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In final words to voters, Reeves stokes fear and Presley pitches new ideas

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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.

Ballots are printed, polls are open and voters are ready to end this awfully contentious 2023 governor’s race.

There’s good reason the nation is closely watching what happens in Mississippi today in the race between Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley.

Republicans are hoping to continue their 20-year reign of the governorship and further their so-far successful effort to make Mississippi a one-party state. Democrats, meanwhile, haven’t had this much hope for a win since arguably 2003, when then-Gov. Ronnie Musgrove got beat by Republican challenger Haley Barbour.

For Republicans, that 2003 election was the beginning of what has become a nearly total grip on Mississippi government. For Democrats, it was the beginning of the end.

But today, Democrats have real reason to think they can reclaim some of that GOP control.

Reeves, one of the most prominent political fundraisers in the state’s history, has been outraised by $5 million. He’s consistently polled as unpopular, yet he faces a smooth-talking, affable cousin of Elvis, one of the state’s most beloved celebrities. He’s struggled to enthuse Republican voters ahead of today’s election, yet he faces an apparently fired up electorate targeted by the most broadly coordinated get-out-the-vote effort Democrats have waged in recent history.

Contemplating these strong headwinds in the last month of the campaign, the first-term Republican governor leaned into one major campaign theme: Fear. He’s worked to make Mississippians feel afraid of an impending infringement on “Mississippi values.” He and his allies have tried to convince voters that Presley is beholden to national Democrats, ignoring the fact that Democratic Party voters have recently made up nearly 50% of the state he leads.

The governor has pitched few new ideas all cycle, and he certainly hasn’t focused on them in the run-up to Election Day. Instead, he’s chosen to dwell on fear, fear and fear.

The final words many voters will hear from Reeves before they cast their votes today say it all: “The out-of-state liberals don’t just want to change governors; they want to change Mississippi. That’s what this race is about. The only thing that stands in their way is you and me. Let’s make our stand.”

Presley, on the other hand, has floated new policies to, he says, move the state forward. Yes, he has weaved in attacks of Reeves at every given opportunity, and yes, Mississippians are certainly tired of it. But in the same breath, he has contrasted Reeves’ record with three of his own ideas since the day he announced his candidacy in January.

Presley wants to expand Medicaid to provide health coverage to 200,000-plus Mississippians and address the state’s worsening hospital crisis, a policy change Reeves has long refused. He wants to clean up corruption in state government, pointing out regularly that Reeves himself has many ties to the state’s massive welfare scandal. And he wants to cut the state’s highest-in-the-nation grocery tax and car tag fees, ideas he says Reeves hasn’t worked to do in 12-plus years of prominent leadership roles.

“I understand where working people are in Mississippi,” Presley says in his final ad before Election Day. “Everybody cannot be born rich and lucky, and that’s why you need a governor that will stand up for the values of Mississippi. I’m running this race on the values that I learned in my small hometown where I was mayor and I cut taxes twice.”

But seriously, you may ask, isn’t Mississippi still the Mississippi that most of those folks watching around the nation think it is? Reeves today very well could earn the support many would expect of a Republican incumbent in this red state. Perhaps the Republican and Democratic pollsters who have been crunching the numbers are wrong, and Reeves isn’t nearly as unlikable as the data have shown.

Maybe the fear mongering from Reeves worked, and maybe Presley, who’s still not very well known in all parts of the state, couldn’t convince enough Mississippians that he’s not the big, bad liberal Reeves has made him out to be. Maybe Presley’s influx of cash from out-of-state Democrats scared off too many of the voters he’s been targeting.

But maybe the pollsters are right about Reeves and Mississippians are ready for a change in leadership. Maybe Presley did, in fact, do enough to sell voters on electing a leader with different ideas for the future. Maybe Mississippi voters aren’t falling for the fear tactics of Reeves.

That’s a whole lot of “maybes.” Maybe that’s why the country is watching so closely today.

We’ll know in a few hours.

Headlines From The Trail

Reeves, Presley make final campaign stops on the politically do-or-die Gulf Coast

Meet five young Mississippians voting for the first time on Nov. 7

Podcast: Chuck Todd, Curtis Wilkie discuss 2023 governor’s race

A Democratic governor in Mississippi? He thinks it’s possible.

The Mississippi governor’s race hasn’t been this competitive in 20 years

Elvis Presley’s cousin, an anti-abortion Democrat, on cusp of unlikely Mississippi victory

Dems find out tomorrow if ‘Blue Dog’ candidate will flip red-state Miss.

Elvis Presley’s cousin Brandon eyeing huge upset in Mississippi

What We’re Watching

1) The results, of course. Mississippi Today is your one stop Election Day source for previews, what to watch for, analyses, and real-time election results. Once results start rolling in at 7 p.m., this link on our site will have the live results.

2) Voting irregularities, polling place problems, hacked state computer systems, or scams. If you hear of anything or see anything, first call the Mississippi Secretary of State’s election hotline at 800-829-6786. If you’re inclined to report to us, we will do our best to get answers for you. Send concerns or questions to adam@mississippitoday.org.

3) Will there be a runoff? Republican and Democratic consultants have made it clear that they’re geared up for a Nov. 28 runoff if neither Reeves nor Presley gets 50% of the vote today. And one more thing to note: If the election is as close as some predict, a winner might not be known tonight. Mississippi Today’s Bobby Harrison breaks down this vote-counting scenario.

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 1865

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-24 07:00:00

Dec. 24, 1865

The Ku Klux Klan began on Christmas Eve in 1865. Credit: Zinn Education Project

Months after the fall of the Confederacy and the end of slavery, a half dozen veterans of the Confederate Army formed a private social club in Pulaski, Tennessee, called the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK soon became a terrorist organization, brutalizing and killing Black Americans, immigrants, sympathetic whites and others. 

