Brandon Presley (left) and Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves.Photo:Brandon Bell/Getty; AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Brandon Bell/Getty; AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
Mississippi Gov.Tate Reevessecured a second term in office on Tuesday, defending his seat against an unusually strong challenge from Democrat Brandon Presley, the second cousin of legendary musicianElvis Presley.
“Mississippi has momentum, and this is Mississippi’s time,” Reeves told supporters in Flowood, Mississippi, reports theAssociated Press.
Presley, 46, was just one point behind Reeves, 49, inpollsleading up to Election Day, despite running as a Democrat in a state that’s exclusively elected Republican governors in the past two decades. Presley announced his sleepergubernatorial campaign in January, positioning himself as a self-described “populist, FDR-Billy McCoy Democrat.”
Presley also seized on Gov. Reeves' low approval ratings and along-running welfare scandal in the state, saying that he was running “because I know Mississippi can do better.”
Brandon Presley, the 2023 Democratic nominee for Mississippi governor.AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis
“We’ve got a state filled with good people but horrible politicians — and that includes our governor. Tate Reeves is a man with zero conviction and maximum corruption," Presley said. “He looks out for himself and his rich friends instead of the people that put him into office. And he’s been caught in the middle of the largest public corruption scandal in state history.”
That scandal emerged when it was reported that some $77 million in federal funds intended for Mississippi’s low income residents were instead directed to wealthy and politically-connected people in the state between 2017 and 2020.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves.en Cedeno/Sipa/Bloomberg via Getty
The outletfurther reportsthat Reeves had a meeting in 2019 with John Davis, the former director of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, who has since pleaded guilty to federal and state charges in relation to the welfare scandal.
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Presley, meanwhile, also has a history in Mississippi politics, becoming the mayor of Nettleton, Mississippi, at just 23 years old — at the time, the youngest-ever mayor elected in the state. Now an elected public utilities commissioner, Presley recently married Katelyn Mabus, a cousin of former Mississippi Gov. Ray Mabus.
source: people.com
