Tag: GOP

GOP Rep. Tim Walberg suggests Gaza should be handled ‘like Nagasaki and Hiroshima’



Rep. Tim Walberg, R-Mich., said this week that the conflict in Gaza should be over quickly “like Nagasaki and Hiroshima,” and the United States should refrain from sending any humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave as Israel’s war with Hamas continues.

“We shouldn’t be spending a dime on humanitarian aid,” Walberg said at a town hall meeting on Monday in Dundee, Michigan, according to a video that circulated on social media.

“It should be like Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Get it over quick,” he continued, referring to the Japanese cities on which the U.S. dropped atomic bombs during World War II. Hundreds of thousands of people died.

In a statement, Walberg said he “used a metaphor to convey the need for both Israel and Ukraine to win their wars as swiftly as possible, without putting American troops in harm’s way.”

“My reasoning was the exact opposite of what is being reported: the quicker these wars end, the fewer innocent lives will be caught in the crossfire,” he added.

According to Walberg’s public calendar, he was scheduled to attend a community gathering in Dundee on Monday, March 25, at 10 a.m.

Walberg made the comment in response to a question from an audience member who asked, “Why are we spending our money to build a port for them?”

The question appeared to reference the Biden administration’s plan to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza via a floating dock. The United Nations and other agencies have warned the enclave is on the brink of famine amid Israel’s five-month assault and the lack of sufficient supplies flowing into Gaza.

“It’s Joe Biden’s reason: We need to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. I don’t think we should,” Walberg replied.

More than 32,000 people have died in Gaza since Israel launched its war against Hamas, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. The military campaign follows the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack in the country, in which nearly 1,200 people were killed and about 250 were taken hostage. More than 100 people are still believed to be held captive in Gaza.

A number of Walberg’s fellow Michigan politicians quickly criticized his remarks.

Democratic Rep. Haley Stevens said in a post on X that “threatening to use, suggesting the use of, or, God forbid actually using nuclear weapons, are unacceptable tactics of war in the 21st Century.”

Former Rep. Justin Amash, a Palestinian American Republican who is running for Senate, said in a post that Walberg’s comments “evince an utter indifference to human suffering,” adding “for him to suggest that hundreds of thousands of innocent Palestinians should be obliterated, including my own relatives sheltering at an Orthodox Christian church, is reprehensible and indefensible.”

State Sen. Darrin Camilleri, a Democrat, called on Walberg to resign, and Democratic Rep. Dan Kildee said Walberg’s comments were “horrific & shocking” and his position “indefensible.”

“My colleague’s comments are reckless and wrong,” Rep. Hillary Scholten, a Democrat, said on X. She called Walberg’s comments “depraved” and urged him to “retract and apologize.”

Politicians outside of Michigan also took issue with Walberg’s comments.

Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Pa., called the comments “horrific, inhumane, and barbaric,” and Rep. Andy Kim, D-N.J., said the remarks were “disgraceful” and “shameful.”





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‘It’s possible’ Speaker Johnson could lose his job over Ukraine vote: GOP congressman


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Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) tells Meet the Press that there are “one or two people that are not team players” in the House Republican conference, and they may choose to vote to remove Speaker Johnson over a vote to support aid to Ukraine.March 31, 2024

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Could House control flip to the Democrats? Early resignations leave GOP majority on edge


Washington — In mid-March, as the Republican majority in the House dwindled yet again, House Speaker Mike Johnson predicted that the series of resignations from frustrated GOP lawmakers had come to an end.

“I think, I hope and believe that’s the end of the exits for now,” the Louisiana Republican said after being caught off guard by Colorado Rep. Ken Buck’s announcement that he would leave Congress on March 22.

Then, a week after Johnson’s comments, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, a rising GOP star, announced he was also stepping down early.

After Gallagher’s departure on April 19, House Republicans will control 217 seats, compared to Democrats’ 213. That will mean the GOP can afford to lose just a single vote, since 216 will constitute a majority if all members are present and voting.

