State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs said Tuesday that the Delta variant has taken over “all the transmission within the state of Mississippi.” Dobbs attributed the fourth wave of infections and hospitalizations the state is experiencing to the highly infectious nature of the Delta variant, increased social activities during the summer months and Mississippi’s low vaccination rate.
“It really is kind of a perfect storm for an explosion in cases,” Dobbs said.
The Delta variant has considerably increased the already high risks posed by the virus to unvaccinated people. Over the past month, 93% of new COVID-19 cases in Mississippi and 89% of deaths have been among the unvaccinated. Those vaccinated people who died from an exceedingly rare breakout infection have all been 65 and older.
The surge of Delta infections Mississippi is experiencing is already hitting hospitals and ICUs. While hospitalizations are nowhere near their February peak, the increase in recent weeks has been sharp. Between July 5 and July 19, hospitalizations increased 189%, from 145 to 419. The number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs has increased 294% over the same period, from 35 to 138.
Dobbs said that the increase in hospital and ICU admissions is straining the hospital systems in parts of the state, and that COVID patients in the Delta have been flown to the Pine Belt because there are no open ICU beds in their region. There are currently 13 hospitals across the state with zero ICU beds available. Dobbs said that a number significantly higher number of hospitals have less than 10% of their beds available.
MSDH officials have repeatedly stressed that Mississippians have the choice of getting vaccinated or contracting COVID-19, and that in every scenario a vaccinated person is going to have a better outcome.
One of the main hurdles MSDH faces in getting more people vaccinated is combating the troves of vaccine misinformation that regularly circulate online. The problem is so bad that on July 13, the department removed the ability to comment on COVID-related posts on its Facebook page.
MSDH officials said that allowing misinformation to spread on its own page is “directly contrary” to the state’s public health mission and the ability to comment will be restored when the department develops an effective plan to moderate them.
In a candid moment during the press conference, Dobbs reflected on the dire situation the state is in and responded to backlash he’s received from anti-vaccine activists over a comment he made last week, saying “anti-science Nazis on social media” try to find anything to make an excuse to not get vaccinated.
“I just want to apologize for kind of getting away from a sense of calm decorum, but I’m frustrated,” Dobbs said. “I’m mad. I’m upset. I’m depressed. Because we’re going to watch people needlessly die over the next month or two, for no good reason. There is a mountain of lies and disinformation that is being promulgated by a relatively small number of misinformed, disillusioned people. And it’s leading folks astray. It’s very difficult to watch.”
The three COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States are nearly as effective against the Delta variant as the original strain, greatly minimizing the chance of infection and nearly eliminating the risks of developing a serious illness. Studies suggest, however, that being fully vaccinated is the only adequate protection against the Delta variant, as a single shot of either of the two-dose mRNA vaccines provides only weak protection against infection. The Delta variant, first identified in India, is believed to be about 60% more contagious than the Alpha variant and up to twice as contagious as the original strain of COVID-19.
Despite the wide availability of vaccines and the risks posed by variants, Mississippi continues to rank last in the nation in the share of its population that has been vaccinated. With over 2 million shots administered, only 34% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
State tax collections increased by $924 million, or nearly 16%, year-over-year for the fiscal 2021 year that ended in June, a state report released Tuesday showed, as Mississippi’s economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic and percolates from billions in federal government spending.
The largest increase for fiscal year 2021 was in corporate income taxes, up $296 million or 54% year over year. Individual income taxes, use taxes (from online sales) and casino taxes also saw large percentage increases for the year, while sales taxes saw a modest increase of $88 million, or 4%.
Total state tax collections increased from about $5.8 billion to $6.7 billion year-over-year. This comes after the state ended last fiscal year at $151 million, or 2.5% below collections for the prior year amid the pandemic economic downturn. Over the last decade or so, state revenue growth has averaged around 3%.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann on Tuesday said he is “pleasantly surprised” by the fiscal year-end numbers.
