Mississippi Today
Gov. Tate Reeves defeats Brandon Presley to secure final term as governor
Republican Gov. Tate Reeves was reelected Tuesday, defeating Democratic challenger Brandon Presley in a tight race that political experts around the country had closely eyed for weeks as a potential upset.
But Reeves held Presley off, winning 52% to 46%, according to results at 11:30 p.m.. Third-party candidate Gwendolyn Gray, an independent, garnered about 2%. The governor’s margin of victory is expected to shrink slightly as tens of thousands of votes were still uncounted in Hinds County, which experienced major election problems on Tuesday.
RESULTS: Mississippi’s general election 2023
Reeves, the 49-year-old who previously served two terms as lieutenant governor and two terms as state treasurer, will serve a second and final four-year term as governor beginning in January 2024. He will be the first person in Mississippi elected to both two terms as lieutenant governor and two terms as governor.
โThis victory sure is sweet,โ Reeves told cheering supporters at his watch party in Flowood. โYou know, we all now know what it means in a state like Mississippi when you stand up to the national liberals and you stand up to Joe Biden. They threw everything they had at Mississippi โ $13 million they threw at Mississippi. But you know what? Mississippi did not bend, Mississippi did not break, Mississippi is not for sale.”
In downtown Jackson, many of Presley’s supporters left his watch party before the race was officially called. But at 10:45 p.m. Presley announced to dozens of attendees that he’d conceded the race to Reeves.
โTonight’s a setback, but we’re not going to lose hope because this campaign elevated issues that had to be talked about in Mississippi,โ Presley said. โMedicaid will be expanded at some point and you will have played a role in that.
โThis campaign’s been tough โฆ but I think we’ve seen the best of Mississippi through it. It’s been worth it to elevate these important issues.โ
For weeks, Republican political operatives publicly fretted over Reeves’ ability to enthuse the GOP voter base. In the closing days of the campaign, Republican elected officials swarmed the airwaves with pleas for turnout. And notably, less than a week from Tuesday, the Reeves campaign rolled out a video endorsement from former President Donald Trump that aired constantly on TV across the state.
In conservative pockets of the state on Election Day, Reeves matched or came close to matching the margins he earned four years ago against Democratic challenger Jim Hood. In Jones County, for instance, Reeves earned 66% of the vote against Presley. Four years ago, he earned 65% there.
And Presley did not make up enough of those Reeves margins with any other key demographic or locale. Presley hoped to perform better than Hood’s 2019 campaign in northeast Mississippi, but Reeves held his ground there from four years ago.
Presley also hoped to inspire outstanding turnout from Black Mississippians. Black Mississippians did turn out in droves in some majority-minority counties, voting in higher numbers in 2023 than in 2019. But without more white voter support for Presley, his gains with Black voters were not enough to offset Reeves’ success.
Reeves, in particular, swamped Presley on the Gulf Coast โ a region of the state that has long served as the governor’s political firewall. Presley did not, as he’d hoped, make gains in the three coastal counties relative to Hood four years ago.
Perhaps one of the happiest people at Reeves’ party on Tuesday night was former Gov. Haley Barbour, who was mingling among the crowd with a glass of ice-cold bourbon in his hand and a bright smile on his face.
The former two-term governor told Mississippi Today that Reeves won reelection because he’s โdone a good jobโ leading the state through natural disasters and the COVID-19 virus while promoting his office’s work on economic development.
โI sometimes say that his wife Elee has got more of a politician’s personality than he does,โ Barbour said. โBut he’s got a record that is mighty good to run on.โ
While Reeves avoided the upset, he underperformed relative to his seven fellow statewide Republican incumbents. All seven other GOP statewide incumbents won with at least 59% of the vote against their Democratic challengers.
And Presley, when all the votes are counted, will have gotten closer than any Democratic gubernatorial nominee since 1999 to defeating a Republican nominee.
Reeves, for his part, spent much of his victory speech on Tuesday night decrying national liberals, his in-state detractors and the press. He ended his speech with a more hopeful look toward the future.
โI know that over these 20 years, I’ve made mistakes, but I’ve never stopped trying to earn your trust,โ Reeves said. โI promise you going forward I’ll work hard. I commit that I’ll stand firm, and I’ll do everything in my power to rally our fellow Mississippians โฆ I want you all to know I value your trust. I’m humbled by your support. And I’m fired up for the next four years.โ
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Mississippi Todayโs NewsMatch Campaign is Here: Support Journalism that Strengthens Mississippi
High-quality journalism like ours depends on reader support; without it, we simply couldn’t exist. That’s why we’re proud to join the NewsMatch movement, a national initiative aimed at raising $50 million for nonprofit newsrooms that serve communities like ours here in Mississippi, where access to reliable information has often been limited.
