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Gov. Tate Reeves, needing to shore up right-wing turnout, attends closed-door meeting with concerned conservatives

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HERNANDO — Gov. Tate Reeves rolled up in his blacked-out SUV to a DeSoto County church earlier this month to meet with conservative voters who felt uninspired about his first term in office.

The closed-door meeting, held in a traditionally GOP stronghold county where Reeves earned 61% of the vote last election, provided some of those voters a chance to quiz the governor about his decisions the past few years and his ideas for the future. But importantly, it offered the governor an opportunity to mend relationships with members of a critical voting bloc he must win over to be reelected in November.

Reeves, in a chaotic first term in the Governor’s Mansion, has regularly drawn criticism from right-wing Republicans — voters he’ll need support from to win reelection in November. Their list of frustrations with the governor has grown quite extensive.

First, he issued mask mandates and partial business lockdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic, a move medical experts recommended but voters in the right wing of the party thought was unnecessary and a ploy to force the government’s will on the people.

Next, after years of promises to let voters decide whether to change the state flag, the last in the nation containing the Confederate battle emblem, Reeves gave a half-hearted apology to his uber-conservative supporters before signing a bill that furled the old flag for good.

And perhaps most relevant to this bloc of voters today, Reeves mostly rode the fence in the 2023 Republican primary for lieutenant governor, when longtime conservative icon Chris McDaniel was challenging Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, the Republican incumbent who many conservatives panned as a Democrat in disguise. Hosemann eventually won that bitter race, and right-wing conservatives lost their leader in McDaniel.

READ MORE: Top GOP brass works to keep peace after Gov. Tate Reeves opines on lieutenant governor primary

Reeves, first elected to statewide office in 2003, was not a product of the Tea Party movement like McDaniel, and now that the Jones County legislator isn’t appearing on the November ballot, it could give the far-right bloc a reason to stay home on Election Day. Low turnout among that base of Republican voters could spell disaster for Reeves, who faces a formidable challenge from Democrat Brandon Presley on Nov. 7.

Inside the closed-door meeting at The Summit Church on Oct. 2, a handful of conservative voters quizzed Reeves on his track record and other issues. Don Abernathy, one of the meeting’s organizers, told Mississippi Today that Reeves was there to meet with so-called “McDaniel conservatives” to energize far-right voters ahead of the November election.

“The purpose was to get some of those people in a room with the governor,” Abernathy said. “People, of course, are going to get disenfranchised a bit after going through a bitter primary like we had.”

One attendee, according to Abernathy, asked the governor a question about the former state flag at the meeting, though he said the flag was not a major component of the event and couldn’t remember how the governor responded to the question.

“The guy who asked the question said he wasn’t upset about the new flag — he was just upset about the process that replaced it,” Abernathy said.

Other discussed topics in the meeting, Abernathy said, included medical marijuana, the state income tax and how Reeves would work with the supermajority of Republicans in the House and Senate — all major priorities for the ultraconservative faction.

Clifton Carroll, a Reeves spokesman, said in a statement that the governor is traveling all over the state and meeting with a “wide range of Mississippians who are worried that Brandon Presley has sold out our state to get $10 million from out of state liberals to run his campaign.”

It’s unclear what $10 million figure Carroll is referencing, and he didn’t answer questions asking how the governor responded to the question about the state flag or if the governor felt like he had a positive relationship with the far right faction.

But with the election less than a month away — and with some polling indicating Reeves is still under the 50% mark — the governor must feel some urgency to boost enthusiasm among conservative voters.

In an interview this week with Mississippi Today, McDaniel said that he believes conservative voters are generally dissatisfied, but he chalks it up to the “strange political environment we’re in” nationally and in the state, not specifically about Reeves or any other candidate.

“I am supporting the Republican in the race, obviously,” McDaniel said of the November election. “As far as any official endorsement or anything, Gov. Reeves and I have not discussed that. The last time I talked with him was about three weeks ago.”

Less than a month from the Nov. 7 election, though, Reeves’ schedule is revealing. He’s waited weeks to announce plans to participate in a televised debate with Presley, and he waited months to unveil a plan to address financial woes with Mississippi’s hospitals.

Instead, the first-term governor has spent time trying to shore up support among a conservative base that suffered a stinging defeat during the August Republican primary.

The pressing questions now are: Will those voters turn out, and how badly could it hurt Reeves if they stay home?

“There is an overall unease about everything,” McDaniel said. “There’s some dissatisfaction out there, but not necessarily with him but just the political climate … There is a chance that could equate to lower turnout (of conservative voters). Low turnout would be trouble for everyone. Our models are usually based on having good turnout.”

Mississippi Today reporter Geoff Pender contributed to this report.

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

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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1939, Billie Holiday recorded ‘Strange Fruit’

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mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-20 07:00:00

April 20, 1939

Billie Holiday recorded “Strange Fruit” about the lynchings of Black Americans.

Legendary jazz singer Billie Holiday stepped into a Fifth Avenue studio and recorded “Strange Fruit,” a song written by Jewish civil rights activist Abel Meeropol, a high school English teacher upset about the lynchings of Black Americans — more than 6,400 between 1865 and 1950. 

Meeropol and his wife had adopted the sons of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were orphaned after their parents’ executions for espionage. 

