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Bill Waller’s 2019 campaign is still haunting Gov. Tate Reeves

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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.

Four summers ago, Bill Waller Jr. had Tate Reeves on the ropes.

Waller, the former Mississippi Supreme Court chief justice who challenged Reeves in the 2019 GOP primary, had forced the powerful lieutenant governor into a runoff after Reeves’ allies had spent months downplaying his primary challenger.

What began as a modest campaign for Waller swiftly picked up steam. He was earning notable support from suburban Republicans. Respected GOP party leaders spoke highly of him and several even endorsed him. In the run-up to the primary, it was clear that Waller was a force for Reeves to reckon with.

READ MORE: ‘I think he’s more electable than Tate’: Four past GOP chairmen endorsed Waller over Reeves

The reason for that was simple: a fresh, new-to-the-modern-GOP platform. Waller ran on three major issues that year that few previous Republicans had: raising the state’s lowest-in-the-nation teacher pay, improving the state’s crumbling roads and bridges, and expanding Medicaid to save sick Mississippians and struggling hospitals. And on those three issues, Reeves got absolutely blasted.

Teachers groups torched Reeves for his years of inaction on teacher pay. Roadbuilders admonished Reeves for not committing to improving the state’s crumbling infrastructure. Hospital leaders flocked to support Waller when Reeves famously dug his heels in on his refusal to allow Medicaid expansion.

We know the rest of the story. Reeves ultimately won the runoff by about 28,000 votes. But in the process, Waller defeated Reeves in 17 counties, including Reeves’ home county Rankin (Reeves lost by 20 percentage points in his own home precinct). So many Mississippi Republicans had rebuked Reeves’ positions on those three main issues.

So Reeves, after he won the general election later in 2019, responded.

In his first four years as governor, Reeves checked off two of those three major Waller platforms — though one should deeply scrutinize whether Reeves was truly responsible for either accomplishment.

In 2022, lawmakers passed the largest teacher pay raise in state history, which Reeves gladly signed into law and is now, interestingly, taking credit for. In 2023, lawmakers appropriated a heap of funds to the Mississippi Department of Transportation, which Reeves also signed. (Plus, the state is benefitting profoundly from President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill.)

But Reeves never did get around to addressing that third successful Waller platform idea: Medicaid expansion. In fact, Reeves has quadrupled down on his resistance to it. Most people blame Reeves solely for Mississippi not joining 40 other states — including many Republican-controlled ones — in passing the reform that would provide health care to at least 200,000 poor, working people.

Today, Reeves faces the same headwinds he faced in that 2019 primary against Waller. Democratic challenger Brandon Presley has made Medicaid expansion — and Reeves’ refusal to accept it — one of two main planks of his platform.

But this year, Presley has something that Waller didn’t have four years ago: a borderline insurmountable hospital crisis that every Mississippian is deeply familiar with.

Today, almost half of Mississippi’s rural hospitals are at risk of closure, according to one report. Many financially struggling hospitals cite major losses on uncompensated care, or services provided to people without health insurance coverage — emergency rooms by law cannot turn patients away, regardless of their coverage status.

Mississippi, which is home to one of the highest percentages of uninsured residents, continues to rank as the least healthy state in the nation. We are leading the nation in so many negative health outcome rankings.

READ MORE: Why so many top candidates are ignoring Mississippi’s worsening hospital crisis

A big solution to these problems, Presley has argued, just like Waller argued in 2019, is Medicaid expansion. As the health care crisis worsens, more Republicans than ever before support Medicaid expansion. In multiple polls conducted this year, more than 50% of Republican voters said they support expansion. Even incoming Republican Speaker of the House Jason White publicly says lawmakers will consider expansion in 2024, and that his party deserves criticism for refusing to consider it.

Reeves, meanwhile, is struggling to reach 50% support in polling ahead of the Nov. 7 election, and political operatives on both sides are preparing for the first general election runoff in state history, which would occur on Nov. 28.