While special elections should bolster their ranks in the coming months, Republicans could watch their majority slip away if just a handful of their colleagues head for the exits before their terms are up.

“With such a tiny majority, all it would take is a tiny number of Republicans to decide either they want to go and leave immediately, or they have some health crisis and they cannot serve, and then Democrats would at that point possibly have an operational majority,” said Matthew Green, a politics professor at Catholic University.

It would be the first time control of the House has ever flipped in the middle of a congressional term. It has happened once in the Senate, in 2001. The closest parallel in the House came in 1930, when Republicans won a slim majority. But several members died and Democrats won special elections to replace them before the 72nd Congress convened in January 1931, denying the GOP control.

However, barring something unforeseen, Green said the chances of Democrats taking control of the lower chamber mid-Congress at this point are relatively low.

House Mike Johnson at the U.S. Capitol on March 21, 2024.
House Mike Johnson at the U.S. Capitol on March 21, 2024. 

Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images


“The more likely outcome is that the Republicans will just kind of limp through the rest of this Congress with a tiny, tiny majority and not do a whole lot of legislating,” he said. 

Molly Reynolds, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank that maintains a database of statistics on Congress, agreed it’s unlikely that control suddenly flips to Democrats. But she said mid-session departures are more consequential because of the GOP’s minuscule majority. 

“Even those folks who are really frustrated with serving in Congress right now, particularly in the Republican conference, even those folks don’t want to jeopardize Republicans’ ability to hold on to the majority,” Reynolds said. 

If there are more early retirements, Reynolds said she expects they will be timed strategically around special elections, which are required under the Constitution to fill House vacancies. 

“Even in situations where the seat is safe for one party or the other, depending on the state it takes more or less time to actually effectuate an election to fill the seat,” she said. “And that’s the only way to fill a vacancy in the House.”

The upcoming special elections are unlikely to jeopardize the GOP majority. Democrats are expected to hang on to a seat left vacant by Rep. Brian Higgins in New York during a special election in late April. Republicans are expected to retain three seats in the following months to fill the vacancies left by Buck; Kevin McCarthy of California, who resigned at the end of the year after he was ousted from the speakership; and Bill Johnson of Ohio, now the president of Youngstown State University. Filling those vacancies would give the GOP majority a little more cushion. (There won’t be a special election to fill Gallagher’s seat, because he’s resigning after the deadline to trigger one.)

Nineteen other Republicans have said they’re retiring, are running for another office or have lost their primary. About two dozen Democrats have made similar announcements. So far, those lawmakers haven’t indicated they plan to leave their current roles before the start of a new Congress in January. Then again, neither did Buck or Gallagher when they initially announced they wouldn’t seek reelection. 

“The number of retirements is not unusual. What is unusual, is the number of retirements that are coming in the middle of a Congress,” Green said. “It speaks in part to how deeply unhappy House Republicans are with being in Congress. They would rather just bail and not even fulfill their two-year obligation to their constituents than put up with being in the chamber any longer.” 

After Easter, the House will return to more dysfunction spurred by Republican infighting, which could convince others to leave early. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has called for Johnson’s removal from the speakership after he supported a massive spending bill to fund the government. With that threat hanging over him, Johnson will also have to navigate fractures within his party over sending more aid to Ukraine. 

“If Speaker Johnson is doing his job, he is talking to those announced retirees regularly, checking in to make sure they will not leave early,” Green said. “The fact that the speaker was caught off guard by some of these early retirements doesn’t speak well to his ability to keep his finger on the pulse of the conference.”

A spokesperson for Johnson said the speaker and House GOP leadership “are in close communication with members, retiring and not, emphasizing the critical importance of protecting and defending the House Republican majority this year and growing the majority in the 2024 elections.” 