“We are particularly pleased that the numbers are strong across the board,” Hosemann said. “The revenue strength is there with corporate and individual income taxes and sales taxes — hitting on all cylinders and that shows we have a healthy economy.”
Economists have also cited multiple federal stimulus packages passed by Congress to address the pandemic for fueling the Mississippi economy and revenue collections. Mississippi received more than $1.25 from the first round of federal pandemic spending and will be receiving around $6 billion all told from the most recent measures.
“Some of this obviously is the federal government pouring money in, with the CARES Act, and that is continuing with the RESCUE Act, so that’s good in that it is continuing and should help, although how we ever pay all that back as a country, I’m not sure,” Hosemann said. “But as long as we spend it well, it should help. I’ve been visiting with over 50 boards of supervisors and cities, and emphasizing the thing we need to do is look at how to spend this so it doesn’t just help and last for one or two years, but in ways that help for at least one or two generations.
“None of us ever predicted this kind of arrangement — this kind of ability to fund projects the state couldn’t have otherwise, water, sewer, broadband — so the real discussion now needs to turn to how we make the best use of these taxpayer dollars.”
The collections for fiscal year 2021 that ended in June also saw a large increase — about $230 million — from taxes that would have normally been collected in the prior year but were delayed because of pandemic extensions to pay.
Source
FY2020
FY2021
Over/under prior year
% Change
Sales tax
$2,156,122,116
$2,244,361,161
$88,239,045
4.09%
Individual income
1,819,610,333
2,226,159,994
406,549,661
22.34%
Corporate income
548,728,829
845,133,396
296,404,567
54.02%
Use tax
339,863,553
408,776,281
68,912,728
20.28%
Insurance premium tax
312,762,228
339,282,412
26,520,184
8.48%
Tobacco/alcohol
255,556,568
283,667,815
28,111,247
11%
Oil/gas severance
22,988,510
18,183,004
(4,805,506)
-20.90%
Gaming
110,694,305
153,724,705
43,030,400
38.87%
Other Dept. of Revenue
38,131,470
37,680,479
(450,991)
-1.18%
Other than DOR
171,437,599
179,359,611
7,922,012
4.62%
Sub-total
5,775,895,511
6,736,328,858
960,433,347
16.63%
All other transfers/collections
40,050,689
4,113,440
(35,937,249)
-89.73%
Total
$5,815,946,200
$6,740,442,298
$924,496,098
15.90%
The data in this table comes from the Mississippi Joint Legislative Budget Committee.
Elise Winter, former First Lady of Mississippi and spouse of Governor William Winter, was a true public servant in her own right. Deeply invested in Habitat for Humanity, her legacy of public service built a beautiful eternal home as well.
The Mississippi State Department of Health reported 2,326 new COVID-19 cases on July 19, further documenting the hold the Delta variant has on the state and the threat it poses to the unvaccinated.
Commenting on the spike in cases and hospitalizations, State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs tweeted Monday morning: “Very sad indeed. Didn’t have to be this way. 4th wave is here.”
Delta currently represents nearly all COVD-19 circulating in Mississippi. There are 231 confirmed cases, but those only represent a small surveillance sample, so it is undoubtedly a small fraction of the Delta infections in the state. Additionally, the MSDH report on the number of variant cases in the state hasn’t been updated since July 13.
The surge of Delta infections Mississippi is experiencing is already hitting hospitals and ICUs. While hospitalizations are nowhere near their February peak, the increase in recent weeks has been sharp. Between July 5 and July 18, hospitalizations increased 154%, from 145 to 369. The number of COVID-19 patients in ICUs has increased 257% over the same period, from 35 to 125.
Dobbs said that the increase in hospital and ICU admissions is straining the hospital systems in parts of the state, like Jackson and Hattiesburg, that have seen non-COVID procedures fill up their ICUs. Monday morning, Dobbs said there were 11 major ICU’s across the state with zero beds available.
