Mississippi Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves won Mississippi’s governor’s race, ensuring at least four years more of full GOP control in the state capital of Jackson.
Despite the state’s ruby-red conservative political status, Reeves found himself in a virtual tie until the very end against the state’s Democratic attorney general, Jim Hood, elected to that post four times. The Associated Press called the race with Reeves ahead of Hood 54%-45%, with most votes counted.
President Trump visited Mississippi on Saturday to rally the Republican base to vote for Reeves and at one point asked the raucous crowd why the race was even close.
During the 2016 election, Trump won Mississippi with 57.9% of the vote, while Hillary Clinton received 40.1%. Trump’s 17.8 point margin of victory was a 6.3 point increase over 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s 11.5 point margin of victory in the state over Barack Obama.
The Trump campaign took credit for Reeves’s win.
“President Trump’s rally and endorsement in Mississippi undoubtedly had an impact and helped Governor-elect Tate Reeves nail down his victory,” said Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale in a statement. “Governor Reeves will be a tremendous conservative leader for Mississippians in fighting for freedom and keeping taxes low.”
Outgoing Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, who is term limited, won reelection in 2015 by a 34-point margin.
The governor’s race is the final contest of a longtime political rivalry between Reeves and Hood. During their last debate in October, differences between southern Democrats and Republicans were on display.
Hood, who considers himself to be a moderate Democrat, steered clear of talking about the impeachment proceedings in Washington but often used the 2016 Trump campaign phrase “drain the swamp.”
Hood attacked Reeves for not expanding Medicaid in the state.
“The reason we haven’t [expanded Medicaid] in our state is one of the healthcare companies gave [Reeves] $262,000 to kill a bill that the Hospital Association got passed in the House and never got a hearing in the Senate because of those kind of campaign contributions,” Hood said of Reeves leading the charge to reject the expansion of Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act.
Reeves compared him to liberal Democrats on the national level.
“This was an abuse of power by the attorney general, choosing to investigate his political opponent in the middle of a campaign,” Reeves said of a Hood-led investigation into whether the lieutenant governor exerted political pressure to construct a state-funded road to his gated neighborhood. “In fact, he released a report in a time he believes was best to help him in the campaign. Quite frankly, his actions would probably make Hillary Clinton and James Comey blush.”
Mississippi’s flag was also a campaign issue this election cycle.
Hood said that Mississippi, which is the last state to have the Confederate flag emblem as part of it, should change its flag to “unite the state” but that the issue should go to the state legislature first.
Reeves, on the other hand, proposed that the voters should decide at the ballot box and state public universities.
