Mississippi sends three incumbents back to DC

by

MPB News

• Published on November 9, 2022 • Comments

Bennie Thompson taking questions from the press around 12:10 AM Tuesday morning outside of his campaign headquarters in Bolton. Thompson's race was called much later than the other districts due to some counties being counted very late.
Photo by Lacey Alexander

Mississippi's incumbents held serve during Tuesday's midterm elections.

Republicans Trent Kelly and Michael Guest were able to secure re-election. Kelly carried the first district over Democratic challenger Dianne Black. Third district incumbent Michael Guest bettered Democrat Shuwaski Young to secure a third term in office.

In the second district, Democrat Bennie Thompson defeated Republican Brian Flowers.

In the only race not featuring a sitting member of Congress, newcomer Mike Ezell - who unseated incumbent Steven Palazzo during the Republican primary - beat out former Hattiesburg mayor Johnny Dupree for the seat in the fourth district.

The second district race was the last to be settled Tuesday night. It was after midnight when The Associated Press made call for Thompson, when votes from Hinds county were counted to solidify the path to a 16th term. Ballots from many of the Delta counties had yet to be tabulated.

Thompson, the lone Democrat elected in Mississippi’s House races, says he hopes to bring solutions to the problem during this term.

“I still have a number of counties that, [as far as] access to technology, we struggle.” Thompson said, “Our rural counties tend to be a little slower in tabulating votes and all of that… we should be beyond that.”

Filer image — Trent Kelly chatting with supporters at the Cadence Bank Arena and Conference Center lounge in Tupelo Tuesday night.
Photo by Danny McArthur

In Mississippi’s first district, Trent Kelly defeated Dianne Black by a margin of over 40 percent. This is Kelly’s fifth term after first being elected in a special election runoff in 2015.

Kelly says his goals for north Mississippi are to increase education and health care and continue fighting for jobs. He is also focused on a much bigger picture: Republicans once again becoming the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives.

“I think we're just going to work real hard to do the things that cut inflation, lower gas prices, secure our border, the crime that is just going rampant in this nation…” he said at a watch party at Cadence Bank arena, “…do things that bring that back down to a sustainable level.”

Michael Guest also won re-election with just over a 40-point margin.

Guest saw a high turnout at the polls during this summer’s primary runoff with Michael Cassidy and says support for him in this midterm has been overwhelming. He says if Republicans win control of the House, they will first address inflation and infrastructure.

“We have to get inflation under control,” Guest said. “We've got to bring down the cost of goods for everyday Americans. I think we can do that first by trying to bring down energy prices.

“And while we recently passed an infrastructure bill, much of that infrastructure bill did not go to those key areas. And so I hope those will be things that we will work on as a congress, and hopefully be able to find areas where we can work with the administration and get some these items actually signed into law.”

MPB Reporters Lacey Alexander, Danny McArthur and Rhonda Dunaway contributed to this report.