Mississippi Today
Transcript: Democratic leaders respond to 2023 State of the State address
Transcript: Democratic leaders respond to 2023 State of the State address
Rep. Robert Johnson and Sen. Derrick Simmons, the House and Senate Democratic leaders, responded to Gov. Tate Reeves’ Jan. 30 State of the State address.
Below is the statement from Johnson and Simmons.
Editor’s note: This transcript was submitted by the leaders’ staff and has not been formatted to match Mississippi Today’s style.
The Mississippi described in today’s State of the State is not the Mississippi lived in by the vast majority of our state’s families. It is a fantasy — a mythical Mississippi that we all wish we lived in. A booming economy; well-funded and high-performing schools; accessible, high-quality healthcare; economic opportunity for all; functioning infrastructure – it sounds pretty magical.
And it might as well have started with “once upon a time.”
As much as we’d like to believe in this fairy tale, for the rest of us, our Mississippi is a much different story.For many Mississippians, the reality is that our state isn’t working for us, it’s working against us. And far too often it feels like this place that we love so much doesn’t love us back. What’s most frustrating, though, is that not only do state leaders refuse to acknowledge your concerns and do their part to improve your lives — they’re ignoring our state’s issues outright, while telling us over and over again just how great everything is.
According to the most recent census, Mississippi was one of only three states that lost population over the last ten years — a decade that saw Gov. Reeves running the state Senate for two terms as lieutenant governor, where he decided on spending and slashing and what would be prioritized or ignored. But as we watched our kids and grandkids flee, our colleagues and friends leave for greener pastures, we listened to state leaders — including Tate Reeves — tell us that Mississippi was on fire, the state’s coffers were filling up, and that brain drain was just a figment of our collective imagination.
Tonight, again, we heard those same refrains and the same downplaying of the realities of life here in our state.
Since last year’s State of the State address, the healthcare crisis has reached a critical point. But while we have sounded the alarm, Republicans have neglected to extend postpartum Medicaid coverage for new moms; refused to prioritize sending money to rural hospitals; and continued to ignore the pleas of voters, advocates, policy experts, hospital leaders, and business leaders to expand Medicaid. We’ve been warned by the Department of Health there’s a growing area of the state in which there is no hospital to deliver a baby and we are navigating a severe nursing shortage.
Thirty-eight rural hospitals are in danger of imminent closure — that’s 54% of Mississippi’s rural hospitals. More than 200,000 working Mississippians are without healthcare. One in six women of childbearing age is uninsured. 46,000 Mississippi children are uninsured. The only neonatal intensive care unit in the Delta closed this year, where there is one pediatrician for every 4,000 children. We are number one in the nation for babies born with low birthweight. We have the nation’s highest fetal mortality rate. Our preterm birth rate rose to 15% from 14.2% the year prior. And just in case you thought this was an issue that only affected one portion of the state, you should know that preterm birth rates worsened in Harrison County, Rankin County, Jackson County, and Madison County.
Meanwhile, while they continue to insist there’s “more to being pro-life than anti-abortion” the governor and the party he leads have only made excuses for their inaction and vague promises that we have no reason to believe they will ever deliver on.
Gov. Reeves also continues to say that he’ll keep fighting to eliminate the income tax. The revenue from the state income tax accounts for a third of our general fund — the portion of the budget that takes care of the most basic services you expect the government to handle. Things like education funding and money for roads and bridges come from this portion of the budget.
Tonight, the governor told us, again, that “Mississippi continues to be in the best financial shape in its history.” And yet, 30% of Mississippi children are living in poverty. The Department of Mental Health’s workforce has decreased by nearly 4,000 since 2009. State employees – the men and women who keep our state running – are, on average, paid thousands of dollars less than their counterparts in all of our surrounding states. Our state’s schools have been underfunded by over $3 billion since 2007.Our long-neglected roadways continue to cost Mississippians, on average, $800 in vehicle damage annually.
If Mississippi has never been in better financial shape, how do you explain how many Mississippians are struggling to make ends meet? How are our schools still struggling to provide the basics for our students? How did our capital city go without water for weeks this year?How is our healthcare system on the brink of total collapse?
The fact is, it is not a lack of available funds that stops leadership from keeping its promise to the citizens they pledged to serve; it is a lack of interest. Slashing the budget and limiting government spending does, in fact, come at a cost. A human cost. Democrats are often criticized for just wanting to throw money at a problem, but that’s not what we’re doing here. There has to be a shift in the way we think about funding government services. It’s not just about spending money. It’s about investing in Mississippi, in Mississippians – and in the future of our state.