Waller, who publicly considered but decided against challenging Reeves again in the 2023 GOP primary, must be asking himself how differently his 2019 primary runoff would’ve gone had the hospital crisis been at the forefront like it is in 2023.

In November, Presley just might be able to answer that question for him.

READ MORE: Bill Waller did not endorse Tate Reeves in 2019 governor’s race

Headlines From The Trail

Tight governor’s race has Tate Reeves putting in the shoe leather

Democrats keep hammering Gov. Tate Reeves for refusing Medicaid expansion

‘Help’s on the way’: What Presley plans to do for students, Mississippians

Mississippi could see historic turnout on Election Day, according to Democratic Party candidate for governor

Mississippi should set minimum wage higher than federal level, says Democrat running for governor

There will be major U.S. elections next month. Here are some to watch.

What We’re Watching

1) Brandon Presley on Tuesday called for an increase in Mississippi’s $7.25-per-hour minimum wage. It’s an interesting position to take late in a campaign, and one that has earned some bipartisan support in several other states. Many people in Mississippi, home to the nation’s lowest median household income and highest poverty rate, may appreciate the proposal. But not everyone. On Wednesday, a conservative blogger panned Presley’s proposal as “a familiar Democratic tune.”

2) Tate Reeves and Brandon Presley will be at the Mississippi Economic Council’s annual Hobnob event, where business leaders from across the state will hear speeches from candidates for statewide offices. It’s one of very few times this cycle where the two candidates have been in the same room. Presley speaks at 11:25 a.m., and Reeves speaks at 11:50 a.m.

3) Reeves is expected to travel to Oxford on Thursday evening for the annual Good Ole Boys and Gals event. A Mississippi political tradition for about 30 years, this gathering at a shed in the woods allows people to eat barbecue, then grill Mississippi political candidates one-on-one. Four years ago, when Reeves was running for a first term in office, Donald Trump Jr. attended the event. Might there be another high-profile guest this year?

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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Mississippi Today

Podcast: Ray Higgins: PERS needs both extra cash and benefit changes for future employees

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mississippitoday.org – Bobby Harrison – 2024-12-23 06:30:00

Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison talks with Ray Higgins, executive director of the Mississippi Public Employees Retirement System, about proposed changes in pension benefits for future employees and what is needed to protect the system for current employees and retirees. Higgins also stresses the importance of the massive system to the Mississippi economy.

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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‘Bringing mental health into the spaces where moms already are’: UMMC program takes off

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mississippitoday.org – Sophia Paffenroth – 2024-12-23 06:00:00

A program aimed at increasing access to mental health services for mothers has taken off at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. 

The program, called CHAMP4Moms, is an extension of an existing program called CHAMP – which stands for Child Access to Mental Health and Psychiatry. The goal is to make it easier for moms to reach mental health resources during a phase when some may need it the most and have the least time. 

CHAMP4Moms offers a direct phone line that health providers can call if they are caring for a pregnant woman or new mother they believe may have unaddressed mental health issues. On the line, health providers can speak directly to a reproductive psychiatrist who can guide them on how to screen, diagnose and treat mothers. That means that moms don’t have to go out of their way to find a psychiatrist, and health care providers who don’t have extensive training in psychiatry can still help these women. 

“Basically, we’re trying to bring mental health into the spaces where moms already are,” explained Calandrea Taylor, the program manager. “Because of the low workforce that we have in the state, it’s a lot to try to fill the state with mental health providers. But what we do is bring the mental health practice to you and where mothers are. And we’re hoping that that reduces stigma.”

Launched in 2023, the program has had a slow lift off, Taylor said. But the phone line is up and running, as the team continues to make additions to the program – including a website with resources that Taylor expects will go live next year. 

