MS-Gov: It remains to be seen if Gov. Tate Reeves will face serious intra-party opposition in the August Republican primary, but one familiar foe sounds like he very much wants to give it a shot. Former Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr., who lost the 2019 nomination to Reeves, says he’s “strongly considering” a rematch ahead of the Feb. 1 filing deadline. A few other Magnolia State notables, as we’ll discuss, also have made noises about a primary challenge, though no one has committed to anything yet.
Reeves last time beat Waller, who is the son and namesake of a Democratic governor from the 1970s, 54-46 after a runoff campaign where Reeves used his massive financial advantage to run ad after ad portraying his opponent as too liberal. Reeves in particular went after the former justice for supporting a gas tax to repair the state's damaged infrastructure and backing Medicaid expansion. Waller was pissed with the “misrepresentations of my positions” and refused to endorse his party’s nominee in the general election, though that wasn’t enough to stop Reeves from defeating Democratic foe Jim Hood 52-47 in the contest to succeed termed-out GOP Gov. Phil Bryant.
Waller told Mississippi Today this week, “In a lot of ways, the issues I ran on in 2019 are more dire, more pronounced now. So many people in this state are hurting or frustrated, and the response [from the governor] just isn’t there.” Waller also said that, despite rumors he was thinking about campaigning as an independent, he’d seek the Republican nomination again if he ran.
Waller also brought up a major scandal that has roiled Mississippi involving the misuse of welfare money during the Bryant administration. Perhaps most notably, text messages show that Bryant advised retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre how to get the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program to fund his proposed volleyball arena at the University of Southern Mississippi. Other messages show that Farve spoke to Reeves about getting state money for the project during the new governor’s first weeks in office.
Reeves, writes Mississippi Today, also “faced a barrage of criticism from voters after his office abruptly fired the attorney who was investigating the breadth of the misspending.” Waller argued that this scandal shows that “[c]orruption is so apparent and out of control, and most Mississippians I know are sick of it … Money intended for poverty-stricken children and others being diverted to cronies and personal friends is outrageous.”
Waller isn’t the only Republican who has talked about running. State House Speaker Philip Gunn reportedly has been thinking about taking on the governor for years, and he once again didn’t rule out anything in November when he announced he would not seek re-election to the legislature. Secretary of State Michael Watson also confirmed just before Christmas that he was considering a bid for the top job. A runoff would take place if no one managed to win a majority of the vote in the first round of the primary.
So, why does Reeves have so many fellow Republicans at least considering taking him on? The incumbent, whom longtime political analyst Sam Hall once said "notoriously lacks strong people skills," has a long history of feuding with powerful members of his party including Gunn, and that very much hasn't changed since he won the governorship.
However, even Reeves' many intra-party critics acknowledge that he will have access to plenty of money. The governor himself has also positioned himself as a hard-right anti-abortion crusader, saying at his kickoff Tuesday, “We had the opportunity to accomplish what I believe to be the most significant win in the conservative movement in my lifetime. Mississippi led the way in overturning Roe v. Wade.”
The only notable Democrat who has been seriously talked about in this dark red state is Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who once again didn’t rule out the idea this week. “I can tell you this, whatever I do next in my career will continue to be focused on improving the lives of average Mississippians who can’t write a $1,000 campaign check, and who need state officials with some real backbone to stand up for them, their families and their communities,” said the commissioner.