Tupelo, Miss. (Daily Journal) – One week after an EF-3 tornado tore through the state and Monroe County, state officials toured the devastation of Amory hours after the state allocated $17 million in relief.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann joined state Sen. Hob Bryan in a tour of Amory, visiting Amory High School, City Hall and Piggly Wiggly, where the county set up its control center during recovery efforts. All three sustained significant damage from the tornado that ripped through the city overnight March 24.
“Its just horrible,” Hosemann said, noting that he was proud to see so many American flags flying despite the damage. “The most resilient, patriotic human beings are in our state. We will rebuild. It will be better. We are a neighborhood, the whole state.”
According to data from the National Weather Service in Memphis, the tornado that ripped through the county had a preliminary reading of EF-3, which produced winds peaking at 155 mph on an almost 37-mile stretch.
In the center of Amory, very few buildings were left untouched. Bryan praised Hosemann for his leadership in providing relief to the individuals effected by the storm last week. He also noted the strength of people in the city who came to help their neighbors.
Co-owner of the Piggly Wiggly Brian McGonagill said he and his brother planned to rebuild the grocery store, noting that the this was not their first store to be damaged by a natural disaster. He said when the Smithville tornado of 2011 devastated the town, their store was destroyed. He thanked Bryan for showing support to him and the people of Monroe County.
“It is heartbreaking seeing all your hard work gone,” he said. “It is good to show support. It makes you feel good. (disasters) bring out the best and the worst in people.”
After speaking with city leaders, volunteers and effected individuals, Bryan said he planned to go to Tupelo, where a suspected tornado touched down in east Tupelo, damaging multiple industrial properties including Cooper Tire.
Magee, Miss. (Magee News) – The below statement is attributable to Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann:
“From a $600 million-plus infrastructure plan to legislation strengthening our elections process, providing options for the continued collaboration of hospitals, and increasing the number of doctors and nurses in Mississippi, the Session has been an overwhelming success. The State is in excellent fiscal condition, we are paying off debt, our personal and business taxes are decreasing, and we have adopted a conservative budget which funds necessary services.
I am particularly proud of the Senate’s earlier 52-0 commitment to fully funding the education of our children. Our Senators’ leadership on this issue resulted in an additional $100 million for our schools, which will fund local supplements for teachers, classroom supplies, diesel for buses, and all the other things necessary to providing every child in Mississippi with an opportunity for a first-class education.”
Rolling Fork, Miss. (Fox 13-Memphis) – Mississippi Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann has issued a public statement after tornadoes swept across the state, killing 23 people and injuring dozens.
In the statement, Governor Hosemann says, “The devastation, both in terms of loss of life and damage, is overwhelming here in Rolling Fork. The priority right now is search and rescue in addition to assessment of immediate needs. We are in conversation right now with the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency, local emergency officials, local government leaders, school district superintendents, and others about how the Legislature may be able to assist with monetary resources in this area and the numerous other impacted areas in our state.”
Jackson, Miss. (Mississippi Today) – Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s campaign has filed a complaint accusing his Republican primary challenger state Sen. Chris McDaniel of “clear violations of Mississippi law” with his campaign money.
The secretary of state’s office, records show, has forwarded the complaint to the criminal investigations division of the attorney general’s office.
Hosemann’s complaint comes after a Mississippi Today article last month pointed out McDaniel’s financial reports for his campaign and a political action committee he runs leave voters in the dark about the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars and raise questions about whether donations violated state law.
McDaniel, through a campaign spokeswoman, said he has done nothing wrong, but will be returning a $237,500 contribution from what has been described as a “dark money” nonprofit corporation in Virginia that dumps millions of anonymously sourced funds into campaigns nationwide.
“We are confident we would prevail in court,” said McDaniel campaign spokeswoman Nicole Tardif. “However, to avoid a protracted legal fight with the establishment, we decided to refund the contribution.”
Tardif declined to answer several questions, but fired at Hosemann: “Delbert Hosemann has spent the past four years rewarding Democrats and hoping no one would expose him. So we aren’t surprised Delbert is obsessing over an alleged campaign finance issue to avoid talking about his abysmal, liberal record.”
Hosemann campaign adviser Casey Phillips in a statement said: “Chris McDaniel has been hiring Democrats to attack our conservative Lt. Governor and now we know he used illegal money to do it. Now that his actions are under scrutiny, he is backtracking, and has been forced to return the first $237,500 of his unreported money. Stay tuned as his illegally funded campaign based on a lie continues to unravel.”