Dobbs and other health officials have repeatedly stressed that Mississippians have the choice of getting vaccinated or contracting COVID-19, and that in every scenario a vaccinated person is going to have a better outcome.
“At this pace, and given the sort of external dynamics that are in play here, we’re going to remain vulnerable for a long time,” Dobbs said. “I don’t think that we’re going to have some miraculous increase in our vaccination rate over the next few weeks, so people are going to die needlessly.”
The vaccines are nearly as effective against the Delta variant as the original strain, greatly minimizing the chance of infection and nearly eliminating the risks of developing a serious illness. Studies suggest, however, that being fully vaccinated is the only adequate protection against the Delta variant, as a single shot of either of the two-dose mRNA vaccines provides only weak protection against infection. The Delta variant, first identified in India, is believed to be about 60% more contagious than the Alpha variant and up to twice as contagious as the original strain of COVID-19.
Delta is now also the dominant variant across the United States. Nationally, the average number of new cases has started to trend upwards due to localized Delta outbreaks in places such as Mississippi with low vaccination rates.
The Delta variant has considerably increased the already high risks posed by the virus to unvaccinated people. Between June 3 and July 1, 95% of all COVID infections in Mississippi were among the unvaccinated. During that period, the same group also accounted for 90% of hospitalizations and 89% of deaths.
Despite the wide availability of vaccines and the risks posed by variants, Mississippi continues to rank last in the nation in the share of its population that has been vaccinated. With over 2 million shots administered, only 34% of Mississippians have been fully vaccinated.
In order to truly serve the state of Mississippi, we have to have an audience that reflects the state as a whole. Through Mississippi Today Listens, our new community listening program, we are addressing an issue that has plagued newsrooms across the country for decades: How to best report for the everyday reader and not just about them.
“MT Listens is a new initiative to connect with community leaders and reach people we might not otherwise be able to reach. By connecting and listening, we can uncover stories that Mississippians want and need to live more fulfilled and informed lives,” said Lauchlin Fields, Mississippi Today’s Audience Development Director.
At Mississippi Today, our path to amplifying the variety of voices in Mississippi began with making diversity our North Star, a unifying goal for the entire team. We’ve built a cross-departmental committee tasked with examining how we cover stories and how our journalism could better reflect the state. We’re creating space for meaningful conversations about race and gender within the organization.
In October 2020, we published a story announcing our commitment to put diversity at the center of our news and published the results of our first source audit. We also announced the Mississippi Today Community Ambassadors Program, an initiative to build a network of Mississippians from every corner of the state to help guide our journalism. Our ambassadors have teamed up with reporters and helped us get to know readers and their communities better.
“We can’t expect readers to trust us if they don’t see themselves reflected in the stories we tell,” said Kayleigh Skinner, managing editor at Mississippi Today. “Our hope with MT Listens is to create a model where our reporters and staff can establish meaningful connections with people from different backgrounds and lived experiences. We want to hear directly from them what’s going on in their communities, and what they think should be covered.”
One of our community listening signs on the Canton Square
Through MT Listens, we are doubling down on our commitment to build a more diverse readership by targeting five specific communities across Mississippi — Canton, Yazoo City, Forest, Moss Point and New Albany — where we will ask community members what matters most to them. We will listen. We will be present in each community, and what we hear and learn will lead to action — creating content that matters to all Mississippians.
“At the center of our nonprofit mission is public service, and the best way for our newsroom to be of service to Mississippians is by listening first and reporting later,” said Mississippi Today CEO Mary Margaret White. “This program takes out the transactional relationship that so often takes place between reporters and sources. MT Listens, instead, provides a channel for continuous conversation, feedback and learning.”
Our work is just beginning. We are eager to get into these communities — to listen, to learn and to respond. We want our readers to follow us on this journey and help us dig deep. As we get into these communities, we’ll share our updates here and on our social media channels. We plan to use community listening as a tool to continue the work our organization was founded on — to hold those in power accountable — all while amplifying the voices of diverse Mississippians.
