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Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi secured a second time period, in accordance with The Related Press, warding off a vigorous problem from Brandon Presley, a conservative Democrat whom he solid as a far-left acolyte of President Biden, and overcoming issues a couple of scarcity of pleasure amongst conservatives.
Mr. Presley conceded to Mr. Reeves, a Republican, shortly earlier than 11 p.m. Central time.
Whereas the result was no shock, given the Republican Celebration’s dominance within the state, it didn’t come fairly as simply as some might need anticipated on the outset of the race. Mr. Presley, a little-known utilities regulator, mounted an lively marketing campaign that stored Mr. Reeves on his toes.
“This victory positive is good,” Mr. Reeves stated on Tuesday night time.
“This victory belongs to you,” he advised supporters. “This victory is extra than simply who will occupy the governor’s mansion over the following 4 years. It’s actually concerning the course that our state will go over the following 4 years. Mississippi has momentum.”
Mr. Reeves, who was first elected governor in 2019, campaigned on his conservative credentials whereas consistently linking Mr. Presley to Mr. Biden and different nationwide Democrats who’re broadly unpopular in Mississippi.
He boasted about tax cuts he had signed and promised to chase his unrealized ambition of eliminating the state’s earnings tax. Mr. Reeves additionally pointed to raises for academics, which he signed into regulation final 12 months and which had been among the many largest in state historical past, and to the truth that unemployment had dropped to its lowest fee in many years.
Mr. Presley traveled the state arguing for increasing Medicaid and slashing the state’s excessive grocery tax, which is among the highest within the nation, saying he would carry reduction to working-class households. He targeted closely on mobilizing Black voters, however he additionally believed that he may peel away white centrists and Republicans who had been drawn to his message.
Mr. Presley, a second cousin of Elvis Presley and a former mayor of Nettleton, Miss., a city of about 2,000 within the northern a part of the state, targeted on his private story of struggling by way of poverty as a toddler. He solid Mr. Reeves as disconnected from the experiences of the state’s working poor.
He additionally relentlessly needled Mr. Reeves for a sprawling scandal by which thousands and thousands of {dollars} in federal welfare funds had been siphoned away from supporting the state’s poorest residents. The cash was as an alternative used for the pet tasks of rich and linked people, together with a volleyball stadium on the College of Southern Mississippi championed by Brett Favre, the previous skilled soccer participant.
Mr. Reeves denied any involvement within the scandal, which, he famous, largely unfolded earlier than he started his time period as governor in 2020. (He had been lieutenant governor.) Nonetheless, he was criticized for his dealing with of the efforts to claw the cash again, together with his administration’s firing of a former federal prosecutor who had been employed to recoup these funds.
The Prepare dinner Political Report, a nonpartisan publication, lately discovered that the election had “morphed right into a aggressive combat.” It described Mr. Presley as an “unusually robust contender.”
However finally Mr. Presley failed to shut the hole and thwart Mr. Reeves’s triumph, an final result that underscores the power the Republican Celebration has amassed in Mississippi.
“We left no stone unturned,” Mr. Presley advised supporters on Tuesday night time, describing the aggressive effort his marketing campaign to crisscross the state, making stops in all 82 counties. He argued that the race had succeeded in bringing consideration to pressing points, like Medicaid growth.
However as he conceded, he stated that, nevertheless contentious the race had gotten, Mississippi needed to transfer ahead with out being consumed by partisan divisions.
“That is larger than one man,” Mr. Presley stated. “We will lose this race tonight recognizing good on the opposite aspect.”
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