Mississippi Sen. Jeremy England has raised over $1,600 for a breast cancer charity after a critic called him a “groomer” because he wore a pink onesie with a mesh skirt and dyed his hair to match for a 2020 fundraiser.
The Vancleave Republican told the Mississippi Free Press on Wednesday that he decided to “see if we can’t raise some money off of some dirty politics today and turn this into a good cause while calling people out for shameful behavior.”
England said the criticism began after an advertisement aired on local television Tuesday evening in which he expressed his support for incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s re-election in the Aug. 8 Republican primary. Soon after it aired, he received a text message from Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, who is supporting Sen. Chris McDaniel, R-Ellisville, in the lieutenant governor primary.
“My family and I were just sitting there eating dinner and a text pops up from Melanie Sojourner—just my picture there with pink hair and a pink onesie. … It was an obvious attempt to let me know that she thought she had a shameful picture of me. It felt like they were trying to retaliate or bully me,” he said.
Mississippi Sen. Jeremy England, R-Vancleave, shared a screenshot of a text message he received from Sen. Melanie Sojourner, R-Natchez, on July 18, 2023, showing him in a pink costume.
England said he explained to the Natchez senator that he wore the costume to raise money for a breast cancer charity during Halloween 2020 when he participated in the Real Men Wear Pink awareness program.
“Back in 2020, it was very difficult to raise money for any sort of fundraiser at the time. We couldn’t hold events and gather in big groups, so my wife and I were trying to come up with ways to raise money, and she said, ‘Why don’t we pick three very embarrassing Halloween costumes and let them donate to which one they think is the worst?’ And I agreed to wear the winning embarrassing costume,” England told the Mississippi Free Press.
“So when that one