In a time when trusted journalists and media sources are disappearing, we believe the stakes couldn’t be higher. Without on-the-ground, trustworthy reporting, civic engagement suffers, accountability falters and corruption often goes unaddressed. But it doesn’t have to be this way.
Here at Mississippi Today we act as watchdogs, holding those in power accountable, and as storytellers, giving a platform to voices that have been ignored for too long. And we’re committed to keeping our stories free for everyone because information should be accessible when it’s needed most.
Why NewsMatch and Why Now?
This year’s NewsMatch campaign runs from November 1 through December 31, giving us a special opportunity to make each dollar you give go even further. Through matching funds provided by local foundations like the Maddox Foundation, and national funders like the MacArthur Foundation, the Rural Partner Fund and the Hewlett Foundation, your gift will be matched dollar for dollar up to $1,000. Plus, if 100 new donors join us, we’ll unlock an additional $2,000 in funding, bringing us even closer to our goal. Boiled down: your donation goes four times as far.
Every dollar raised strengthens our ability to serve you with fact-based journalism on issues that impact your everyday lifeโwhether it’s covering local election issues or reporting on decisions affecting schools, safety and economic growth in Mississippi. Your support makes it possible for us to stay rooted in the community, offering nuanced perspectives that help Mississippians understand and engage with what’s happening around them.
Special Event: โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impactโ
As part of the campaign, we’re excited to host a special virtual event, โFreedom of the Press: Southern Challenges, National Impact.โ Join Deep South Today newsrooms Mississippi Today and Verite News, along with national experts on press freedom, for an in-depth discussion on the unique challenges facing journalists in the Deep South. This one-hour session will explore the critical role local newsrooms play in holding power accountable, highlighting recent restrictions on press freedom such as Louisiana’s โ25-foot law,โ which affects journalists’ ability to report vital news.
We’ll examine what’s at stake if local newsrooms lose press freedoms and will discuss how you, as members of the public, can help protect it. This event is open to Mississippi Today and Verite News members as a special thank-you for supporting local journalism and standing with us in this mission. Donate today to RSVP!
How You Can Help
Make Your Gift Today
Together, let’s ensure Mississippi has the robust, independent journalism it needs to thrive. Your support fuels our ability to expose the truth, elevate marginalized stories and build a more informed Mississippi.
Thank you for believing in the power of journalism to strengthen the communities we loveโnot only during election season but year-round. With your help, we’ll keep Mississippi informed, engaged and connected for generations to come.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Hinds County loses fight over control of jail
The Hinds County sheriff and Board of Supervisors have lost an appeal to prevent control of its jail by a court-appointed receiver and an injunction that orders the county to address unconstitutional conditions in the facility.
Two members from a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with decisions by U.S. District Judge Carlton Reeves to appoint a receiver to oversee day-to-day jail operations and keep parts of a previous consent decree in place to fix constitutional violations, including a failure to protect detainees from harm.
However, the appeals court called the new injunction โoverly broadโ in one area and is asking Reeves to reevaluate the scope of the receivership.
The injunction retained provisions relating to sexual assault, but the appeals court found the provisions were tied to general risk of violence at the jail, rather than specific concerns about the Prison Rape Elimination Act. The court reversed those points of the injunction and remanded them to the district court so the provisions can be removed.
The court also found that the receiver should not have authority over budgeting and staff salaries for the Raymond Detention Center, which could be seen as โfederal intrusion into RDC’s budgetโ โ especially if the receivership has no end date.
Hinds County Board of Supervisors President Robert Graham was not immediately available for comment Friday. Sheriff Tyree Jones declined to comment because he has not yet read the entire court opinion.ย
In 2016, the Department of Justice sued Hinds County alleging a pattern or practice of unconstitutional conditions in four of its detention facilities. The county and DOJ entered a consent decree with stipulated changes to make for the jail system, which holds people facing trial.
โBut the decree did not resolve the dispute; to the contrary, a yearslong battle ensued in the district court as to whether and to what extent the County was complying with the consent decree,โ the appeals court wrote.
This prompted Reeves to hold the county in contempt of court twice in 2022.
The county argued it was doing its best to comply with the consent decree and spending millions to fix the jail. One of the solutions they offered was building a new jail, which is now under construction in Jackson.
The county had a chance to further prove itself during three weeks of hearings held in February 2022. Focuses included the death of seven detainees in 2021 from assaults and suicide and issues with staffing, contraband, old infrastructure and use of force.
