At the Mississippi Press Association annual meeting, I heard both major party candidates speak over 30 minutes back to back. Here are highlights:
Republican candidate Tate Reeves:
— Reeves promises to focus on bringing jobs to smaller Mississippi communities, jobs that exceed the existing average wages in those communities.
— “When you look at the years before I became governor, Mississippi averaged $900 million a year in new capital investment in our state. In 2022 alone, we announced over six billion dollars in new capital expenditures across Mississippi.” Reeves then listed numerous new economic development projects from around the state. He highlighted “the biggest economic development project in Mississippi history, a $2.5 billion investment creating a thousand new jobs at almost $100,000 per year” in Columbus (Steel Dynamics).”
— “I’m proud that we’re up over 21 percent in per capita income in our state. That’s going to enable workers to buy more furniture, to buy more groceries and to buy more cars.”
— In terms of helping healthcare institutions, Reeves proposed to repeal the Certificate of Need (CON) laws that restrict new healthcare providers from opening new facilities. “Most people in Mississippi don’t know it’s illegal to open a new health care facility that competes with other institutions.” Reeves also promised to promote telehealth. He proclaimed once again he was totally against expanding Medicaid, as 40 other states have done.
— Reeves defended his opposition to raising the gas tax to fund highway investment, stating the state and federal money has made “road builders so busy they couldn’t take on any more business if you raised the gas tax to 18 dollars.”
— Reeves bragged about passing the biggest teacher pay raise in state history and keeping schools open during covid.
— Reeves made it clear where he stands on the gender wars: “Everywhere I go in Mississippi, I get questions about one topic: That the lines between boys and girls are disappearing . . . We signed a bill in Mississippi to prevent children from getting life altering experimental procedures. We made it very clear that in Mississippi, we’re going to let boys play boys sports and we’re going to let girls play girls sports.” Reeves challenged opponent Presley to state whether he would have signed that legislation.
— Reeves criticized the press for being biased against him. “I think my opponent thinks that you work for him.”
— Reeves promoted his experience, stating that the most federally designated natural disasters Mississippi has ever had in one year was four until Reeves’ first year in which there were 14. “Being governor ain’t easy.”
— Reeves sees his election as a mandate to eliminate the state income tax. “To compete with Tennessee, Florida and Texas, we have to be willing to be bold.”
— Reeves said educational statistics are better and referred to a New York Times article about the “Mississippi Miracle.” He said the prison system is “turning around.”
— Reeves made numerous humble comments about how he works for the people and makes his fair share of mistakes, but is trying his hardest to do the best job he can. He praised the spirit of the people of Mississippi. “I’ve been to far too many funerals for fallen police officers and tried to comfort far too many families who lost their homes or who lost their loved ones to high water and strong winds. But through it all, Mississippi’s spirit has shown through. I don’t care if those families vote for me or not because they are who I work for. They are my boss.”
Democratic candidate Brandon Presley:
— Presley opened with some humor, noting that he was mayor of a town of 1,906 people that’s half wet and half dry. “If you can do that, you can definitely be governor of the state of Mississippi.”
— Presley said he decided to enter the race because of the TANF corruption scandal that “exposed the deep infection of corruption in state government unlike anything we’ve ever seen. The funds that were taken in the welfare scandal — the volleyball courts, videos produced for Tate Reeves personal trainer, steak dinners, $75,000 vehicles, $11,000-a-month salaries, those dollars came from funds that were aimed to help families like the one I grew up in.”
— Presley talked about his struggle against poverty. His father was murdered his first day of third grade. His mother raised him as a single parent. “She sewed pants at Reed’s Manufacturing garment factory. I’ll be the only candidate for governor to admit it, but I’m proud of that. There were times when we couldn’t pay our electric bill and had our power cut off. We made do. So when I first heard about the TANF scandal, it made me sick to my stomach.”
— Presley said the TANF scandal was “emblematic” of how existing state government does business. He mentioned his opposition to the Kemper power plant, which ultimately saved ratepayers six billion dollars. “Kemper was a bad idea but the inside group wanted it. The governor wanted it. The lieutenant governor (Reeves at the time) wanted it. The welfare scandal exposed that corruption but it goes so much deeper.”
— “The bottom line is this: The average person in this state who’s out there just trying to pay for this three dollar gasoline, and pay this inflated cost of eggs, and try to get home and get the yard mowed on Friday to have a good weekend with their kids on Saturday and Sunday, they can’t find their way down High Street, figure out which door to go in that capitol, which little nook and cranny to hide in to pull some legislator by and fluff him up by calling him Mr. Chairman. I’ve seen it. You’ve seen it. It makes me sick. Because the folks like the people I grew up with, they have no choice, they have no chance with the current state of government.”
— Presley said he will support a “true ethics reform package” that will stop the unlimited ability of lobbyists to influence legislation and executive offices. “Lobbyists run the system and everybody else is just shoved out. We see people leave government service one day and they’re back the next day with a lobbying badge. It starts with banning legislators (and other office holders) from raising campaign funds while the legislature is in session.” Right now election compliance is a hodge podge. “Put it all in one place and get the politics out and return state government back to the people.”
— Presley said while on the Public Service Commission he brought broadband service to rural schools that AT&T and Comcast “didn’t know about or care about.”
— Brandon said “25 hospitals in this state are themselves in ICU. It’s not all tied to Medicaid expansion. I understand that. But the only reason we’re not expanding Medicaid in Mississippi, and let me be as clear about this as I can be, is cheap, childish, petty politics. Forty states have already expanded Medicaid including ruby red South Dakota and Oklahoma because they see the wisdom of expanding health care cover to people who get up and work every day for a living. It might not mean too much to you if you’re living in a mansion and you’re driving around in a state owned SUV but for the person waiting on tables in the Waffle House out here are on Lakeland Drive, it matters.”
— Presley advocates eliminating the grocery tax (which he said are the highest grocery taxes in the nation) and reducing car tag taxes by fifty percent.