If you live in Canton, Yazoo City, Forest, Moss Point or New Albany, please take a minute to fill out the below survey, or share it with someone you know.
Shuwaski Young, 38, who worked in the Department of Homeland Security in the administration of President Barack Obama, plans to run in the U.S. House 3rd District Democratic primary with the intent of challenging Republican incumbent Michael Guest in the November 2022 election.
Young, a Philadelphia native, previously worked in multiple capacities in both government and politics. He worked in the Secretary of State’s office during the tenures of both Democrat Eric Clark and Republican Delbert Hosemann.
In a press release announcing his candidacy, Young is described as a fifth generation Mississippian whose grandfather was active in the civil rights movement in Neshoba County. He also joined the Mississippi Army National Guard at age 17.
“I learned about leadership from my grandfather, who worked bravely during the civil rights movement to ensure that every Mississippian had access to the ballot box,” Young said in a statement. “Everyone in this state deserves affordable and quality access to food, water, and healthcare, stronger investment into our state’s infrastructure, temporary help for us and our small businesses as we recover from the pandemic, and a strong defense of our right to vote. It is time to put partisanship aside and focus on results.”
Guest, the Republican incumbent, is a former district attorney for Rankin and Madison counties in suburban Jackson — the population center of the district that covers much of east-central Mississippi and stretches into southwest Mississippi. Guest defeated a crowded field in 2018 to capture the seat that was left vacant when incumbent Rep. Gregg Harper opted to retire.
Guest won re-election to another two year term in 2020. Young is the first to announce plans to challenge Guest in 2022.
Young served as the external engagement coordinator in the Department of Homeland Security in the Obama administration. He oversaw the “If you see something, say something” campaign.
Young also has worked on various political campaigns and in other private sector posts.
Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau and Bobby Harrison break down the redistricting process, which Mississippi lawmakers will commence during the 2022 legislative session.
Stream the episode here and read a transcript of the episode below.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:00:00] Welcome to The Other Side, Mississippi Today’s political podcast. I’m your host, Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side lets you hear directly from the most connected players and observers across the spectrum of politics in Mississippi. From breaking news to political strategy to interviews with candidates and elected officials, we’ll bring you perspectives and context that helps you cut through the noise and understand all sides of the story.
Joining us today is my colleague Bobby Harrison. Bobby, thanks for being here.
Bobby Harrison: [00:00:33] Hey Adam, how you doing?
Adam Ganucheau: [00:00:34] I’m all right. Well, you know, thinking this podcast this week and you had a story that I think, you know , it’s time for us to kind of start giving a lot more attention to.
It’s about redistricting. I think your story this week was that the legislative committee in charge of redistricting has announced that they’re going to hold several hearings across the state over the next month, or so— maybe a couple months— to basically hear from the public about redistricting. Just tell us a little about that story.
Bobby Harrison: [00:00:59] Well, yeah, it comes around every 10 years— redistricting does with the, you know, 10 year Census. After that Census data is released. The state is required on the federal and also state law to change the districts for their state legislative and Senate seats and for the U.S. congressional seats to match the population found by the Census.
I don’t know if we’ll get into it as much, but it’s important to point out that on a local level supervisors, supervisor districts—this affects supervisor districts, city, council and board of aldermen district. So all that’s going to be going on and then over the next year or so, but, you know, we will be focusing mainly on the legislative redistricting in the congressional districts.
And those hearings you talked about, they start in August and people have a opportunity to offer input, why they think that, you know, that DeSoto County shouldn’t be placed in parts of DeSoto County for— I’m just giving a for instance— shouldn’t be placed in the second congressional district that is currently held by Bennie Thompson or why parts of DeSoto County should be placed in Bennie Thompson’s district. You know, in the same thing will be going on in the 122 House seats in the state Legislature and the 52 Senate seats.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:02:08] Yeah, I guess, you know, thinking about redistricting, it’s important for several reasons. I think, you know, arguably the chief reason is because of how the districts are drawn typically could affect how policies later pass. So thinking about just the Legislature, now you mentioned, of course we’ll be zoned in on the legislative redistricting, but also the federal congressional district redistricting as well.