Seeing partial compliance by the county, in April 2022 Reeves dismissed the consent decree and issued a new, shorter injunction focused on the jail and removed some provisions from the decree.
But Reeves didn’t see improvement from there. In July 2022, he ordered receivership and wrote that it was needed because of an ongoing risk of unconstitutional harm to jail detainees and staff.
The county pushed back against federal oversight and filed an appeal, arguing that there isn’t sufficient evidence to show that there are current and ongoing constitutional violations at the jail and that the county has acted with deliberate indifference.
Days before the appointed receiver was set to take control of the jail at the beginning of 2023, the 5th Circuit Court ordered a stay to halt that receiver’s work. The new injunction ordered by Reeves was also stayed, and a three-person jail monitoring team that had been in place for years also was ordered to stop work.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
2 out of 5 child care teachers make so little they need public assistance tosupport their families
This story about child care wages was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit,
independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger’s early childhood newsletter.
Caring for children during their first few years is a complex and critical job: A child’s
brain develops more in the first five years than at any other point in life. Yet in America,
individuals engaged in this crucial role are paid less than animal caretakers and
dressing room attendants.
That’s a major finding of one of two new reports on the dismal treatment of child care
workers. Together, the reports offer a distressing picture of how child care staff are
faring economically, including the troubling changes low wages have caused to the
workforce.
Early childhood workers nationally earn a median wage of $13.07 per hour, resulting in
poverty-level earnings for 13 percent of such educators, according to the first report, the
Early Childhood Workforce Index 2024. Released earlier this month by the Center for
the Study of Child Care Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, the annual
report also found:
? 43 percent of families of early educators rely on public assistance like
food stamps and Medicaid.
? Pay inequity exists within these low wages: Black early childhood
educators earn about $8,000 less per year than their white peers. The
same pay gap exists between early educators who work with infants and
toddlers and those who work with preschoolers, who have more
opportunities to work in school districts that pay higher wages.
? Wages for early educators are rising more slowly than wages in other
industries, including fast food and retail.
In part due to these conditions, the industry is losing some of its highest-educated
workers, according to a second new report, by Chris M. Herbst, a professor at Arizona
State University’s School of Public Affairs. That study compares the pay of child care
workers with that of workers in other lower-income professions, including cooks and
retail workers; it finds child care workers are the tenth lowest-paid occupation out of
around 750 in the economy. The report also looks at the โrelative quality’ of child care
staff, as defined by math and literacy scores and education level. Higher-educated
workers, Herbst suggests, are being siphoned off by higher-paying jobs.
That’s led to a โbit of a death spiralโ in terms of how child care work is perceived, and
contributes to the persistent low wages, he said in an interview. Some additional
findings from Herbst’s study:
? Higher-educated women increasingly find employment in the child care
industry to be less attractive. The share of workers in the child care
industry with a bachelor’s degree barely budged over the past few
decades, increasing by only 0.3 percent. In contrast, the share of those in
the industry who have 12 years of schooling but no high school degree,
quadrupled.
? Median numeracy and literacy scores for female child care workers
(who are the majority of the industry staff) fall at the 35 th and 36 th
percentiles respectively, compared to all female workers. Improving these
scores is important, Herbst says, considering the importance of education
in the early years, when children experience rapid brain development.
This doesn’t mean child care staff with lower education levels can’t be good early
educators. Patience, communication skills and a commitment to working with young
children also matter greatly, Herbst writes. However, higher education levels may mean
staff have a stronger background not only in English and math but also in topics like
behavior modification and special education, which are sometimes left out of
certification programs for child care teachers.
You can read Herbst’s full report here, and the 2024 workforce index here.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
-
Kaiser Health News4 days ago
Vance Wrongly Blames Rural Hospital Closures on Immigrants in the Country Illegally
-
SuperTalk FM5 days ago
Tupelo teen Leigh Occhi declared dead after going missing 32 years ago
-
News from the South - Georgia News Feed4 days ago
Co-defendant takes plea deal in YSL RICO trial | FOX 5 News
-
Mississippi News Video3 days ago
Free Clinic of Meridian Celebrates 10 Years
-
Our Mississippi Home6 days ago
Nothing Is More Southern Than Black Eyed Peas
-
News from the South - North Carolina News Feed6 days ago
Wake County father killed in motorcycle crash
-
News from the South - Missouri News Feed6 days ago
Page warns seniors about property tax freeze sign-up events
-
News from the South - Texas News Feed7 days ago
NASA astronaut who was hospitalized after returning from space has been released