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Michigan GOP lawmaker falsely labels March Madness athletes ‘illegal invaders’



Maddock’s post drew swift criticism on social media, with multiple accounts noting that an earlier post on the Gonzaga men’s basketball team’s social media page had indicated their departure for Detroit, featuring an Allegiant plane.

“A sitting State Representative sees a group of buses at the airport and immediately yells ‘illegal invaders’ which is a pretty rude (and also, frankly, dangerous) way to greet the Gonzaga Men’s Basketball Team arriving for March Madness,” state Sen. Mallory McMorrow, a Democrat, wrote on social media.

Maddock doubled down on his posts Thursday, adding that hundreds of thousands of “illegals are pouring into our country,” and into Michigan. In a text response to The Associated Press, Maddock declined to acknowledge that the buses were transporting basketball players.

“I haven’t heard a good answer yet,” Maddock wrote. “I took a tip and asked because this is happening in many places and it is well documented.”

Some Republicans who had initially echoed Maddock’s claims made in his original post, such as Michigan GOP chairman Pete Hoekstra, quickly backtracked.

Maddock, a Republican representing parts of metro Detroit, was endorsed by Trump while running for reelection in 2022. Trump said in his statement endorsing Maddock that Michigan needs leadership “who will investigate and document the 2020 voter fraud, the crime of the century.”

His wife, Meshawn Maddock, the former co-chair of the Michigan Republican Party, is one of 15 Republicans facing eight criminal charges on accusations of acting as fake electors for then-President Trump in 2020. All defendants have pleaded not guilty.



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Kari Lake struggles to win over her GOP skeptics: From the Politics Desk


Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the campaign trail, the White House and Capitol Hill.

In today’s edition, correspondent Vaughn Hillyard and campaign embed Alex Tabet report from Arizona on Kari Lake’s attempts to win over her GOP skeptics. Plus, senior national political reporter Jonathan Allen explains why Donald Trump may look back at this month as a missed opportunity.

Kari Lake struggles to shake her MAGA instincts in her Senate campaign

By Vaughn Hillyard and Alex Tabet

PHOENIX — This winter, Kari Lake was facing a daunting reality: The voters who rejected her in her 2022 run for governor could now jeopardize her entire political future. 

If Lake — “Trump in heels,” as she has referred to herself — didn’t begin to quickly change the minds of those she had shunned or ridiculed, she could lose, again, in her 2024 Senate bid.

“I have never thought of myself as divisive. But it’s not enough for ME to believe that. I need to prove it,” Lake wrote in a social media post in December, acknowledging the need to step away from her tendencies to make incendiary comments and broaden her appeal.

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But with just over seven months until the election, several key Arizona Republicans tell NBC News that they believe Lake’s campaign is facing an increasingly uphill battle. 

“What I hear is, everybody has just resigned themselves that we’re going to be stuck with a Ruben Gallego — that’s what I hear from all the major players, the big-money people,” Shiree Verdone, a longtime GOP fundraiser in Arizona, said, referring to Lake’s Democratic Senate opponent. “I haven’t heard anyone say, ‘Kari Lake is going to win.’”

Lake continues to deny that Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election, tweeting this month about President Joe Biden: “81 million votes, my a–.” She continues to call her 2022 election loss “a sham,” promotes right-wing provocateurs like Laura Loomer, and hosts fundraising events with controversial political figures like Roger Stone at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.

Since launching her Senate bid, Lake has set up meetings to mend relationships with other Republicans she cast aside during her run for governor, like Kathy Petsas, a former local party chair in Lake’s home legislative district. Lake’s campaign tweeted at her in 2022: “Kathy, You’re exactly the type of demographic that we feel no need to appeal to.”

“I don’t know one person that she’s gotten on her side of the people who she offended,” Petsas said, suggesting Lake’s overtures have fallen flat. “There’s nobody from my circle that she’s gained, and she’s even alienated some previous supporters, too, who I know.”