Hosemann’s complaint includes claims McDaniel’s Hold the Line PAC and campaign violated Mississippi law that prohibits a corporation from donating more than $1,000 in a single year to a candidate or PAC. The PAC reported a $237,000 donation in August from the Alexandria, Virginia, nonprofit corporation American Exceptionalism Institute.
His Hold the Line PAC was the largest donor to McDaniel’s campaign, contributing $465,000 of the $710,000 McDaniel’s campaign reported raising last year.
Hosemann’s complaint includes prior attorney general opinions that say candidates cannot lawfully conceal contributions by forming separate accounts to divert money, and that contributions by a corporation “cannot be cleansed of its corporate status by first flowing through a PAC.”
The complaint also notes Hold the Line has reported it raised large amounts of money a year before McDaniel legally registered it with the state and that it failed to report the sources of hundreds of thousands of dollars. State law requires a PAC to file a statement of organization within 48 hours of receiving more than $200 in donations, and to file periodic reports of the sources of donations.
McDaniel registered his PAC with secretary of state in June of 2022. But Hold the Line’s first finance report showed it had a cash balance for the end of 2021 of $473,962. After questions from Mississippi Today, McDaniel said the PAC made a “clerical error,” and the PAC filed an amended report. But the amended report still showed a cash balance for 2021 — the year before it was created — of $236,981, as did a third amended report the PAC filed that same day last month.
“Regardless of which dollar amount is correct, if either, the PAC never reported the source(s) of those funds,” Hosemann’s complaint reads.
McDaniel, who has in the state Senate vocally called for campaign finance reform and transparency of the sources of political money, when asked in February about the large irregularities in his PAC’s reports, said he knows little about the finances of his PAC or campaign. He said reporting issues were “a clerical error.”
He deferred questions to the Rev. Dan Carr, a pastor and political consultant from Gulfport listed as treasurer for the Hold the Line PAC. Carr, mostly by text messages, gave a series of confusing and conflicting statements that never explained what the clerical error was, or the source of the large amount of unaccounted for donations to Hold the Line.
In a letter referring Hosemann’s complaint to the attorney general’s criminal investigations division, Kyle Kirkpatrick, assistant secretary of state for the elections division notes, “our office has no criminal investigative authority nor prosecutorial authority.”
“We defer to the Attorney General’s Office for enforcement,” the letter said. Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office did not respond to a request for comment.
McDaniel previously and campaign spokeswoman Tardif on Thursday said that despite Mississippi’s law banning corporate contributions over $1,000, it is legal because of U.S. Supreme Court rulings on federal campaign finance issues, including Citizens United v. FEC.
“… We were advised that a 501(c)4 is considered an individual under the law and, therefore not subject to Mississippi’s corporation campaign finance limits,” Tardif said in a statement.
Tardif also sent a statement from national Republican operative and campaign finance consultant Thomas Datwyler, who she said is compliance officer for Hold the Line PAC. It said, “All donors have been disclosed and are publicly available within the Hold the Line’s latest filing.”
Neither Tardif nor Datwyler addressed where at least $236,981 in unaccounted for cash in the PAC came from.
Datwyler has recently been in national news. After U.S. Rep. George Santos’ campaign treasurer resigned amid the candidate’s campaign finance problems, Santos said Datwyler would be taking over as treasurer. Datwyler’s attorney countered that he told Santos he would not be taking the post.
Hosemann, former secretary of state, is seeking a second and final term as lieutenant governor overseeing the state Senate. McDaniel is a four-term state senator who has run twice unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate.
Madison, Miss. (Madison Journal) – Madison County Schools officials are polling parents about the possibility of a modified schedule for future school years, officials say.
Superintendent Charlotte Seals said in a video to parents explaining the survey that 75 percent of district faculty and staff answered “yes” to a survey about the possibility of a modified schedule.
“Knowing that a majority of faculty and staff are in favor of this approach and interested in working on a modified calendar we are now taking steps to get feedback from you, our parents,” Superintendant Charlotte Seals said in a video to parents explaining the survey.
Madison County School officials sent a survey to parents earlier this month to provide feedback on a modified calender for the school district. The survey is available through March 23.
Seals said a modified schedule would apply, at the earliest, to the 2024-2025 school year. The calendar for the 2023-2024 school year is already set on a traditional schedule and is available on the MCS website.