But what we’re thinking about just legislative, take that for instance. Right now you know how they draw those districts matters because you know, they could, you know, Republicans who have the control right now. So in theory, they kind of have the say of how these districts are redrawn to a certain They could draw districts that favor their party and they will. I mean, that’s how this works. The party in control gets to draw the districts so they will draw the districts to give their party you know, the majority in the Legislature. So of course that matters because then, you know, when it comes to election season over the next 10 years, you know, you only have a limited amount of Democrats who could possibly be elected to sort of counter the Republican majority.
And that also obviously affects policy. I mean, that’s basically a decent summary of why it’s important in that way.
Bobby Harrison: [00:03:20] And not only policy, but just, you know, who’s in charge. The prime example of that was if you go back to 2010, which was the last redistricting. The House and Senate was planning to do it during the 2011 legislative session to have the new districts to run in later on that year. Now, what normally has happened is the House passes this plan, the Senate passes this plan, and then each side passes the other side’s plan, but they don’t get into the weeds of, you know, why they don’t like to plan for the side. And the Democrat majority in the House passed this plan.
And a key thing happened. Phil Bryant, later governor then lieutenant governor, would not pass the House Democrats’ plan because the plan was drawn to help Democrats. And their theory was we were going to delay and the federal court said they could pass the plan after the 2011 election. And that was a key point because in the past, the federal courts have said, you know, “As soon as you can pass a plan, you got to pass it or we’ll draw a plan to match Census data.”
But the federal courts didn’t do it that year. And so the House and Senate ran under the old plans in 2011. The Republicans barely won the House that year by a slim majority, but they had the majority. And later in the 2012 session, after that, they passed a plan that really helped them. And that led to the super majority that they were able to garner in the coming years because they passed the plan that really helped their side win. If the House Democrats’ plan had been passed in 2011, then there’s a, you know, there’s at least a possibility that that Democrats could have you know, held on to control a little longer in a House, but it didn’t work that way.
I hope that was clear.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:04:58] It was, yeah. Yeah. You know, there are all those considerations, there are also considerations of race, so it’s not just party it’s race and that’s where the federal government often comes in and approves or rejects certain districts and how they’re drawn, right?
Bobby Harrison: [00:05:12] Yeah. And you know, when I was growing up, you know, believe it or not the, the power structure, Mississippi’s political power structure was not taking race into account. They were taken into account, but they were taken into account in a reverse way. They were trying to prevent African Americans from holding office.
Now I remember lawsuits when I was growing up and they determined one man, one vote. You don’t hear that as often now, but that’s what redistricting is. You know, the districts are supposed to be almost exactly equal in population so that somebody in one district, you know, cause you have a smaller population in one district that sorta alters the equal power from across the state.
So that one man, one vote issue came up and that’s when, you know, the lawsuits started. You know, African-American, small number of legislators began filing lawsuits saying we deserve a larger slice of the pie if you will. And the federal government stepped in and said that the districts have to kind of represent the demographics of the state to a certain extent. And that’s kind of where we are now. And so you could argue that because of the Supreme Court rulings that the federal government does not get as involved in redistricting and the states are free to do a little bit more.
But there is also court rulings that say, you know, once you have a certain number of black districts, you cannot regress, you can not do away with those districts. So there’s a certain number of African-American districts in the House and Senate. And those districts would have to kind of be as many or maybe perhaps more in the redistricting process.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:06:42] Sure. You know, Mississippi of course has the highest percentage of black residents of any state in the country. So this is obviously, it’s not just white and black, but obviously this is an issue that has been important to your point, Bobby, for a long time in Mississippi and has been treated as such certainly by the federal government.
And as recently, by the way that the federal courts ruled, what was that— three or four years ago that one of the Senate districts in Mississippi had been improperly drawn and the federal courts basically mandated the state Legislature redraw that district before the last election.