Read more here →

A moment of peril for Trump as Biden unifies party and stockpiles cash

Analysis by Jonathan Allen

President Joe Biden
President Joe Biden in Raleigh, N.C., on March 26, 2024.Stephanie Scarbrough / AP

If Biden wins re-election in November, Trump may look back at this moment as a missed opportunity.

For the first time in memory, Biden is seeing encouraging signs in national and battleground state polls. It would be hard to define small bumps in a handful of surveys as a surge or the momentum — “Big Mo” — that politicians chase like Ponce de Leon pursued the fountain of youth.

But Biden is riding a little higher as March comes to a close, and Trump, who has locked up his own nomination, no longer has competitive primary victories to point to as evidence of strength.

Biden’s fundraiser Thursday at Radio City Music Hall, featuring former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, provides a portrait of party unity and energy for the sitting president. More importantly, perhaps, it is expected to bring in $25 million for his re-election effort — a jaw-dropping figure for a single day. 

Trump has spent much of his political money defending himself in court, a dynamic he attributes, without evidence, to what he says is a Biden-coordinated effort to defeat him by prosecution. Aside from the basic paradox — the Republican nominee wants voters to believe that Biden is a doddering old man and also the mastermind behind four criminal trials — Trump is in danger of failing to do exactly what Biden is doing today: bring his party together and raise a bleep-load of cash.

Whatever one believes about Trump’s actual wealth, or his liquidity, he has the kind of money that he could inject tens or hundreds of millions of dollars into his own campaign. Were he to win, he would no doubt be able to replenish the coffers and pay himself back, as he did when he won the presidency in 2016.

Trump probably doesn’t have to spend as much as Biden to win, but he doesn’t have the money now to run a full-scale national campaign. If he doesn’t put serious cash into his campaign — or figure out how to raise it from others — he risks falling perilously behind a Biden campaign that figures to dump more than $1 billion into its effort.

Trump said recently that he might put his own money into his campaign. The questions for him now are how much he values the presidency and whether the odds are worth putting up his own stake. If he waits much longer to make that call, he could find that it’s too late.


🗞️ Today’s top stories

  • ⚖️ 25 years: Sam Bankman-Fried received a 25-year prison sentence Wednesday after being convicted for fraud related to the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Read more →
  • 🪜 AdVancing in Trump world: Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, is seeing his stock rise in Trump’s orbit after he helped Bernie Moreno win his state’s GOP Senate primary this month. Read more →
  • 👮 Fact check: While Trump regularly talks about rising crime on the stump, FBI statistics suggest that there was a steep drop in crime across the country last year and that violent crime is on the decline in some major cities. Read more →
  • ✈️ Flight issues: The New York Times explores the issues plaguing Boeing and whether the company prioritized speed over quality. Read more →
  • ⏰ Running out of time in South Carolina: Even though a lower court ruled South Carolina’s congressional map amounted to an illegal racial gerrymander, federal judges say the state will have to move forward under those lines for this election cycle because the Supreme Court hasn’t weighed in yet. Read more →
  • 🗓️ Mark your calendar: Speaker Mike Johnson said the House would send impeachment articles against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas to the Senate on April 10. Read more →
  • ❌ That’s classified: A new Democratic bill would ban people charged with certain crimes related to jeopardizing national security from receiving classified information, a bill that implicitly targets embattled Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Trump. Read more →

That’s all from The Politics Desk for now. If you have feedback — likes or dislikes — email us at politicsnewsletter@nbcuni.com

And if you’re a fan, please share with everyone and anyone. They can sign up here.






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House Oversight chairman invites Biden to testify as GOP impeachment inquiry stalls


Washington — The Republican-led House Oversight Committee has invited President Biden to testify publicly as the panel’s monthslong impeachment inquiry has stalled after testimony from the president’s son failed to deliver a smoking gun. 

In a seven-page letter to the president on Thursday, Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the committee’s chairman, asked Mr. Biden to appear on April 16, an invitation he is almost certain to decline.

