Gubernatorial candidate and Ag Commish Andy Gipson issued the following statement and map on Facebook.
IT’S TIME FOR BENNIE THOMPSON TO GO. Mississippi Conservatives agree with me, it is time for Bennie Thompson to go! Folks have lots of questions, like why isn’t Mississippi redrawing the lines … now??
Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee and others are acting now. Why isn’t Mississippi?
Well, Mississippi absolutely needs to act. The problem is, unlike other states, our Legislature is not in Session at the present time. As a result - under our State Constitution, only the Governor can give the call to action.
Here are some facts you should know about redistricting and where we stand after the Callais decision.
Status of Congressional District Lines. January 25, 2022 - That is when the Mississippi Legislature most recently redrew the district lines for our four Congressional seats. Two general elections have occurred since then (in 2022 and 2024), plus a primary election held this past March, 2026 with congressional elections set for November 3rd this year. Unlike other states, Mississippi has already held our primaries and as of today no federal court has ruled the existing congressional districts should be withdrawn.
I believe they should be redrawn on the basis of Callais.
Legally and constitutionally, redistricting is required after every 10-year census, most recently the 2020 census. This is to guarantee “one man, one vote.” Redistricting is also required after a federal court finds that the districts violate the Voting Rights Act. In the recent Callais decision by the US Supreme Court, a Louisiana district was thrown out by a court and required to be redrawn because it was drawn “predominantly” on the basis of race.
You can study our current Congressional map down to the precinct level here: https://gis.mississippi.edu/.../webappviewer/index.html...
The Callais decision held it is ILLEGAL to draw a district predominantly on the basis of race. That is the right decision and is the law of the land! Mississippi certainly needs to redraw our districts on the basis of Callais without regard to race.
Status of Mississippi Supreme Court District Lines. Recently, Mississippi had a federal court order requiring the redrawing of only our elected Mississippi Supreme Court district lines. The court did not require congressional lines to be redrawn. That case was vacated this week because of the Callais decision, meaning that currently Mississippi does NOT have to redraw our state Supreme Court lines.
Meanwhile, as noted above our Legislature is no longer in Session and can only meet upon the Special Session call of the Governor.
Gov. Reeves had previously issued a call to redraw the state Supreme Court district lines. Because of the recent federal court ruling vacating that requirement, this call is technically no longer required, but it is fully in the Governor’s hands at the present time. It’s gonna be interesting to watch what happens now.
Other Options on the Table. The Governor has the option to maintain the call, amend the call or withdraw the call. If he maintains the call, the Legislature will be showing up to redraw court lines next week. Then we will have to wait and see what if anything gets added.
The Governor also has the power to amend the call to add the redrawing of Congressional lines to a Special Session. If he does, this raises the issue whether and how new primary elections would have to be held in the new districts - before the November 3rd election. The people just voted in March for congressional primaries. Will the people have the right to vote again?
The Governor could also include redrawing the court-ordered legislative district lines that were redrawn in 2025 for a special election or for 2027.
All this is to say, unlike other states - in Mississippi the entire redistricting issue is squarely within the hands of Governor Reeves as of today.
Lawsuits Likely for Years. Rest assured - as is currently the case in Tennessee - whatever redistricting occurs in Mississippi will likely result in multiple federal lawsuits by the ACLU and liberals seeking to block the action or require other district lines to favor them. Mississippi needs to be ready for a long drawn out federal court fight, one that may well extend beyond the November 3, 2026 elections.
Right now Republican Ron Eller is facing Democrat Bennie Thompson in the election November 3rd.
As conservatives we should all be supporting Republican Ron Eller while calling for redrawn lines to end Bennie Thompson’s stranglehold on the Delta. One way or another Bennie Thompson must go.
16 comments:
Andy or Tommy Duff 2027. Andy would represent Mississippi like Memaw Kay represents Alabama.
Bennie ain't going anywhere. He's already won re-election.
Bye, bye, Bennie. This could be lyrics in a song.
District lines should be drawn to reflect equal distribution of population and common sense, not to "get rid" of anybody. No sooner than the Supreme Court issued it's ruling partisan political hacks started ranting about drawing districts to reflect their political agendas rather than the will of voters whoever they might be. Same ole B.S.
Hard to figure out the sale of removing Bennie's District. 25% of seats in black hands with 38% of MS population.
Is this essentially an admission that previous districts were drawn on the basis of race. Otherwise, no need to act if our districts were always drawn without regard to race. I’ve always thought it weird how lines are drawn when I look at congressional or state maps.
im all for all of our districts to become purple. if you know year in year out you can be voted out by both democrats and republicans, you can be sure you're going to be working for the people and not Left or Right special interests.
unfortunately that is not the goal here.
Benny Thompson is chairman of the Mississippi Republican Party, don’t believe me, see Tate Reeves move to cancel the redistricting special session. Prove me wrong.
Andy saw Shad's statement and said uhh yeah! Me too! What original ideas does this guy have that are worth considering? Wearing a cowboy hat ain't a platform bub.
So, the Big Hat joins Big Ears yelling and screaming, with the caveat that the challenger to the throne is not bound by the truth, the law or political realities.
During the ensuing court battle, the plaintiffs will offer written and video evidence of Mississippi leaders effectively calling for gerrymandering to make it difficult for an African American to win an election.
State maps in MS for the House and Senate are drawn to protect incumbents first and foremost.
The objective, at least in Mississippi, is to make it difficult for Democrats to win. The fact that blacks in this state vote in a monolithic bloc for Democrats is a separate issue.
Shad and Cowboy Andy are both running for office and feel the need to loudly stir the pot. Tate is not running. At least not for an elective office. Tater can actually act in the interest of Mississippi and not make grandstanding gestures that will help keep any new redistricting in court for years to come.
If you want to win in any State use the obvious” Campaign cutting Welfare” stop wasting valuable taxpayers money on generation after generation of the same families getting Welfare. But naw, y’all want to fool your constituents! This ain’t about Bennie, this is about politicians getting that fat retirement, benefits and insider trading to make your families rich!
In football they used to call this piling on.
It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.
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