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It’s primary election day in Mississippi. Here’s what to watch for.

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Voters across Mississippi will flood polling places today to select their favored candidates in numerous statewide and local primary elections.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. When votes tallies are counted this evening, follow along with our live, interactive results at the link below.

READ MORE: Mississippi primary election results

And if you’re wondering about polling place info or maybe want to see a sample ballot before you head to the polls, check out our voter guide below for all the info you’ll need.

READ MORE: Mississippi Today 2023 Voter Guide

Here’s what we’re watching in Tuesday’s primary election:

1) The Republican primary for lieutenant governor

Many consider the lieutenant governor the single most powerful job in all of Mississippi politics. First-term incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann faces a tough challenger in state Sen. Chris McDaniel, an arch-conservative who is no stranger to statewide politics. The two Republicans have been attacking each other for weeks in mail pieces and in television advertising.

Lesser-known candidate Tiffany Longino is the third candidate in the race. If neither Hosemann nor McDaniel are favored by a majority of GOP voters, Longino could play spoiler and force a runoff between the top two candidates.

This is far and away the headliner of today’s primary elections. Will election night produce the same drama as the actual campaign itself?

READ MORE: AG Fitch says she’s investigating PAC run by Chris McDaniel treasurer

2) ‘Game on’ for Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley?

You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who believes incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves will have much of a problem today against two little-known Republican primary challengers John Witcher and David Hardigree. That would be welcomed news for Reeves, who was in a much worse situation this time four years ago.

In 2019, Reeves only captured 49% of the vote on primary day and was forced into a late August runoff with former Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr., who earned 33%. Former state Rep. Robert Foster garnered a respectable 18%.

Assuming Reeves wins today’s primary, what will the margin be? And what, if anything, could Democratic challenger Brandon Presley, who is unopposed in today’s primary, take from those results?

Today’s primary will likely make official what Mississippi and national prognosticators have long believed will be an expensive, nasty and close few weeks of gubernatorial campaigning.

READ MORE: Rowdy Neshoba County Fair attendees show that bitter race for governor is officially in full swing

3) Another record Republican turnout?

Four years ago, Mississippi Republican Party leaders celebrated the party’s highest ever turnout in a primary election.

Looking at the gubernatorial GOP primary vote totals from the past statewide cycles, the upward trend is obvious:

  • 2019: 383,080 Republican votes cast
  • 2015: 277,407 Republican votes cast
  • 2011: 289,788 Republican votes cast
  • 2007: 197,647 Republican votes cast
  • 2003: 190,223 Republican votes cast

Looking at absentee ballots requested and returned for the 2023 primaries, one could surmise that Republicans will break the record again this year. Through this past weekend, Mississippi Today reporter Bobby Harrison reported, 45,199 absentee ballots were requested and 40,698 had been returned to the local circuit clerks. This is already up compared to the final numbers in the 2019 party primaries, when 42,096 ballots were requested and 38,237 were returned.

What does this trend mean, exactly? It’s hard to say. Perhaps Mississippi is, as GOP officials gleefully claimed four years ago, expanding its conservative voter base. They’re certainly continued expanding their slate of candidates up and down the ballot.

But maybe this trend is the effect of a virtually dormant Mississippi Democratic Party and a noticeable lack of high-profile Democratic candidates on statewide ballots. There’s new leadership at the Democratic Party headquarters, but it sure looks like they’ve got a mountain of work to do before they see any real shift in election results.

4) House and Senate race surprises

Republicans have for three terms now enjoyed supermajority control of the Legislature. Both the House and Senate are totally controlled by the Grand Old Party, meaning Republicans don’t need a single Democratic vote to pass any bill they want.

Don’t expect any partisan sea change or shift of legislative control in this year’s elections. However, recent history shows that we may be in for some big surprises tonight. Just four years ago, two of the top leaders of the House of Representatives unexpectedly lost their primary elections. House Pro Tempore Greg Snowden of Meridian and House Ways and Means Chairman Jeff Smith of Columbus lost to GOP primary challengers, shocking many political observers and drastically changing the upper realms of House leadership.

Will any current legislative leaders meet the same fate tonight?

5) Any big wins for the far right wing of the Republican Party?

For several years now, there’s been an obvious identity crisis within the Mississippi Republican Party. Three main factions of the GOP have emerged, and one of them — the far right wing of the party — has struggled for power and prominence even among their conservative peers.

Led by state Sen. Chris McDaniel and a handful of recruited uber conservatives running for statewide and legislative seats, this wing is hoping for some big wins tonight. As outgoing Republican state Rep. Dana Criswell put it to his supporters in an email on Monday: “The establishment folks have spent millions in the past few months in an attempt to end the conservative movement. This election is Mississippi’s fight for conservative government.”

If you’re keeping score at home, yes, Criswell is arguing that many Republicans on the ballot today are not true Republicans — RINOs (Republicans In Name Only), they’re often called.

Mississippi Today has a list of right wing candidates who are hoping to unseat Republicans in today’s primaries. We’ll have a full analysis of how they did later this week.

