Gov. Tate Reeves won the Republican nomination for governor with almost 75% of the vote on Tuesday night, the Associated Press projected.
With 92% of the vote in on Tuesday night, opponent Dr. John Witcher had about 18% of the vote and David Hardigree claimed about 8%.
The incumbent governor will face Democratic candidate Brandon Presley Nov. 7 general election. The Republican governor has focused his campaign on what he calls “strong conservative values.”
“Conservative policies work, and we’re proving it every single day right here in Mississippi,” he told the press in July.
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Reeves touts the unemployment rate, which is now at a historic low of about 3.1% (The labor-force participation rate, which measures the percentage of working-age Mississippians in the labor force, is also at historic lows, however). He also touted rising test scores in schools and the large pay raise teachers received when Reeves signed the START Act into law in 2022.
“This is not an accident; this a result of good decisions made by conservative leaders,” the governor said at the Neshoba County Fair.
Presley, a public service commissioner for the Northern District of the Mississippi, blames Reeves for a raft of hospital closures, layoffs and cutbacks statewide; he cites the governor’s refusal to expand Medicaid. Mississippi is one of 10 states that has yet to expand Medicaid.
“He’s fiddling while our hospitals are burning to the ground, and he doesn’t care,” Presley said at the Neshoba County Fair.
Instead of Medicaid expansion, Reeves has proposed reforming the state’s certificate-of-needs laws to foster more competition and suggested Mississippians get “better, more higher-paying jobs” to have access to health care.
If elected, Reeves wants to axe the income tax, while Presley wants to eliminate the grocery tax and reduce car tag fees. Mississippi is one of three states that has a full tax rate on groceries, with the highest grocery tax in the nation.
Presley says he is more aligned with working-class Mississippians and that Reeves “doesn’t have a clue as to what people in Mississippi are struggling with.”
“I understand where working people are in Mississippi,”
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