House and Senate Democrats have long offered up concrete ideas and common-sense solutions to move Mississippi forward. Year after year, we’ve authored legislation to address the increasingly dangerous healthcare crisis, raise the minimum wage, fix our state’s crumbling infrastructure, fully fund public education, make voting easier and more convenient, increase transparency in government, ensure equity in economic development so that all corners of our state have the opportunity to flourish, and now we’re working to restore the ballot initiative. We also led the charge on increasing teacher pay and a raise for state employees year after year — and not just when it was politically beneficial to do so. Today’s speech, like most of what comes out of the governor’s mouth, was not reflective of what it’s like outside the gates of the Governor’s Mansion; it was yet another audition to be someone’s running mate. He’s continued not to take his cues from what he’s hearing from you; but from what he knows will remind the producers at Fox News that he’s always available for a booking.
We wish that we could go along with the fairytale spun about the state of our state, but the truth is far more complicated than everyone living happily ever after. We have real work to do. The good news is, we know how to get started on making things better for all of us.
Mississippians share more values and principles than not. We care about what happens to our neighbors because that’s just who we are. We want our families to prosper and for our kids to have a better future and more opportunities than we did. But actions speak louder than words, and it seems that Tate Reeves only wants you to believe that he shares those values.
Our state is in desperate need of a leader who sees all of that and governs based on it — someone who brings people together, someone who will acknowledge the problems we face and try to understand the causes of them. We need a governor who has respect for his fellow Mississippian, someone who will lead with honesty and empathy and compassion, and who can make the best decisions for everyone, not just a select few. We need someone who can not only hear people but listen to them. We need someone who will wake up every single morning and get to work on improving this state.
Most of all, we need someone with the guts to stand up and say, “Enough is enough, it’s time to make Mississippi a better place. For everyone.”
We can do better. And if we want our kids and grandkids to have a fighting chance, we’re going to have to.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons 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.
Mississippi Today
Court to rule on DeSoto County Senate districts with special elections looming
A federal three-judge panel will rule in coming days on how political power in northwest Mississippi will be allocated in the state Senate and whether any incumbents in the DeSoto County area might have to campaign against each other in November special elections.
The panel, comprised of all George W. Bush-appointed judges, ordered state officials last week to, again, craft a new Senate map for the area in the suburbs of Memphis. The panel has held that none of the state’s prior maps gave Black voters a realistic chance to elect candidates of their choice.
The latest map proposed by the all-Republican State Board of Election Commissioners tweaked only four Senate districts in northwest Mississippi and does not pit any incumbent senators against each other.
The state’s proposal would keep the Senate districts currently held by Sen. Michael McLendon, a Republican from Hernando and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, a Republican from Southaven, in majority-white districts.
But it makes Sen. David Parker’s district a slightly majority-Black district. Parker, a white Republican from Olive Branch, would run in a district with a 50.1% black voting-age population, according to court documents.
The proposal also maintains the district held by Sen. Reginald Jackson, a Democrat from Marks, as a majority-Black district, although it reduces the Black voting age population from 61% to 53%.
Gov. Tate Reeves, Secretary of State Michael Watson, and Attorney General Lynn Fitch comprise the State Board of Election Commissioners. Reeves and Watson voted to approve the plan. But Watson, according to meeting documents, expressed a wish that the state had more time to consider different proposals.
Fitch did not attend the meeting, but Deputy Attorney General Whitney Lipscomb attended in her place. Lipscomb voted against the map, although it is unclear why. Fitch’s office declined to comment on why she voted against the map because it involves pending litigation.
The reason for redrawing the districts is that the state chapter of the NAACP and Black voters in the state sued Mississippi officials for drawing legislative districts in a way that dilutes Black voting power.
The plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, are likely to object to the state’s newest proposal, and they have until April 29 to file an objection with the court
The plaintiffs have put forward two alternative proposals for the area in the event the judges rule against the state’s plans.
The first option would place McLendon and Blackwell in the same district, and the other would place McLendon and Jackson in the same district.
It is unclear when the panel of judges will issue a ruling on the state’s plan, but they will not issue a ruling until the plaintiffs file their remaining court documents next week.
While the November election is roughly six months away, changing legislative districts across counties and precincts is technical work, and local election officials need time to prepare for the races.
The judges have not yet ruled on the full elections calendar, but U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Leslie Southwick said at a hearing earlier this month that the panel was committed have the elections in November.
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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