A hearing is set for Saturday morning that could disqualify two candidates for Sunflower County sheriff.
Incumbent Sheriff James Haywood submitted paperwork last week contesting the residency of candidates Bobby Walker, who is police chief in the town of Sunflower, as well as Hollis Myrick.
Both are running as Democrats.
Democratic Executive Committee Chairman David Rushing told The Enterprise-Tocsin this week that all other candidates were certified during a meeting of the committee last Saturday.
This Saturday’s meeting to determine the fate of Walker’s and Myrick’s campaigns will take place at the Sunflower County Courthouse at 10 a.m.
The E-T caught up with Haywood earlier this week, who is optimistic about the outcome of the hearing.
“There’s no need to make a mockery of the election system,” Haywood said, noting that a law passed in 2019 states that candidates must reside in the county they are running in for at least two years prior to the day of the election.
Walker told The E-T his home has been in Moorhead for the past 31 years.
“I’ve been a resident of Sunflower County all my life,” he said. “No matter where I worked, I never gave up my residency in Sunflower County.”
Walker said he has the documentation to prove on Saturday that he qualifies to run for office here.
“My home is in Moorhead, Mississippi,” he said. “I have deed to my house. I get all my mail there. My mailbox is there…Nobody can tell me where to lay my head at night, but my home is in Moorhead, Mississippi…It’s been there for 31 years. That’s when I bought my first house.”
Myrick told us this is “Politics at its best.”
“The truth is going to come out again, because I already had a meeting with the Democrats about their concerns that the sheriff will be contesting, but I’m born and raised from the county. I never left the county,” he said. “They have no proof that I do not stay in the county, other than them not seeing me every day.”
Myrick said he’s frustrated that he has to go for the second meeting, but he is confident he will prevail.
