democrats — Terry Rogers ll, Bradford Hill, Robert Briggs and Bethany Hill — will compete for the right to face Republican incumbent Andy Gipson in the November general election.

Democrat De’Keither Stamps will square off in the second consecutive election with Republican incumbent Brent Bailey for the Central District Public Service Commission post. Bailey defeated Stamps, now a state House member, in 2019 in a closely contested election.

Three Republicans but no Democrats are running to replace Presley for the Northern District Public Service Commissioner: Mandy Ganasekara, Tanner Newman and Chris Brown.

Incumbent Southern District Public Service Commissioner Dane Maxwell will face Nelson Wayne Carr in the Republican primary.

For the open seat of Southern District Transportation commissioner, Republican state Rep. Charlies Busby will face independent Steven Brian Griffin in November.

And Democratic Central District Commissioner Willie Simmons will face Republican Rickey Pennington Jr.

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