“I invite you to participate in a public hearing at which you will be afforded the opportunity to explain, under oath, your involvement with your family’s sources of income and the means it has used to generate it,” Comer wrote, noting that it is not unprecedented for sitting presidents to testify to congressional committees.

They have done so just three times in American history, according to the Senate Historical Office. The most recent instance came in 1974, when President Gerald Ford testified about his decision to pardon former President Richard Nixon.

Comer teased a formal request for Mr. Biden’s testimony last week, which a White House spokesperson called a “sad stunt at the end of a dead impeachment.”

Republicans’ impeachment inquiry has centered around allegations that the president profited off of his family members’ foreign business dealings while he was vice president. But they have yet to uncover any evidence of impeachable offenses, and the inquiry was dealt a blow when the Trump-appointed special counsel investigating Hunter Biden charged a one-time FBI informant for allegedly lying about the president and his son accepting $5 million bribes from a Ukrainian energy company.

The claims that prosecutors say are false had been central to Republicans’ argument that the president acted improperly to benefit from his family’s foreign business dealings.

In a closed-door deposition in February, Hunter Biden told investigators that his father was not involved in his various business deals. The president’s son was then invited to publicly testify at a March hearing on the family’s alleged influence peddling, in which some of his former business associates appeared, but declined. 

“Your blatant planned-for-media event is not a proper proceeding but an obvious attempt to throw a Hail Mary pass after the game has ended,” Abbe Lowell, Hunter Biden’s lawyer, said at the time. 

Caitlin Yilek

Caitlin Yilek is a politics reporter at cbsnews.com and is based in Washington, D.C. She previously worked for the Washington Examiner and The Hill, and was a member of the 2022 Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellowship with the National Press Foundation.



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Linda Bean, an entrepreneur, GOP activist and granddaughter of retailer LL Bean, dies at 82


Linda L. Bean, a granddaughter of famed outdoor retailer L.L. Bean who became an entrepreneur, philanthropist and conservative activist, has died at age 82.

Bean died Saturday, her business manager, Veronika Carlson, confirmed in a written statement Sunday. No cause was given.

“Linda was known for her amazing work ethic, entrepreneurial spirit as well as her pride and dedication to her home state of Maine and L.L.Bean, the company her grandfather founded,” the statement said. “Our hearts go out to her family and friends.”

Image: Linda Bean
Linda Bean at a campaign rally for Donald Trump in September 2020, in Saco, Maine. Robert F. Bukaty / AP, file

Bean’s grandfather, Leon Leonwood Bean, founded the company in 1912. It grew through its popular catalogue, offering durable products such as rubber-bottomed boots that came with a lifetime guarantee.

Linda Bean served on the company’s board for nearly half a century. She also bought lobster dealerships, founded the Perfect Maine Lobster brand in 2007, and owned general stores, inns and vacation rentals on Maine’s central coast, where she lived in Port Clyde.

She helped lead the effort to have Maine’s lobster industry certified as sustainable in 2013 by a London-based nonprofit, the Marine Stewardship Council — a certification that was pulled in 2022 over concern about harm to whales.

Her philanthropic efforts included supporting LifeFlight of Maine medical helicopters and the Maine Botanical Gardens at Boothbay, as well as promoting the life of early 20th century illustrator and artist N.C. Wyeth, the father of the famous painter Andrew Wyeth, and preserving the family’s properties.

“Linda Bean loved the State of Maine. Its coastal communities, islands, and art, particularly by the Wyeths, had a special place in her heart,” Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins said in a written statement Sunday. “Linda also was an astute businesswoman who promoted Maine lobster through her restaurants. Many a time while waiting for my plane in Portland, I had a cup of her famous lobster stew at her airport restaurant.”

Bean was also a big donor to Republican causes and twice campaigned unsuccessfully for Congress, in 1988 and 1992. She ran as an opponent of abortion rights, gay rights legislation and gun control, and she believed in cutting taxes to spur the economy.