Seals said many districts across the state are considering a transfer to a modified schedule.
“At its core, a modified calendar shifts a few weeks of summer vacation to provide more breaks throughout the school year,” Seals said in the video.
MCSD is taking a “strong look” at the potential benefits of such a schedule. She said the goal is to spread out school breaks to reduce the burnout of both faculty and students.
She said the calendar still includes 180 days of school for students as the current schedule does and 187 for teachers.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is a proponent of a modified schedule.
“Well in Mississippi we are doing 180 days a year and everybody pretty much knows that only is about half a year of education,” Hosemann said in 2022. “To give our children really the expertise to compete we’re talking about training young men and women to compete in a worldwide economy and the way to do this is by giving them the maximum amount of education.”
Jackson, Miss. (Scott County Times) – Bob Hickingbottom, a little-known Democrat running for governor in 2023, posted a soon-to-be viral message to his campaign Facebook page on Feb. 17 around 3 p.m.
“… I hope you will join me and vote for the Democrats from the top to the bottom of the ticket. With the exception of my good friend Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann who has to run as a Republican to win. Delbert is really a Democrat and has been our friend through the years. We all need to do everything we can for him,” Hickingbottom wrote to his 400 or so page followers.
A few minutes later, at 3:34 p.m., Hosemann’s GOP opponent in the August primary for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Chris McDaniel, posted a screenshot of that Hickingbottom post onto his own page with the post: “There you have it. Democrats Love Delbert! #DelbertTheDemocrat.”
McDaniel is the far-right conservative who developed a national brand and following in 2014 when he nearly defeated longtime U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. In that 2014 race, McDaniel ran what is considered the first Mississippi campaign to realize the full political power of social media. He has since sharpened that skillset and has hundreds of thousands of followers of like-minded, fired-up conservatives across the state and nation.
After McDaniel posted the Hickingbottom screenshot, his social media machine got to work. Several right-leaning and pro-McDaniel Facebook groups and users begin reposting it with the hashtag #DelbertTheDemocrat. Many of these other accounts have ridden McDaniel’s coattails in the development of their own brands and social media followings.
That evening, though, several Facebook users posted a different version of the Hickingbottom screenshot that spread quickly through Mississippi’s far-right conservative online spaces. This separate version of the Hickingbottom screenshot clearly showed something peculiar under the post: “Posted by Ashley Rae Bright.”
Social media savants know that those words being listed there indicates that a woman named Ashley Rae Bright is the “Elect Bob Hickingbottom” Facebook page administrator. In political campaigns, Facebook administrator duties are typically reserved for staffers of a campaign. It’s a delicate and important power to wield, and campaigns, in particular, are very careful about who gets granted that access.
A quick Google search of Ashley Rae Bright shows that she is a consultant for The Allain Group, a Jackson-based political consulting company “offering strong strategic and creative expertise to political campaigns and business clients.”
The president of The Allain Group is Lane “L.C.” Murray, a longtime Mississippi political operative. Murray, a self-admitted former member of the Ku Klux Klan, became a controversial player in the 2014 Senate race between McDaniel and Cochran.
Murray told Breitbart News during the 2014 race that he was a McDaniel supporter after Murray threatened a Republican state senator by phone. His former membership to the KKK was a focus of the Breitbart piece.
Mississippi Today contacted Murray last week to ask if The Allain Group was working for Hickingbottom’s campaign in any way.
“The Allain Group hasn’t been hired by him,” Murray told Mississippi Today in a phone interview. “I do know Mr. Hickingbottom, he’s a better friend than anything else. I haven’t talked to him in a while. I know he’s had COVID and he recently got kicked off the Democratic ballot. But no, Hickingbottom has not contacted The Allain Group, and we are not doing anything for him.”
Asked why Bright, an employee of The Allain Group, appeared to be an administrator of the Elect Bob Hickingbottom Facebook page, Murray deflected.
“I don’t know anything about that,” Murray said. “She works some part time for us, uh, back and forth. I remember her saying something about her computer being hacked or something like that. She was raising hell one day about her Facebook had been hacked. But I’m going to talk to her in the next hour or so, and I’ll call you back and tell you what I find out.”
Murray hung up and called back later that day with an update.
“She does not know Bob Hickingbottom,” Murray said of Bright. “She said somebody hacked her computer, something about someone posting something to his campaign page. She reported it. A day or two later somebody hacked it with something else. I don’t know too much about computers. But like I said, I do know him, but we’re not doing any work for him at all.”
