Reeves recaptures Madison to best Presley
Gov. Tate Reeves flipped Madison County red again for the state’s top executive job en route to a second term as over 36,000 voters hit the polls here on Tuesday.
Reeves lost Madison County to former Attorney General Jim Hood by a few hundred votes in 2019, but this time around the battleground county chose him over Democrat opponent Brandon Presley.
Reeves finished with over 1,400 more votes in Madison County than Presley, complete but unofficial results show.
With 95% of votes counted statewide on Wednesday, Reeves was leading Presley by nearly 40,000 votes or 52%.
“I just want to begin by saying thank you, Mississippi,” Reeves said upon taking the stage Tuesday evening after being declared the winner. “A few moments ago I spoke to Brandon Presley and accepted his congratulations. Brandon campaigned hard, he went to communities all around this state. Now, he and I will always have our differences, I think we made that pretty clear in this campaign, but I want to congratulate him on running hard all the way through.”
Locally, there was only one contested countywide race and Republican Circuit Clerk Anita Wray won handily over opponent Democrat Fannie Sanders with 62% of the vote.
According to complete but unofficial results, Wray received 22,014 votes to Sanders’ 13,533. There were about 2,300 absentee ballots and a few hundred affidavit ballots to be counted.
“I am so humbled,” Wray said. “I cannot tell you how humbled I am. I have received phone calls, not only from Republicans, but Democrats also, telling me they are proud I have been re-elected.”
Wray said the election went smoothly and they had no big issues aside from equipment failure here and there that was easily addressed.
District 4 Supervisor Karl Banks and District 5 Supervisor Paul Griffin cruised to re-election in the only contested supervisor races.
Banks, a Democrat, defeated Republican David Bishop with 62% of the vote, complete but unofficial results show. Banks received 3,770 votes to Bishop’s 2,305.
“I want to thank the voters of District 4 for turning out and understanding the work that I’ve done and I’ll keep doing that same work,” Banks said.
Bishop defeated Banks in an upset in 2016, only to lose in the Republican primary in 2020. Banks won in 2020.
Griffin, a Democrat, defeated Republican Chip Matthews with 68% of the vote, unofficial results show. Griffin received 4,628 votes to Matthews’ 2,221 votes.
“The people have spoken,” Griffin said. “I’m ready to go back to work for District 5 and Madison County.”
Griffin will begin his eighth term on the board in January.
Republican Barbara Gross received nearly 80 percent of the vote over Independent Randall Bolden for the District 2 Election Commissioner seat. Democrat Anthony Denton ousted incumbent Republican Dan Dickinson with nearly 60 percent of the vote. Redistricting took out Lake Caroline from District 4, which is a predominantly Republican neighborhood that Dickinson lost.
Incumbent Democrat Johnny Jims defeated Republican TchiaKousky Williams for the District 2 Constable office with 72% of the vote.
Statewide, all Republican incumbents easily won re-election and the Republicans picked up a few extra House seats. There were no gains by either side in the Senate so the Republicans retain their legislative supermajority.
The race was still too close to call for Central District Public Service Commissioner. Incumbent Republican Brent Bailey was trailing Democrat DeKeither Stamps by approximately 2,400 votes with 95% of precincts reporting.
Incumbent Democrat Willie Simmons was re-elected as Central District Transportation Commissioner over Republican Ricky Pennington with 55% of the vote.
Republican Clay Mansell, Independent Shanda Yates and Republican Celeste Hurst all cruised to victory in their respective House races that each encompass a sliver of Madison County. Republican Rep. Jill Ford of Madison was unopposed.