She also supported efforts to repeal a Maine law outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation, and she urged the Department of Defense to overturn Obama-era policies allowing transgender individuals to serve in the military.

In 2017, the Federal Election Commission said Bean made excessive contributions to a political action committee she bankrolled to support Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. That prompted some liberal groups to call for a boycott of L.L. Bean — which she described as harassment by “a small kernel of hardcore bullies out on the left coast, West Coast, in California, trying to control what we do, what we buy, what we sell in Maine.”

Trump came to her defense, urging his supporters to buy the company’s products.

“While her politics did not align with mine, Linda and I found common ground in our mutual love of our home state, of the coast of Maine and our working waterfronts, of Maine inspired art and of the perfect Maine lobster roll,” Gov. Janet Mills, a Democrat, said in a written statement. “I enjoyed her company and admired her business acumen. On behalf of the people of Maine, I extend deep condolences to Linda’s family and loved ones and to the entire L.L.Bean community.”

No information about survivors was immediately available.



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Sen. Lisa Murkowski signals openness to leaving the GOP



Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a vocal critic of former President Donald Trump, signaled that she would be open to leaving the Republican Party.

Pressed on whether she is considering becoming an independent, Murkowski replied, “I’m very independent-minded,” adding, “I just regret that our party is seemingly becoming a party of Donald Trump.”

Murkowski demurred when asked whether she would be open to being an independent who causes with Republicans.

“I am navigating my way through some very interesting political times. Let’s just leave it at that,” she said in an interview that aired on CNN Sunday.

The Alaska Republican also reiterated her stance against voting for Trump in the 2024 presidential election.

“I wish that as Republicans, we had a nominee that I could get behind. I certainly can’t get behind Donald Trump,” she said.

Murkowski told NBC News this month that she “could not” vote for Trump or President Joe Biden in the 2024 election.

Murkowski and fellow Trump critic Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, had endorsed Trump challenger Nikki Haley ahead of Super Tuesday. But Haley dropped her bid after losing every primary contest except Vermont and Washington, D.C.

Before Haley ended her campaign, Murkowski told NBC News that she wasn’t sure how she’d approach the presidential election if Haley dropped out — and signaled she wasn’t alone in her uncertainty.

“Lisa Murkowski is not the only one in this camp right now,” she said.

Murkowski is among the seven Republican senators who voted to convict Trump in his second impeachment trial after the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol attack and became a target for Trump and his allies.

Murkowski, who has served in the Senate for more than two decades, won re-election in 2022 against Trump-endorsed Kelly Tshibaka, a former Alaska Department of Administration commissioner.





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Where 2024 campaigns stand 2 weeks ahead of first GOP debate


Where 2024 campaigns stand 2 weeks ahead of first GOP debate – CBS News

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President Biden and former President Donald Trump were on the campaign trail Tuesday night, making their pitch to voters. Plus, former Vice President Mike Pence announced he has qualified for the GOP presidential debate, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis replaced his campaign manager amid a month-long reset. CBS News’ Caitlin Huey-Burns and Fin Gómez break down the state of the 2024 presidential field ahead of the first GOP debate in two weeks.

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Mississippi GOP Gov. Tate Reeves to face Democrat Brandon Presley in the November election



JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday won the Republican nomination as he seeks a second term, setting up a general election contest against Democrat Brandon Presley in the heavily conservative state.

Reeves defeated two first-time candidates: John Witcher, a physician who has criticized COVID-19 vaccinations, and David Hardigree, a military veteran. Presley, a cousin of rock ’n’ roll icon Elvis Presley, ran unopposed.

Presley said the Nov. 7 general election would come down to which candidate “has got guts and the backbone to stand up for the people of Mississippi and which candidate has consistently showed us that he will do whatever his lobbyist buddies want him to do and will not stand up for the people of Mississippi.”