Holiday was drawn to the song, which reminded her of her father, who died when a hospital refused to treat him because he was Black. Weeks earlier, she had sung it for the first time at the Café Society in New York City. When she finished, she didn’t hear a sound. 

“Then a lone person began to clap nervously,” she wrote in her memoir. “Then suddenly everybody was clapping.” 

The song sold more than a million copies, and jazz writer Leonard Feather called it “the first significant protest in words and music, the first unmuted cry against racism.” 

After her 1959 death, both she and the song went into the Grammy Hall of Fame, Time magazine called “Strange Fruit” the song of the century, and the British music publication Q included it among “10 songs that actually changed the world.” 

David Margolick traces the tune’s journey through history in his book, “Strange Fruit: Billie Holiday and the Biography of a Song.” Andra Day won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Holiday in the film, “The United States vs. Billie Holiday.”

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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Mississippi Today

Mississippians are asked to vote more often than people in most other states

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Mississippians are asked to vote more often than people in most other states

mississippitoday.org – @BobbyHarrison9 – 2025-04-20 06:00:00

Not long after many Mississippi families celebrate Easter, they will be returning to the polls to vote in municipal party runoff elections.

The party runoff is April 22.

A year does not pass when there is not a significant election in the state. Mississippians have the opportunity to go to the polls more than voters in most — if not all — states.

In Mississippi, do not worry if your candidate loses because odds are it will not be long before you get to pick another candidate and vote in another election.

Mississippians go to the polls so much because it is one of only five states nationwide where the elections for governor and other statewide and local offices are held in odd years. In Mississippi, Kentucky and Louisiana, the election for governor and other statewide posts are held the year after the federal midterm elections. For those who might be confused by all the election lingo, the federal midterms are the elections held two years after the presidential election. All 435 members of the U.S. House and one-third of the membership of the U.S. Senate are up for election during every midterm. In Mississippi, there also are important judicial elections that coincide with the federal midterms.

Then the following year after the midterms, Mississippians are asked to go back to the polls to elect a governor, the seven other statewide offices and various other local and district posts.

Two states — Virginia and New Jersey — are electing governors and other state and local officials this year, the year after the presidential election.

The elections in New Jersey and Virginia are normally viewed as a bellwether of how the incumbent president is doing since they are the first statewide elections after the presidential election that was held the previous year. The elections in Virginia and New Jersey, for example, were viewed as a bad omen in 2021 for then-President Joe Biden and the Democrats since the Republican in the swing state of Virginia won the Governor’s Mansion and the Democrats won a closer-than-expected election for governor in the blue state of New Jersey.

With the exception of Mississippi, Louisiana, Kentucky, Virginia and New Jersey, all other states elect most of their state officials such as governor, legislators and local officials during even years — either to coincide with the federal midterms or the presidential elections.

And in Mississippi, to ensure that the democratic process is never too far out of sight and mind, most of the state’s roughly 300 municipalities hold elections in the other odd year of the four-year election cycle — this year.

The municipal election impacts many though not all Mississippians. Country dwellers will have no reason to go to the polls this year except for a few special elections. But in most Mississippi municipalities, the offices for mayor and city council/board of aldermen are up for election this year.

Jackson, the state’s largest and capital city, has perhaps the most high profile runoff election in which state Sen. John Horhn is challenging incumbent Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba in the Democratic primary.

Mississippi has been electing its governors in odd years for a long time. The 1890 Mississippi Constitution set the election for governor for 1895 and “every four years thereafter.”

There is an argument that the constant elections in Mississippi wears out voters, creating apathy resulting in lower voter turnout compared to some other states.

Turnout in presidential elections is normally lower in Mississippi than the nation as a whole. In 2024, despite the strong support for Republican Donald Trump in the state, 57.5% of registered voters went to the polls in Mississippi compared to the national average of 64%, according to the United States Elections Project.

In addition, Mississippi Today political reporter Taylor Vance theorizes that the odd year elections for state and local officials prolonged the political control for Mississippi Democrats. By 1948, Mississippians had started to vote for a candidate other than the Democrat for president. Mississippians began to vote for other candidates — first third party candidates and then Republicans — because of the national Democratic Party’s support of civil rights.

But because state elections were in odd years, it was easier for Mississippi Democrats to distance themselves from the national Democrats who were not on the ballot and win in state and local races.

In the modern Mississippi political environment, though, Republicans win most years — odd or even, state or federal elections. But Democrats will fare better this year in municipal elections than they do in most other contests in Mississippi, where the elections come fast and often.

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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Mississippi Today

On this day in 1977, Alex Haley awarded Pulitzer for ‘Roots’

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On this day in 1977, Alex Haley awarded Pulitzer for 'Roots'

mississippitoday.org – @MSTODAYnews – 2025-04-19 07:00:00

April 19, 1977

Alex Haley was awarded a special Pulitzer Prize for “Roots,” which was also adapted for television. 

Network executives worried that the depiction of the brutality of the slave experience might scare away viewers. Instead, 130 million Americans watched the epic miniseries, which meant that 85% of U.S. households watched the program. 

The miniseries received 36 Emmy nominations and won nine. In 2016, the History Channel, Lifetime and A&E remade the miniseries, which won critical acclaim and received eight Emmy nominations.

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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