For decades, Mississippi was the poorest state in the union. Like Ireland, its most important export was its own people, leaving in search of economic opportunity elsewhere. Mississippi’s economy started to improve in the early 2000s, when then-Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS) initiated the Momentum Mississippi program to draw investment into the new sectors of financial services and high-tech manufacturing. The groundwork paid off. The Bureau of Economic Analysis calculated that Mississippi’s GDP grew from $66 billion in 2000 to $139 billion in 2022. In the last five years, Mississippi has grown more than in the previous 15 years.