To fill the role of medical director, UMMC brought in a California-based reproductive psychiatrist, Dr. Emily Dossett. Dossett, who grew up in Mississippi and still has family in the state, says it has been rewarding to come full circle and serve her home state – which suffers a dearth of mental health providers and has no reproductive psychiatrists

“I love it. It’s really satisfying to take the experience I’ve been able to pull together over the past 20 years practicing medicine and then apply it to a place I love,” Dossett said. “I feel like I understand the people I work with, I relate to them, I like hearing where they’re from and being able to picture it … That piece of it has really been very much a joy.”

As medical director, Dossett is able to educate maternal health providers on mental health issues. But she’s also an affiliate professor at UMMC, which she says allows her to train up the next generation of psychiatrists on the importance of maternal and reproductive psychiatry – an often-overlooked aspect in the field. 

If people think of reproductive mental health at all, they likely think of postpartum depression, Dossett said. But reproductive psychiatry is far more encompassing than just the postpartum time period – and includes many more conditions than just depression. 

“Most reproductive psychiatrists work with pregnant and postpartum people, but there’s also work to be done around people who have issues connected to their menstrual cycle or perimenopause,” she explained. “… There’s depression, certainly. But we actually see more anxiety, which comes in lots of different forms – it can be panic disorder, general anxiety, OCD.”

Tackling mental health in this population doesn’t just improve people’s quality of life. It can be lifesaving – and has the potential to mitigate some of the state’s worst health metrics.

Mental health disorders are the leading cause of pregnancy-related death, which is defined by the Centers for Disease Control as any death up to a year postpartum that is caused by or worsened by pregnancy. 

In Mississippi, 80% of pregnancy-related deaths between 2016 and 2020 were deemed preventable, according to the latest Mississippi Maternal Mortality Report.

Mississippi is not alone in this, Dossett said. Historically, mental health has not been taken seriously in the western world, for a number of reasons – including stigma and a somewhat arbitrary division between mind and body, Dossett explained.

“You see commercials on TV of happy pregnant ladies. You see magazines of celebrities and their baby bumps, and everybody is super happy. And so, if you don’t feel that way, there’s this tremendous amount of shame … But another part of it is medicine and the way that our health system is set up, it’s just classically divided between physical and mental health.”

Dossett encourages women to tell their doctor about any challenges they’re facing – even if they seem normal.

“There are a lot of people who have significant symptoms, but they think it’s normal,” Dossett said. “They don’t know that there’s a difference between the sort of normal adjustment that people have after having a baby – and it is a huge adjustment – and symptoms that get in the way of their ability to connect or bond with the baby, or their ability to eat or sleep, or take care of their other children or eventually go to work.”

She also encourages health care providers to develop a basic understanding of mental health issues and to ask patients questions about their mood, thoughts and feelings. 

CHAMP4Moms is a resource Dossett hopes providers will take advantage of – but she also hopes they will shape and inform the program in its inaugural year. 

“We’re available, we’re open for calls, we’re open for feedback and suggestions, we’re open for collaboration,” she said. “We want this to be something that can hopefully really move the needle on perinatal mental health and substance use in the state – and I think it can.”

Providers can call the CHAMP main line at 601-984-2080 for resources and referral options throughout the state. 

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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On this day in 1997

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-22 07:00:00

Dec. 22, 1997

Myrlie Evers and Reena Evers-Everette cheer the jury verdict of Feb. 5, 1994, when Byron De La Beckwith was found guilty of the 1963 murder of Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers. Credit: AP/Rogelio Solis

The Mississippi Supreme Court upheld the conviction of white supremacist Byron De La Beckwith for the 1963 murder of Medgar Evers. 

In the court’s 4–2 decision, Justice Mike Mills praised efforts “to squeeze justice out of the harm caused by a furtive explosion which erupted from dark bushes on a June night in Jackson, Mississippi.” 

He wrote that Beckwith’s constitutional right to a speedy trial had not been denied. His “complicity with the Sovereignty Commission’s involvement in the prior trials contributed to the delay.” 

The decision did more than ensure that Beckwith would stay behind bars. The conviction helped clear the way for other prosecutions of unpunished killings from the Civil Rights Era.

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.

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