Could Mississippi Actually Elect a Democratic Governor?

How is a Democrat on track to potentially unseat an incumbent Republican governor in a deeply conservative state?

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has never been a popular governor. His first win in 2019 hinged on an eleventh-hour endorsement from then-President Donald Trump that barely bumped him across the 50 percent line needed to win against the state’s former attorney general Jim Hood (a conservative Democrat). Even after Trump’s Hail Mary validation, Reeves squeaked out a victory with just 51.9 percent of the vote.

This time, with the 2023 election less than two weeks away, Trump noticeably hasn’t endorsed Reeves for re-election.

The incumbent’s biggest problem is that Reeves can’t fully appease the far-right voting base who have a long memory of safety measures he recommended during the pandemic—such as mask mandates, short-term business and school closures, and limits on the size of indoor gatherings. To the state’s ultraconservative white voting base (90 percent of white voters in the state vote Republican), these health measures—which were advised by the state’s chief health officer, Dr. Thomas Dobbs, and which were basic standards nationwide—equated to tyranny and betrayal.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/could-mississippi-actually-elect-a-democratic-governor?ref=home

A plague on both their houses. I think. But at least he isn't that smarmy Tate Reeves!