6) Down-ticket statewide races.

We have contested primaries for a few statewide offices and regional commissions outside of the governor’s and lieutenant governor’s races.

Three Democrats are running for their party’s nomination for Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce. The winner of that primary will face incumbent Republican Commissioner Andy Gipson in the November general election.

Incumbent Republican Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney faces a GOP primary challenger today in Mitch Young. The winner of that race will face Democrat Bruce Barton in the November general election.

And two of the three seats on the Mississippi Public Service Commission have primaries today. In the northern district PSC seat, currently held by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Brandon Presley, two Republicans are battling it out at the polls today: Tanner Newman and Chris Brown. The winner of this primary will be unopposed in November.

For the southern district PSC seat, incumbent Republican Commissioner Dane Maxwell has a primary challenger in Nelson Carr. The winner of that race will also run unopposed in November.

READ MORE: Carr claims Maxwell violated campaign finance laws

7) Don’t forget about the sheriffs and district attorneys.

If you live in a county where there are contested primaries for district attorney or county sheriff, you know exactly how much money gets pumped into these campaigns.

Several large counties have contested primaries for sheriff today, and there are six contested primaries for district attorney. These are very important elected positions of great power (further reading: Mississippi Today’s ongoing investigation with The New York Times of the long unchecked power of Mississippi sheriffs).

Another thing to ponder: These local races usually drive up turnout for the statewide races. If, say, Hosemann beats McDaniel tonight, you may hear him thank Harrison County and DeSoto County sheriff primary winners from the podium at his election watch party. Those farther up the ticket often do, in fact, ride the coattails of the local candidates running near the bottom of the ballot.

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

Mississippi Today

On this day in 1911

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-21 07:00:00

Dec. 21, 1911

A colorized photograph of Josh Gibson, who was playing with the Homestead Grays Credit: Wikipedia

Josh Gibson, the Negro League’s “Home Run King,” was born in Buena Vista, Georgia. 

When the family’s farm suffered, they moved to Pittsburgh, and Gibson tried baseball at age 16. He eventually played for a semi-pro team in Pittsburgh and became known for his towering home runs. 

He was watching the Homestead Grays play on July 25, 1930, when the catcher injured his hand. Team members called for Gibson, sitting in the stands, to join them. He was such a talented catcher that base runners were more reluctant to steal. He hit the baseball so hard and so far (580 feet once at Yankee Stadium) that he became the second-highest paid player in the Negro Leagues behind Satchel Paige, with both of them entering the National Baseball Hame of Fame. 

The Hall estimated that Gibson hit nearly 800 homers in his 17-year career and had a lifetime batting average of .359. Gibson was portrayed in the 1996 TV movie, “Soul of the Game,” by Mykelti Williamson. Blair Underwood played Jackie Robinson, Delroy Lindo portrayed Satchel Paige, and Harvey Williams played “Cat” Mays, the father of the legendary Willie Mays. 

Gibson has now been honored with a statue outside the Washington Nationals’ ballpark.

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 1958

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mississippitoday.org – Jerry Mitchell – 2024-12-20 07:00:00

Dec. 20, 1958

Bruce Boynton played a key role in the U.S. Supreme Court case that led to the Freedom Riders protests of 1961. Credit: Jay Reeves/Associated Press

Bruce Boynton was heading home on a Trailways bus when he arrived in Richmond, Virginia, at about 8 p.m. The 21-year-old student at Howard University School of Law — whose parents, Amelia Boynton Robinson and Sam Boynton, were at the forefront of the push for equal voting rights in Selma — headed for the restaurant inside the bus terminal. 

The “Black” section looked “very unsanitary,” with water on the floor. The “white” section looked “clinically clean,” so he sat down and asked a waitress for a cheeseburger and a tea. She asked him to move to the “Black” section. An assistant manager followed, poking his finger in his face and hurling a racial epithet. Then an officer handcuffed him, arresting him for trespassing. 

Boynton spent the night in jail and was fined $10, but the law student wouldn’t let it go. Knowing the law, he appealed, saying the “white” section in the bus terminal’s restaurant violated the Interstate Commerce Act. Two years later, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed. “Interstate passengers have to eat, and they have a right to expect that this essential transportation food service,” Justice Hugo Black wrote, “would be rendered without discrimination prohibited by the Interstate Commerce Act.” 

A year later, dozens of Freedom Riders rode on buses through the South, testing the law. In 1965, Boynton’s mother was beaten unconscious on the day known as “Bloody Sunday,” where law enforcement officials beat those marching across the Selma bridge in Alabama. The photograph of Bruce Boynton holding his mother after her beating went around the world, inspiring changes in voting rights laws. 

He worked the rest of his life as a civil rights attorney and died in 2020.

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

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Mississippi Today

‘Something to be proud of’: Dual-credit students in Mississippi go to college at nation’s highest rate

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mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2024-12-20 06:00:00

Mississippi high school students who take dual-credit courses go to college at the nation’s highest rate, according to a recent report. 

