Mississippi Today
Brandon Presley, seeking supercharged governor’s race turnout, says he’ll campaign in all 82 counties

DUNDEE — Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley on Wednesday night rattled off a list of talking points about Medicaid expansion and New Testament theology to about 50 people crowded into pews at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church in Tunica County.
But what resonated most with many of the attendees in the tiny Delta community Dundee wasn’t Presley’s thoughts on the state’s infamous welfare scandal or the jabs he made at incumbent Republican Gov. Tate Reeves – it was that he simply showed up to ask for their vote.
“This is the first time that I can remember someone running for governor ever coming to Tunica, Mississippi,” the Rev. McKinley Daley, the pastor of the church, said.
Candidates for governor have made brief stops in Tunica before, but the minister’s sentiment underscores that the majority-Black region of the Mississippi Delta often feels left out of the equation when it comes to statewide elections.
The rationale for traveling to smaller communities, Presley says, is part of his strategy of shoring up needed votes and a campaign promise that he made in January to visit places that “haven’t seen a candidate for governor in years.”
The former Nettleton mayor and current public service commissioner is expected to court independents and moderate conservatives to his campaign, but his primary task will be attracting support from a broad spectrum of Mississippi Democrats that traditionally make about 40-45% of the state’s electorate.
To accomplish that goal, the three-term utilities regulator believes he’ll have to venture into sparsely populated regions of the Magnolia State and make his campaign pitch that his Republican opponent doesn’t deserve a second term in office.
“Are you going to come to Coahoma County?” an attendee asked Presley on Wednesday.
“Yes ma’am, I’m going to come there and to the 81 other counties in this state,” Presley responded.
Despite his early campaign energy, the presumptive Democratic nominee faces a difficult path to the Governor’s Mansion this year.
Democrat Jim Hood received 1,645 votes in Tunica County, and Republican Tate Reeves only garnered 637 votes. Though Hood, who is also white, outperformed his Republican opponent, neither were able to attract many votes from the county that currently has around 6,100 active voters.
About 75% of the state’s Democratic base of voters are Black, and Presley will have to encourage them to vote in the August and November elections — a failed objective for many recent white Democrats.
Pam McKelvy Hamner, who is Black, asked the white politician from majority-white Lee County how he would address the Magnolia State’s racial inequities and build a broad coalition of voters that crosses demographic lines.
“Look, I’m white, and I’m country,” Presley answered. “And I can’t do anything about that. You know, that’s the facts. But what I can do is get up here today and send a signal from the governor’s office that we work for everybody. That the health of Tunica County impacts Tupelo.”
But Presley, for now, appears to have forged relationships with Black leaders, where past white statewide candidates have not.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s only Democrat in Washington, endorsed Presley’s bid for governor on the same day the gubernatorial candidate announced he was running for the highest office in the state. Four years ago, Thompson never publicly and directly endorsed Hood.
State Rep. Robert Johnson III, the House Democratic leader in Mississippi, was quoted in a New York Times editorial on Thursday highlighting Presley’s early name ID challenges he will have to be overcome if he hopes to earn the votes of Black voters.
“In those neighborhoods, he’s still a white guy that nobody knows,” Johnson told the Times. “But he’s not afraid to embrace the African American vote in this state. He’s made commitments to do things that other candidates don’t do. It’s early yet, but the governor has been so bad that I think this time might be different.”
After the Wednesday event in Dundee, Tunica County Supervisor James Dunn, a Democrat who is Black, told Mississippi Today that he was not surprised Presley visited the Delta hamlet to speak to voters because he has previously worked with him, north Mississippi’s utilities regulator, on rural projects for the area.
“I feel like he’s not taking the Black vote for granted,” Dunn said. “Most Blacks are Democrats, but that shouldn’t be an excuse. I feel like he’s made serious efforts to build relationships with Black voters that other white officials and candidates in the past haven’t.”
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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Mississippi Today
1964: Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was formed
April 26, 1964

Civil rights activists started the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the state’s all-white regular delegation to the Democratic National Convention.
The regulars had already adopted this resolution: “We oppose, condemn and deplore the Civil Rights Act of 1964 … We believe in separation of the races in all phases of our society. It is our belief that the separation of the races is necessary for the peace and tranquility of all the people of Mississippi, and the continuing good relationship which has existed over the years.”
In reality, Black Mississippians had been victims of intimidation, harassment and violence for daring to try and vote as well as laws passed to disenfranchise them. As a result, by 1964, only 6% of Black Mississippians were permitted to vote. A year earlier, activists had run a mock election in which thousands of Black Mississippians showed they would vote if given an opportunity.
In August 1964, the Freedom Party decided to challenge the all-white delegation, saying they had been illegally elected in a segregated process and had no intention of supporting President Lyndon B. Johnson in the November election.
The prediction proved true, with white Mississippi Democrats overwhelmingly supporting Republican candidate Barry Goldwater, who opposed the Civil Rights Act. While the activists fell short of replacing the regulars, their courageous stand led to changes in both parties.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi River flooding Vicksburg, expected to crest on Monday
Warren County Emergency Management Director John Elfer said Friday floodwaters from the Mississippi River, which have reached homes in and around Vicksburg, will likely persist until early May. Elfer estimated there areabout 15 to 20 roads underwater in the area.
“We’re about half a foot (on the river gauge) from a major flood,” he said. “But we don’t think it’s going to be like in 2011, so we can kind of manage this.”
The National Weather projects the river to crest at 49.5 feet on Monday, making it the highest peak at the Vicksburg gauge since 2020. Elfer said some residents in north Vicksburg — including at the Ford Subdivision as well as near Chickasaw Road and Hutson Street — are having to take boats to get home, adding that those who live on the unprotected side of the levee are generally prepared for flooding.