Bobby Harrison: [00:07:10] Yeah. And when they filed that lawsuit, it was a group including Ron McDuff and others who filed that lawsuit saying that that district was gerrymandered to elect a white Republican, if you will, in a predominantly African-American area, where you know those people vote Democrat and it was just drawn.
If you look at the map, I think the district was 102 miles long.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:07:32] It was a crazy district.
Bobby Harrison: [00:07:33] Went through several counties, started in Madison and ended way up in the Delta.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:07:38] In Cleveland, if I recall correctly.
Bobby Harrison: [00:07:41] The federal court said that that was a gerrymandered district designed to dilute black voting strength. And so it was redrawn and I just thought, “Why are they doing that? You know, it’s so late in the process.” But the key reason they did it was that it created another African-American district. And as I said, when they do redistricting this year, they have to take that into account and it’s hard to regress.
You can’t go back and reduce the number of African-American districts. So, that was a key victory, as you will, for racial diversity in the state and the Mississippi Legislature.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:08:13] Sure, sure. Just the practical reality of how this all works, explain to us the process in the Legislature of how they draw these districts and how they’re ultimately approved.
Bobby Harrison: [00:08:24] Will Stribling and I both, I think, wrote stories about the fact that we got the preliminary Census numbers I think back in April. And it showed that, you know, Mississippi is one of only three states in the nation to lose population. We didn’t lose a lot of population, but the fact we lost population is kind of a big deal.
But the state is scheduled to get the the final number, the real detailed data in September. And after they get those numbers the redistricting committee was start working with that. And the first thing they’re gonna do is try to do congressional redistricting and redraw those for U.S. congressional districts early into 2022 session because you know there’s going to be congressional elections in 2022.
And the qualifying deadline is March 1, I believe. So there’s going to be just not much time to redraw those districts so they have to do that first. And then after that, sometime late in the session they’ll start working to redraw the legislative districts. You know, in the House, Jim Beckett, veteran House member from Bruce in Calhoun County, he’s the chair on the House side. And Dean Kirby, the Senate pro tem from over in Rankin County, is a chair on the Senate side. And what they’ve done in the past is they meet with all the legislators and kind of go over their districts, what concerns that each legislator has and they try to accommodate those concerns to a certain extent, depending on, you know, whether you’re on the ends or the outs of the power structure.
And so they’ll do that. And you know, this is one area where the state doesn’t spare an expense. The state has a, you know, a top notch computer system, good staff to work on these redistricting plans. The public can actually make an appointment and go in and draw their own districts if they so choose.
And it’s kind of cool. I’ve done that before just to do it and I mean, it’s actually pretty easy to do. The computer system is so advanced and so that will begin to redraw the 122 House seats. And 52 Senate seats sometime, probably late in the 2021 session. But they’re going to have plenty of time, of course, because the next round of state elections where the House and Senate members will be on the ballot won’t be until 2023.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:10:24] Okay. Sure. So, and the expectation is that they have to do the congressional districts this year soon.
Bobby Harrison: [00:10:33] Well, I’m getting my dates right wrong, but they have to do them in the 2022 session.
And theoretically, they could wait till 2023 session to do the House and Senate, the legislative districts, but most likely they’ll try to do them in the 2022 session. And you said they had to do them if you could recall. And we reported on this too. It’s come up in a couple of stories.
In 2000, the 2000 Census when we lost a congressional seat. And after the 2010 census, the House and Senate could not come up with a plan. And those plans were actually drawn by the federal court.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:11:04] Okay. Yeah, sure.
Bobby Harrison: [00:11:06] But I think it’s safe to say that the leadership in the House and Senate do not want the legislative plans to be drawn by the federal courts.
They want to have the control of that and do that. And you know, this is kind of the time when bare-knuckled politics, especially behind the scenes comes into play because you know, you’re going to have, you know, because there’s population shifts there. Especially in the Delta, there’s population that has been lost and that’s an area where, you know, there’s a high African-American population.