It’s generally true that students who take college classes while in high school attend college at higher rates than their peers. Earlier this year, a study from the Community College Research Center at Teacher’s College, Columbia University found that nationally, 81% of dual-credit students go to college. 

In Mississippi, that number shoots up to 93%, meaning the vast majority of the state’s high school students who take college classes enroll in a two- or four-year university. 

“When we did this ranking, boom, right to the top it went,” said John Fink, a senior research associate and program lead at the research center who co-authored the study. 

State officials say there’s likely no silver bullet for the high rate at which Mississippi’s dual-credit students enroll in college. Here, “dual credit” means a course that students can take for both high school and college credit. It’s different from “dual enrollment,” which refers to a high school student who is also enrolled at a community college. 

In the last 10 years, participation in these programs has virtually exploded among Mississippi high school students. In 2014, about 5,900 students took dual-credit courses in Mississippi, according to the Mississippi Community College Board. 

Now, it’s more than 18,000. 

“It reduces time to completion on the post-secondary level,” said Kell Smith, Mississippi C0mmunity College Board’s executive director. “It potentially reduces debt because students are taking classes at the community college while they’re still in high school, and it also just exposes high school students to what post-secondary course work is like.” 

“It’s something to be proud of,” he added. 

There are numerous reasons why Mississippi’s dual-credit courses have been attracting more and more students and helping them enroll in college at the nation’s highest rate, officials say. 

With a few college credits under their belt, students may be more inspired to go for a college degree since it’s closer in reach. Dual-credit courses can also build confidence in students who were on the fence about college without requiring them to take a high-stakes test in the spring. And the Mississippi Department of Education’s accountability model ensures that school districts are offering advanced courses like dual credit.

Plus, Mississippi’s 15 community colleges reach more corners of the state, meaning districts that may not be able to offer Advanced Placement courses can likely partner with a nearby community college.

“They’re sometimes like the only provider in many communities, and they’re oftentimes the most affordable providers,” Fink said.

Test score requirements can pose a barrier to students who want to take dual-credit courses, but that may be less of a factor in Mississippi. While the state requires students to score a 19 on ACT Math to take certain courses, which is above the state average, a 17 on the ACT Reading, below the state average of 17.9, is enough for other courses. 

Transportation is another barrier that many high schools have eliminated by offering dual-credit courses on their campuses, making it so students don’t have to commute to the community colleges to take classes. 

“They can leave one classroom, go next door, and they’re sitting in a college class,” said Wendy Clemons, the Mississippi Department of Education’s associate state superintendent for secondary education. 

This also means high school counselors can work directly with dual-credit students to encourage them to pursue some form of college.

“It is much less difficult to graduate and not go to college when you already possess 12 hours of credit,” Clemons said.

Word-of-mouth is just as key.

“First of all, I think parents and community members know more about it,” Clemons said, “They have almost come to expect it, in a way.” 

This all translates to benefits to students. Students who take dual-credit courses are more likely to finish college on time. They can save on student debt.

But not all Mississippi students are benefiting equally, Fink said. Thr research center’s report found that Black students in Mississippi and across the country were less likely to pursue dual-credit opportunities. 

“The challenge like we see in essentially every state is that who’s in dual enrollment is not really reflective of who’s in high school,” Fink said.

Without more study, it’s hard to say specifically why this disparity exists in Mississippi, but Fink said research has generally shown it stems from elitist beliefs about who qualifies for dual-credit courses. Test score requirements can be another factor, along with underresourced school districts. 

“The conventional thinking is (that) dual enrollment is just … another gifted-and-talented program?” Fink said. “It has all this baggage that is racialized … versus, are we thinking about these as opportunities for any high school student?”

Another factor may be the cost of dual-credit courses, which is not uniform throughout the state. Depending on where they live, some students may pay more for dual-credit courses depending on the agreements their school districts have struck with local community colleges and universities. 

This isn’t just an equity issue for students — it affects the institutions, too. 

“You know, we’ve seen that dual-credit at the community college level can be a double-edged sword,” Smith said. “We lose students who oftentimes … want to stay as long as they can, but there are only so many hours they can take at a community college. 

Dual-credit courses, which are often offered at a free or reduced price, can also result in less revenue to the college. 

“Dual credit does come at a financial price for some community colleges, because of the deeply discounted rates that they offer it,” Smith said. “The more students that you have taking dual-credit courses, the more the colleges can lose.” 

State officials are also working to turn the double-edged sword into a win-win for students and institutions. 

One promising direction is career-technical education. Right now, the vast majority of dual credit students enroll in academic courses, such as general education classes like Composition 1 or 2 that they will need for any kind of college degree. 

“CTE is far more expensive to teach,” Clemons said.

Smith hopes that state officials can work to offer more dual-credit career-technical classes. 

“If a student knows they want to enroll in career-tech in one of our community colleges, let’s load them up,” Smith said. “Those students are more likely to enter the workforce quicker. If you want to take the career-tech path, that’s your ultimate goal.”

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

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