“There are a few (inundated homes), but we’ve mitigated a lot of them,” he said. “Some of the structures have been torn down or raised. There are a few people that still live on the wet side of the levee, but they kind of know what to expect. So we’re not too concerned with that.”
The river first reached flood stage in the city — 43 feet — on April 14. State officials closed Highway 465, which connects the Eagle Lake community just north of Vicksburg to Highway 61, last Friday.

Elfer said the areas impacted are mostly residential and he didn’t believe any businesses have been affected, emphasizing that downtown Vicksburg is still safe for visitors. He said Warren County has worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency to secure pumps and barriers.
“Everybody thus far has been very cooperative,” he said. “We continue to tell people stay out of the flood areas, don’t drive around barricades and don’t drive around road close signs. Not only is it illegal, it’s dangerous.”
NWS projects the river to stay at flood stage in Vicksburg until May 6. The river reached its record crest of 57.1 feet in 2011.




This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Mississippi Today
With domestic violence law, victims ‘will be a number with a purpose,’ mother says
Joslin Napier. Carlos Collins. Bailey Mae Reed.
They are among Mississippi domestic violence homicide victims whose family members carried their photos as the governor signed a bill that will establish a board to study such deaths and how to prevent them.
Tara Gandy, who lost her daughter Napier in Waynesboro in 2022, said it’s a moment she plans to tell her 5-year-old grandson about when he is old enough. Napier’s presence, in spirit, at the bill signing can be another way for her grandson to feel proud of his mother.
“(The board) will allow for my daughter and those who have already lost their lives to domestic violence … to no longer be just a number,” Gandy said. “They will be a number with a purpose.”
Family members at the April 15 private bill signing included Ashla Hudson, whose son Collins, died last year in Jackson. Grandparents Mary and Charles Reed and brother Colby Kernell attended the event in honor of Bailey Mae Reed, who died in Oxford in 2023.
Joining them were staff and board members from the Mississippi Coalition Against Domestic Violence, the statewide group that supports shelters and advocated for the passage of Senate Bill 2886 to form a Domestic Violence Facility Review Board.
The law will go into effect July 1, and the coalition hopes to partner with elected officials who will make recommendations for members to serve on the board. The coalition wants to see appointees who have frontline experience with domestic violence survivors, said Luis Montgomery, public policy specialist for the coalition.
A spokesperson from Gov. Tate Reeves’ office did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
Establishment of the board would make Mississippi the 45th state to review domestic violence fatalities.
Montgomery has worked on passing a review board bill since December 2023. After an unsuccessful effort in 2024, the coalition worked to build support and educate people about the need for such a board.
In the recent legislative session, there were House and Senate versions of the bill that unanimously passed their respective chambers. Authors of the bills are from both political parties.
The review board is tasked with reviewing a variety of documents to learn about the lead up and circumstances in which people died in domestic violence-related fatalities, near fatalities and suicides – records that can include police records, court documents, medical records and more.
From each review, trends will emerge and that information can be used for the board to make recommendations to lawmakers about how to prevent domestic violence deaths.
“This is coming at a really great time because we can really get proactive,” Montgomery said.
Without a board and data collection, advocates say it is difficult to know how many people have died or been injured in domestic-violence related incidents.
A Mississippi Today analysis found at least 300 people, including victims, abusers and collateral victims, died from domestic violence between 2020 and 2024. That analysis came from reviewing local news stories, the Gun Violence Archive, the National Gun Violence Memorial, law enforcement reports and court documents.
Some recent cases the board could review are the deaths of Collins, Napier and Reed.
In court records, prosecutors wrote that Napier, 24, faced increased violence after ending a relationship with Chance Fabian Jones. She took action, including purchasing a firearm and filing for a protective order against Jones.
Jones’s trial is set for May 12 in Wayne County. His indictment for capital murder came on the first anniversary of her death, according to court records.
Collins, 25, worked as a nurse and was from Yazoo City. His ex-boyfriend Marcus Johnson has been indicted for capital murder and shooting into Collins’ apartment. Family members say Collins had filed several restraining orders against Johnson.
Johnson was denied bond and remains in jail. His trial is scheduled for July 28 in Hinds County.
He was a Jackson police officer for eight months in 2013. Johnson was separated from the department pending disciplinary action leading up to immediate termination, but he resigned before he was fired, Jackson police confirmed to local media.
Reed, 21, was born and raised in Michigan and moved to Water Valley to live with her grandparents and help care for her cousin, according to her obituary.
Kylan Jacques Phillips was charged with first degree murder for beating Reed, according to court records. In February, the court ordered him to undergo a mental evaluation to determine if he is competent to stand trial, according to court documents.
At the bill signing, Gandy said it was bittersweet and an honor to meet the families of other domestic violence homicide victims.
“We were there knowing we are not alone, we can travel this road together and hopefully find ways to prevent and bring more awareness about domestic violence,” she said.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
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