All of the nation’s top election prognosticators – FiveThirtyEight.com’s Nate Silver, University of Virginia’s Larry Sabato, Charlie Cook, and Real Clear Politics – are offering projections and hedging bets over whether Republicans or Democrats will control the House and Senate after the 2022 midterm elections.
With extreme political polarization, high inflation, supply chain and chip shortages and geopolitical upheaval in Europe driving fear and uncertainty among voters and a high turnout anticipated, the debates are nothing but interesting. In Mississippi, there’s more certitude. But based on the outcome, watch the congressional committee system influence.
Neither of the state’s two U.S. senators is engaged in re-election bids in 2022, but both Sen. Roger Wicker, R- Tupelo, and Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-Brookhaven, have a lot on the line in the 2022 midterm elections.
Should the GOP take the majority in the U.S. Senate, Wicker is in line to become chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Wicker would be the first Mississippian since legendary former U.S. Sen. John C. Stennis, D-DeKalb, held the post,
The value of that chairmanship given Mississippi’s substantial military infrastructure, the state’s large Gulf Coast shipbuilding and central and north Mississippi aerospace/missile technology industries, and the Stennis Space Center in Hancock County is difficult to overestimate. Wicker is currently the ranking member on the Senate Commerce Committee with seats on the Environment and Public Works, and Rules committees, and a ranking member on the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (U.S. Helsinki Commission).
Hyde-Smith, with current seats on the powerful Agriculture, Appropriations, Energy and Natural Resources, and Rules committees, is likewise expected to advance in the committee and subcommittee system with a GOP majority.
The 2022 midterm elections and subsequent control of the U.S. House will also impact Mississippi’s House delegation. Changes in the committee and subcommittee system are also at play in these races.
Incumbent First District U.S. Rep. Trent Kelly, R-Tupelo, faces Democrat Diane Black in the general election. Kelly holds seats on the House Armed Services and Agriculture committees with subsequent key subcommittee assignments including Intelligence and Special Operations, and Seapower and Projection Forces. He holds a seat on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Currently the state’s only House committee chair, incumbent Second District U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Bolton, faces Republican Brian Flowers on Nov. 8. Thompson chairs the House Homeland Security Committee and chairs the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
Thompson, 74, has achieved “congressman for life” status in the state’s Second District and should cruise to re-election to a seat he’s held since 1993.
Incumbent Third District U.S. Rep. Michael Guest, R-Brandon, faces Democrat Shuwaski A. Young in the general election. Guest was forced into a second GOP primary with challenger Michael Cassidy but won that contest by a 2-to-1 margin and is expected to win in November.
Guest holds seats on the House Ethics, Homeland Security, and Transportation and Infrastructure committees with multiple subcommittee assignments.
After incumbent Fourth District U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo of Gulfport was rejected in the GOP first primary by almost 68 percent of the district’s voters, he faced a second primary runoff against Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell.
Remarkably, the other GOP challengers to Palazzo joined forces the next day to formally endorse Ezell in the runoff. Ezell prevailed to win the GOP nomination and faces Democrat Johnny DuPree and Libertarian Alden Johnson in the general election. Ezell is expected to hold the seat for the GOP.
Palazzo’s ouster will cost Mississippi a seat on the House Appropriations Committee and two relevant subcommittees. Seeing an incumbent congressperson with an Appropriations seat lose in a primary is not something one sees very often – but that may prove the biggest surprise of the 2022 Mississippi midterms.
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist. Contact him at sidsalter@sidsalter.com
9 comments:
"Thompson, 74, has achieved “congressman for life” status in the state’s Second District and should cruise to re-election to a seat he’s held since 1993."
Why shouldn't he. There is only one qualification that he needs to meet during his election, and it's not his record of doing anything for this state.
Because all Sid sees is pork. The country be damned, just bring the pork.
Sid is totally out of touch as usual.
There never really was a chip shortage. It was all just another scam and it worked. They were able to get congress to give them billions. The same scumbags paid out a huge settlement 10 years ago for price fixing RAM chips. Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Micron, Samsung Texas Instruments, and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corporation (TSMC) got paid and now they are laying off thousands of employees and while also cutting production due to a glut of outdated chips because of the crash in crypto mining. They are suffering extreme demand destruction and they simply want to keep the prices high!
Captain obvious is so insufferable. I just imagine he only writes this drivel for his fellow out-of-touch boomers. Does anyone actually find Sidney’s “hot take” to be insightful or compelling in any way?
One positive consequence unmentioned by Salter is that Bennie T will no longer use his soon-to-be-lost chair to bash Governor Reeves with an NAACP race rodeo.
Ho hum...commenters bashing Sid without any accurate facts to support their point of view.
Typical of party poison Koolaid drinkers.
Guest will have a choice between Palazzos Approp. seat and the Homeland Security Chairmanship . McCarthy has called.
@8.21 AM
Amen to your comment! Salter's perspective mirrors that of way too many Mississippians: How much Federal money can we funnel into the state to prop up our economy?
How about being creative and productive and generating jobs and wealth rather than taking a fair (or outsized) share of the wealth re-distribution.
Geez. Sickening.
3:52, bless his heart, is no doubt 32 years old at most. He has no idea that so-called pork has created multiple thousands of productive jobs and multiple millions of payroll dollars in this state over the past seventy years.
He has no clue that what he calls 'funneling money' actually DOES result in job creation, job retention and payroll approaching billions over time. Let me direct his attention to Ingalls, as just one example, and there are many others.
And he has no clue that his suggestion of 'generating jobs and wealth' (literally a hollow phrase) is exactly what happens when such things as military contracts land in multiple areas of this state. Somebody please help him understand that congressional power and committee positioning are what's required to make these things happen. Millsaps has failed him.
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