And then there were three – with more to come. Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced for Governor last week. She joins Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Andy Gipson and former Speaker of the House Philip Gunn as officially announced Republican candidates. Still in the wings are Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, State Auditor Shad White, and billionaire businessman Thomas Duff. No Democratic candidates have emerged yet.
The current field is stout, but four incumbent statewide officials running for the same office in the same primary would be historic, and not just in Mississippi.
The closest comparison I found was the 2010 South Carolina Republican primary which featured four incumbent officials, but only two held statewide positions – Lt. Gov. Andre’ Bauer, Attorney General Henry McMaster, U.S. Representative Gresham Barrett, and State Representative Nikki Haley. Haley became governor.
Several Mississippi primaries have featured at least three current and former statewide elected officials as candidates.
The 1978 Democratic primary for U.S. Senate featured sitting Gov. Cliff Finch, former Gov. Bill Waller, and former Lt. Gov. Charlie Sullivan along with new comer Maurice Dantin. That Cochran would defeat Dantin in the general election.
In 1939, Lt. Gov. Jacob Buehler Snider Jr., former Gov. Mike Conner, former Congressman Paul B. Johnson, Sr., former Speaker of the House (and future governor) Tom Bailey, and former State Sen. Lester Cicero Franklin sought the Democratic nomination for Governor. Johnson became governor.
The 1955 Democratic gubernatorial primary featured an illustrious field including sitting Attorney General James P. Coleman, former Gov. Fielding Wright, future governor Ross Barnett, and The Summit Sun editor Mary Cain. Coleman became governor.
Cain was the first woman to run for governor. Evelyn Gandy was the second. Attorney Vicki Slater was the third. Now Lynn Fitch is the fourth.
Fitch’s career path interestingly parallels Gandy’s. Both were attorneys who held administrative jobs in government. Gandy was the first woman to hold a statewide constitutional office, elected State Treasurer in 1959 and re-elected in 1967. Fitch was the sixth woman elected to statewide constitutional office, elected State Treasurer in 2011 and re-elected in 2015. Gandy was elected Lt. Governor in 1975 and Fitch was elected Attorney General in 2019. Both were the first women to hold those positions.
Gandy fell short twice in races for governor. Now Fitch is up for her first try.
NOTE: Lt. Gov. Amy Tuck, State Tax Collector Nellah Bailey, Supreme Court Clerk Julia Henrich Kendrick, and Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce Cindy Hyde-Smith were the other women elected to statewide offices.
“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” – Proverbs 31:30.
Crawford is an author and syndicated columnist from Jackson.
10 comments:
Potential can't be historic. Ask Evelyn Gandy.
On the slim chance (tween zero and 1%) she would become guvnah, imagine the furniture trucks that would be burning up the interstates headed into Jackson. Shadrack would be taking inventory for years.
Fitch is a BIG part of our problem as she is cozying up with a Muslim immigration attorney that has just been appointed to a judgeship by Tate Reeves. Are these people truly THIS STUPID. The answer is apparently YES!
https://x.com/senmclendon/status/2086150364462502092
When Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann announces he’s running this will be your Democrat, or one of them. The way Hosemann screwed those 16th section home Lessee’s in the city of Madison should be a main focus in order to do everything possible to defeat him. A typical lawyer wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Re: Thomas Duff, we need a full accounting of how much PPP money he took and whether his business(es) actually needed the likely millions or 10’s of that were added to our nation’s debt. If his business(es) didn’t need the funds, but took them anyway, we need to know where said funds went. Did he use them to buy a plane or investment properties like some of the other business owners did?
Bill Crawford is likely way too ill-informed (he’s got to stick to state flag non-issues) but hopefully Fitch, Gipson, Gunn or Shad will have the guts to make sure the above are campaign issues. This election is too important.
Does anyone have any thoughts on who can make the runoff?
Money is on Andy Gipson, the most "decent" of those running....or is it the least corrupt?
The 3 stooges. I am tired of picking the least worst. I’m sitting out this primary. Maybe I vote Democrat in the general election. Who is running on that side? This is pitiful.
A lazy woman, a midget, & a dumb hick.
Historic, indeed.
7:01 AM proves, yet again, that we get exactly the corrupt government we deserve.
Here’s a direct quote from the unofficial spokesman for the Democratic Socialists of America, Marxist streamer Hasan Piker: "We want more immigrants to come into your countries and then they're gonna f**k your sisters and then your daughters. We're here to destroy the White Race, Bitch."
Yep, that’s one of the major voices in the Democrat Party right now, but the 7:01’s of the world will swallow the bait every time (like the state flag non-issue Bill Crawford pushed to rile up rednecks with IQs low enough to sit out the election or even worse, vote Democrat (thankfully it didn’t work)).
We the people have THE power to control these sh_t eater politicians, but collectively, we’re just way too dumb to use it.
“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” – Proverbs 31:30.
And good luck finding one in the haystack of contemporary American women. So few of such exist that the Deity Himself would be challenged to run one to ground.
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