So, you know, you got two things going on. You got the issue. I talked about regression where you don’t want, you can’t reduce the number of African-American districts . You got to go out and find those African-Americans in other areas of the state because just, you know, quite frankly, the Delta is losing population.
And so that’s also going to be an issue in the congressional redistricting. And so this is where, you know, there’s going to be somebody somewhere, some legislator who’s probably going to be put in a district with another legislator.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:12:01] Sure.
Bobby Harrison: [00:12:02] And so, you know, this is kind of where bare knuckle politics come into play.
And, you know, you know, somebody’s district is going to be, as they say “absorbed” by somebody else. And that person can look at the numbers and see where his people are and everything and knows he doesn’t have much of a chance to win. So it’s going to probably lead to some retirements in the Legislature.
And it’s going to lead to some hard feelings, but the leadership will try to accommodate most of the Republicans. And keep in mind that issue of regression and so they’re kind of walking a fine line.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:12:32] Sure. Is there any horse trading that goes on behind the scenes on, you know, “Don’t redraw my district and I’ll do X for you?” or “draw me out of my district,” rather. Not redraw.
Bobby Harrison: [00:12:39] Yeah. You know, that’s a big carrot or a stick depending on how you look at it. You know, there’s a key vote coming up and at the same time redistricting is, you know, or not just at the same time, but, for the past two years, legislators have known redistricting is coming up.
So, you know, that’s kind of an issue that they don’t want to offend that leadership.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:12:58] On their best behavior.
Bobby Harrison: [00:12:59] Yeah, that’s right. Yeah. Right now we have 76 Republicans and 44 Democrats in the House. And in the Senate, two Democrats have just resigned, but those are probably Democratic seats, but right now we have 36 Republicans and 14 Democrats.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:13:14] Yeah. Well obviously Republican, super majority in both chambers. I don’t suspect they’re going to do anything to draw themselves out of that super majority with this next redistricting.
Bobby Harrison: [00:13:24] No, but you know, there might be a Republican here or there that the leadership might want to make it a little bit more difficult for them to win reelection. And so you might look for those subtle redrawn districts to come up, you know this year or next year when they start doing this process. You might be able to tell who the legislative leadership really doesn’t like.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:13:41] We can speculate on some of that now, but we’re not gonna touch that. Bobby, it’s gonna be interesting to watch. I mean, it’s, it’s it’s a huge story. You’ve written about how this next legislative session could be a historic one for several reasons. This one is near the top of that list. You know, thanks for sitting down with us and walking us through it.
It’s kind of a complicated topic and time and action that the Legislature takes, but it’s just vitally important I think to the future of the state. So thanks for helping break it down for us and thanks for covering it.
Bobby Harrison: [00:14:07] Enjoyed it. Thanks.
Adam Ganucheau: [00:14:15] As we cover the biggest political stories in this state you don’t want to miss an episode of The Other Side. We’ll bring you more reporting from every corner of the state, sharing the voices of Mississippians and how they’re impacted by the news. So, what do we need from you, the listener? We need your feedback and support.
If you listen to the podcast on a player like iTunes or Stitcher, please subscribe to the show and leave us a review. We also have an email in which you can share your feedback. That address is Podcast@MississippiToday.org. Y’all can also reach out to me or any of my colleagues through social media or email. And as always thank you for your feedback and support.
Subscribe to our weekly podcast on your favorite podcast app or stream episodes online at MississippiToday.org/the-other-side. For the Mississippi Today team, I’m Adam Ganucheau. The Other Side is produced by Mississippi Today and engineered by Blue Sky Studios. We hope you’ll join us for our next episode.
Mississippi Today’s Adam Ganucheau and Bobby Harrison break down the redistricting process, which Mississippi lawmakers will commence during the 2022 legislative session.
Stream the episode here. Read a transcript of the episode here.