While the first wave of the KKK operated in the South through the 1870s, the second wave spread throughout the U.S., adding Catholics, Jews and others to their enemies’ list. Membership rose to 4 million or so. 

The KKK returned again in the 1950s and 1960s, this time in opposition to the civil rights movement. Despite the history of violence by this organization, the federal government has yet to declare the KKK a terrorist organization.

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

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Mississippi Today

An old drug charge sent her to prison despite a life transformation. Now Georgia Sloan is home

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2024-12-24 04:00:00

CANTON –  Georgia Sloan is home, back from a potentially life-derailing stint in prison that she was determined to instead make meaningful. 

She hadn’t used drugs in three years and she had a life waiting for her outside the Mississippi Correctional Institute for Women in Pearl: a daughter she was trying to reunite with, a sick mother and a career where she found purpose. 

During 10 months of incarceration, Sloan, who spent over half of her life using drugs, took classes, read her Bible and helped other women. Her drug possession charge was parole eligible, and the Parole Board approved her for early release. 

At the end of October, she left the prison and returned to Madison County. The next day she was back at work at Musee, a Canton-based bath products company that employs formerly incarcerated women like Sloan and others in the community facing difficulties. She first started working at the company in 2021. 

“This side of life is so beautiful. I would literally hold on to my promise every single minute of the day while I was in (prison),” Sloan told Mississippi Today in December. 

Next year, she is moving into a home in central Mississippi, closer to work and her new support system. Sloan plans to bring her daughter and mother to live with her. Sloan is hopeful of regaining custody of her child, who has been cared for by her aunt on a temporary basis. 

“This is my area now,” she said. “This has become my family, my life. This is where I want my child to grow up. This is where I want to make my life because this is my life.” 

Additionally, Sloan is taking other steps to readjust to life after prison: getting her driver’s license for the first time in over a decade, checking in monthly with her parole officer and paying court-ordered fines and restitution. 

In December 2023, Sloan went to court in Columbus for an old drug possession charge from when she was still using drugs. 

Sloan thought the judge would see how much she had turned her life around through Crossroads Ministries, a nonprofit women’s reentry center she entered in 2021, and Musee. Her boss Leisha Pickering who drove her to court and spoke as a witness on Sloan’s behalf, thought the judge would order house arrest or time served. 

Circuit Judge James “Jim” Kitchens of the 16th District.

Instead, Circuit Judge James Kitchens sentenced her to eight years with four years suspended and probation. 

He seemed doubtful about her transformation, saying she didn’t have a “contrite heart.” By choosing to sell drugs, Kitchens said she was “(making) other people addicts,” according to a transcript of the Dec. 4, 2023, hearing. 

“I felt like my life literally crumbled before my eyes,” Sloan said about her return to prison. “Everything I had worked so hard for, it felt like it had been snatched from me.”

She was taken from the courtroom to the Lowndes County Detention Center, where she spent two months before her transfer to the women’s prison in Rankin County. 

Sloan found the county jail more difficult because there was no separation between everyone there. But the prison had its own challenges, such as violence between inmates and access to drugs, which would have threatened her sobriety. 

She kept busy by taking classes, which helped her set a goal to take college courses one day with a focus on business. Visits, phone calls and letters from family members and staff from Musee and Crossroads were her lifeline. 

“I did not let prison break me, I rose above it, and I got to help restore other ladies,” Sloan said. 

She also helped several women in the prison get to Crossroads – the same program that helped her and others at Musee. 

Sloan credits a long-term commitment to Crossroads and Musee for turning her life around – the places where she said someone believed in her and took a chance on her. 

Georgia Sloan, left, and Leisha Pickering, founder and CEO of Musee Bath, sit for a portrait at the Musee Bath facility in Canton, Miss., on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024. Pickering has supported Sloan through her journey of recovery and reentry, providing employment and advocacy as Sloan rebuilds her life after incarceration. Credit: Eric Shelton/Mississippi Today

Pickering, Musee’s CEO, said in the three years she’s known Sloan, she’s watched her grow and become a light for others. 

The bath and lifestyle company has employed over 300 formerly incarcerated women in the past dozen years, but Pickering said not everyone has had the same support, advocacy and transformation as Sloan. Regardless, Pickering believes each person is worth fighting for. 

When Sloan isn’t traveling for work to craft markets with Pickering, she shares an office with her Musee colleague Julie Crutcher, who is also formerly incarcerated and a graduate of Crossroads’ programs. She also considers Crutcher a close friend and mentor.

Sloan has traveled to Columbus to see her mother and daughter whom she spent Thanksgiving with. She will see them again for Christmas and celebrate her daughter’s 12th birthday the day after.

Her involvement with the criminal justice system has made Sloan want to advocate for prison reform to help others and be an inspiration to others.

“I never knew what I was capable of,” Sloan said.  “I never knew how much people truly, genuinely love me and love being around me. I never knew how much I could have and how much I could offer the world.”

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 1946

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-23 07:00:00

Dec. 23, 1946

Chuck Cooper Credit: Wikipedia

University of Tennessee refused to play a basketball game with Duquesne University, because they had a Black player, Chuck Cooper. Despite their refusal, the all-American player and U.S. Navy veteran went on to become the first Black player to participate in a college basketball game south of the Mason-Dixon line. Cooper became the first Black player ever drafted in the NBA — drafted by the Boston Celtics. He went on to be admitted to the Basketball Hall of Fame.

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

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