Presley planned to take the stage at his victory party to “See See Rider,” the song Elvis Presley often used as walk-on music. The candidate said he would not sing, though.

“We’re trying to get votes,” Presley said in a phone interview before he was scheduled to speak to supporters in his hometown of Nettleton. “We’re not trying to lose them.”

Mississippi is one of three states holding races for governor in an off-year election. Despite Republicans holding all statewide offices, including the governorship for the past 20 years, Democratic Governors Association chair Phil Murphy has predicted the contest could be a “sleeper” — a state where the right Democrat could win.

Reeves, 49, has steadily worked his way up the political ladder since winning the race for state treasurer in 2003. He served two terms as treasurer and two terms as lieutenant governor before winning the governor’s race in 2019.

Reeves closed schools at the beginning of the pandemic and put some restrictions on businesses as COVID-19 cases spread, but he never ordered churches to close and he has often bragged that Mississippi was among the first states to remove limitations from businesses.

He also opposes Medicaid expansion, often referring to the government health insurance program as “welfare.”

“Brandon Presley and his party are happy to see people go on welfare,” Reeves said. “He campaigns on wanting more welfare. He thinks welfare is a destination. I think … a job is a destination for everyone in Mississippi — a job with benefits and health care and a chance to move up in the world.”

Reeves tells voters that “national liberals” are backing Presley, and he often touts two laws he signed limiting the rights of trans people: one in 2021 that prohibits transgender people from playing on girls’ or women’s sports teams and one this year that bans gender-affirming health care to transgender people younger than 18.

Reeves signed an income tax reduction into law last year and wants to eliminate the state income tax altogether. He also says he has fulfilled a 2019 campaign promise to increase teacher pay.

“Mississippi has momentum, and this is Mississippi’s time,” Reeves said. “To believe Brandon Presley’s campaign, you’ve got to believe that none of that is true.”

Presley, 46, a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, has highlighted the struggles of working families in one of the poorest states in the U.S. as he has campaigned for governor. Born a few weeks before his famous relative died, Presley often talks about growing up in a home where his widowed mother had trouble paying bills with the modest paycheck she earned at a garment factory.

“Tate Reeves doesn’t care anything about us. He doesn’t care anything about working people,” Presley said. “If you can’t write a campaign check, or you’re not part of his little club of buddies and insiders, you’re shut out of state government.”

Presley says he wants to eliminate the state’s 7% tax on groceries. He also says Mississippi should join 40 other states that have expanded Medicaid coverage to people working low-wage jobs that do not provide private health insurance coverage.

Dr. Martha Morrow, an optometrist who practices in Alabama but lives and votes in Mississippi, said she supports Presley because she sees him as an honest person who wants to improve the quality of life. Morrow said it’s crucial to expand Medicaid to people working low-income jobs.

“We’re going to have to stop the rural hospitals from closing,” Morrow said. “Tate Reeves can say all he wants to that it’s not a problem. It’s a problem. If you’re sick and you can’t get to a hospital because your hospital’s closed — people are dying already. And it’s going to continue.”

Sue Varner, a retired hairdresser from the Jackson suburb of Madison, said she voted for Reeves.

“I just like the way he handled COVID. I think he did a good job,” said Varner, adding that she has never received a COVID-19 vaccination because she does not trust them.

Reeves and Presley will also face independent candidate Gwendolyn Gray, a political newcomer, in the Nov. 7 general election. Gray, 68, leads a nonprofit organization called the Southern Foundation for Homeless Children, which offers nutrition programs, and says one of her main concerns as governor would be alleviating poverty.

Mississippi on Tuesday also had a three-person Republican primary for the second-highest office in state government, with first-term Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann in a tight race against state Sen. Chris McDaniel, with educator Tiffany Longino trailing in a distant third.

Although the governor and lieutenant governor run as a ticket in some states, they run separately in Mississippi. The lieutenant governor presides over the state Senate, chooses Senate committee leaders and has great leeway in deciding which bills live or die.



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