Mississippi governor Tate Reeves bested Democratic challenger Brandon Presley Tuesday night, averting a runoff election and continuing an unbroken 24-year stretch in which a Republican has occupied the governor’s mansion in Jackson.
Presley, the state’s public utilities commissioner and the second cousin of Elvis Presley, conceded late Tuesday night after Reeves secured a comfortable 7 point margin. With over 95 percent of the votes already in as of Wednesday, the margin narrowed to approximately 4.5 points.
“We didn’t win it, they did. But we won the hearts and souls of hundreds of thousands of Mississippians,” Presley told supporters. “Unfortunately, it looks like we came up a little short and I spoke with Governor Reeves just a minute ago. We congratulated him on his victory.”
Reeves was initially expected to coast to victory in the gubernatorial contest until Presley began eating into the incumbent Republican’s polling lead on the back of an impressive fundraising haul.
Four years ago, Reeves won his first gubernatorial election by a slightly wider margin of 5.5 percentage points than what he secured this cycle.
While he survived Presley’s challenge, Reeves’s popularity, particularly among Democrats and independents, has taken a hit over the last year. A Morning Consult poll released last week showed Reeves had a 46 percent approval rating, with support from 16 percent of Democrats, 38 percent of independents, and 76 percent of Republicans.
Presley vied for his Trump-endorsed opponent’s seat by campaigning on Medicaid expansion to help fund the state’s struggling hospitals. Reeves, on the other hand, has been strongly opposed to the health-care program, refusing to expand it through legislation.
In the past year, Reeves has found himself mired in a Mississippi welfare fraud scandal in which detractors have accused him and his political allies of financially benefiting from state welfare funds. While the governor has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing, Presley took the opportunity to publicly link Reeves to the scandal.
Reeves tied Presley to President Joe Biden and sparred with his Democratic challenger on cultural issues such as gender-transition procedures for minors, a key issue among conservative voters in the deep-red state. In February, the Mississippi executive enacted a bill banning sex-reassignment procedures for minors. Given his strong opposition to transgender ideology, Reeves claimed in a 2023 campaign ad that Presley supported “sex changes and puberty blocking drugs for children,” an accusation that Presley denied.