Mississippi Governor’s Race Pits GOP Incumbent Against Elvis Relative

PHILADELPHIA, Miss.—Republican Gov. Tate Reeves is looking to ride record low unemployment in this state to a second term. His campaign coffers are flush with cash. He is ahead in the polls.

On Tuesday, he defeated two lesser-known GOP rivals—and will now face off against a distant cousin of Elvis Presley.

Brandon Presley, who ran unopposed in the Democratic gubernatorial primary and is related to the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, has played down his party affiliation and used recent scandal and corruption to build out his underdog campaign in this ruby-red state. On the other side of the primary ledger, Reeves clinched his party’s nomination, according to the Associated Press.

Reeves and Presley, in their general-election matchup in November, will present sharply different views of the state’s economy. Reeves argues that the state is on the upswing; Presley says Mississippi is in trouble, with a government geared toward helping the powerful and ignoring the middle class and poor.

For generations, politicos have considered speaking at the annual Neshoba County Fair in the backwoods as the unofficial start of Mississippi’s campaign season. Presley took the stage at the fair recently and lit into Reeves, who was standing nearby. 

“Everyone can’t be born rich and lucky,” said Presley, who was raised in poverty.

Reeves, who stepped up to the podium after Presley, was cheered by his backers as he fired back, arguing that Presley was a frontman for elites who want to remake Mississippi in the image of a liberal-run state like California.

“I stand against the national liberals, and as your governor, I always will,” he said.

Reeves, 49 years old, and Presley, 46, both had early successes in politics, but they have led very different lives. Reeves was elected Mississippi’s state treasurer at 28. Later, he served as lieutenant governor before becoming governor.

Reeves is the scion of the owner of a heating and cooling company. He attended a private college in Jackson, then became a financial analyst before entering politics.

Presley was elected mayor of his small hometown, Nettleton, Miss., at 23. Later, he was elected to the state’s Public Service Commission. As he was growing up, his father was murdered on Presley’s first day in the third grade, and his mother struggled to make ends meet, he said.

Republicans dominate Mississippi government, controlling both houses of the Legislature and all major statewide elected offices. A Democratic gubernatorial candidate hasn’t won here since 1999.

State polling is sparse, but head-to-head matchups between Reeves and Presley show the Republican with a clear lead. Reeves has outpaced Presley in fundraising, with July campaign-finance reports showing Reeves with more than $9.6 million cash on hand, compared with about $1.9 million for Presley.

In his speech, Reeves touted a record-low 3.1% unemployment rate and new investment in the state, including the announcement earlier this year of a $2.5 billion aluminum manufacturing plant. 

Presley highlighted corruption in state government that has rocked Mississippi, sending several Republican-appointed officials and others to prison for misuse of federal welfare funds. He said the scandal, which began under previous Republican Gov. Phil Bryant, took place while Reeves was lieutenant governor. At the fair, two Presley supporters came dressed as inmates to represent people imprisoned in the scandal. 

Reeves hasn’t been charged with any wrongdoing and said he had no role in a scandal that began before he became governor.

The state is facing other challenges. Mississippi was one of only three states along with Illinois and West Virginia to see its population shrink in 2020 from 2010, according to the Census Bureau. The bureau later said it had undercounted in 2020, but it estimated that Mississippi’s population in mid-2022 was 2.94 million, about 1% smaller than in 2010.

Continuing crises in the state’s capital and largest city, Jackson, over collapsing water infrastructure and crime have drawn national scrutiny. Black Democratic city officials have battled with Reeves and the white Republican state leadership—with state officials seeking more control over the city’s affairs and city officials asking for more funding.

Racial divisions are a perpetual issue in Mississippi, with its legacy of slavery, Jim Crow and violence during the Civil Rights era, including a high-profile case in 1964, when Ku Klux Klan members murdered three civil-rights workers in Neshoba County. Their bodies were found down the road from the fairgrounds where Reeves and Presley recently took jabs at one another.

Today most Black voters in the state back Democrats. Most whites support Republicans. In recent years, Democratic candidates have attempted to win in Mississippi by building a coalition of Black voters with centrist or liberal whites—but with little success, unlike in Georgia, where Democrats had some statewide wins in federal races.

Mississippi has some of the strictest antiabortion laws in the U.S., with abortions banned except in cases of rape or incest or to save the life of the mother. The Supreme Court decision last year overturning Roe v. Wade was based upon a court case challenging Mississippi law. Reeves’s support for the state’s abortion laws is full-throated. Presley, breaking with national Democrats, supports Mississippi’s stringent law. 

“They realize I’m the kind of governor with a backbone and guts to stand up for the people of Mississippi,” Presley said of independents and Republicans. 

Reeves spent much of his speech linking Presley to national Democrats.

“Conservatives are going to go to the polls in droves, and they are going to vote to re-elect our conservative governor,” he told reporters.

Reeves, in winning the GOP primary, defeated a doctor opposing Covid-19 vaccinations and a veteran. Neither has held political office, nor had significant funding in the race.

John Polk, 78, a retired owner of a meat-processing company from Hattiesburg, Miss., credited Reeves with increased investment in the state and education improvements. 

“We’re on a roll,” he said, adding that he thought Reeves wasn’t involved at all with the welfare scandal.

Presley supporters at the fair said they knew he faced long odds. 

“Let’s not make it about party,” said Debbie Hurt, 71, a retired teacher from Tupelo, Miss. “We’ve got to make it about Mississippi.”

—Paul Overberg contributed to this article.

Write to Cameron McWhirter at [email protected]