Mississippi Today reached out to Bright directly on Facebook and asked if she was working for the Hickingbottom campaign.
“Sir, I do not know the gentleman,” Bright wrote in a message. “My Facebook was hacked a couple times several weeks ago.”
When Mississippi Today sent Bright a screenshot that showed her as the Elect Bob Hickingbottom Facebook page administrator, Bright replied: “I seen that post as well, changed password and all. I don’t know him so therefore I can’t help you.”
When Mississippi Today then asked why a hacker would make her an administrator of Hickingbottom campaign’s Facebook page to post a political message, she doubled down on her denial of any work with Hickingbottom.
“Sir, I told you I do not know the gentleman,” Bright replied. “I do not know how that showed up on my Facebook. I’ve answered your questions. Now please leave me alone!”
Bright and Hickingbottom are friends on Facebook. Mississippi Today did not get the chance to ask Bright about why she is Facebook friends with someone she purportedly does not know before she declined to speak further.
Hickingbottom, 75, has been involved in Mississippi politics for decades. He broke through working as a political operative for scandal-ridden former Jackson Mayor Frank Melton. Speaking on popular conservative radio host Kim Wade’s show in 2007, Hickingbottom put his career this way: “I’ve been at the forefront of every dirty deal that was cut in politics.”
In 2019, Hickingbottom ran for governor as a Constitution Party candidate, using his limited platform to blister Democratic nominee Jim Hood, who came within six points of defeating now-Gov. Tate Reeves. In public Facebook posts during that race, Hickingbottom rarely turned his ire toward Reeves.
And most recently, Hickingbottom has been the subject of broad statewide news coverage after he and another candidate for governor were disqualified from the 2023 Democratic ballot. State Democratic Party officials say he was disqualified for not filing a statement of economic interest, a required form where candidates publicly disclose their personal business interests, and required campaign finance reports when he ran for governor in 2019. Since his disqualification, Hickingbottom has publicly pannedDemocratic Party leadership and has even threatened a lawsuit.
In a Mississippi Today interview with Hickingbottom last week, he said he thought it was “unconscionable” that the Democratic Party would disqualify two Black men in a primary against Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who is white and widely regarded as the party’s frontrunner.
But later in the interview, talking about his political background, Hickingbottom said: “I’m pretty conservative myself, to tell you the truth. I’m honestly too conservative for the Democrats probably.”
“I’ll put it to you this way, I’m a political operative,” Hickingbottom said. “I’ll work with whoever hires me, Democrat or Republican or whoever.”
Mississippi Today asked Hickingbottom in the interview about the controversial Facebook post about Hosemann and the apparent ties to The Allain Group.
Hickingbottom told Mississippi Today that he published the Facebook post himself. Asked why Bright was listed as his Facebook page administrator who posted it, he got weird.
“I don’t, well, I don’t know an Ashley Bright. I don’t know who she is” Hickingbottom said before abruptly changing the subject.
When Mississippi Today circled back about why Bright showed up as the administrator of his campaign Facebook page, Hickingbottom paused.
“I’ll be honest with you, I’m an old guy and I didn’t even know anything about computers,” he said. “… I know how to do email and put stuff on Facebook, and I learned that basically through my telephone. All I can tell you is I don’t know her, I’ve never met her. Maybe she got hacked. All I use Facebook on is my phone. My phone has been hacked many times. I’ve had a reputation — let’s just put it like this, I was a flamethrower … I have a lot of enemies.”
He said several times during the interview that he believes Hosemann, a successful politician who has won four statewide elections as a Republican, is a Democrat. Hickingbottom said that he did not intend to hurt Hosemann nor help McDaniel.
“In 2014, I was on the air with other people talking against Chris McDaniel,” Hickingbottom said. “He was Tea Party, trying to do Thad (Cochran) in. We were talking about him real bad. A lot of people asked us to rip Chris McDaniel and get people to vote for Thad Cochran.”
Asked if he’d in any way solicited the help of The Allain Group to work on his campaign, Hickingbottom said he hadn’t. But he did acknowledge he knew Murray, the president of the consulting firm.
“I’ve known Lane Murray, he’s a fixture in politics,” Hickingbottom said. “I’ve been an operative myself for years and years. I know Lane Murray, Greg Brand, and to some extent they know me. But I haven’t seen him in two or three years at least. Since probably the end of 2020. I know him, but that’s the extent of it.”
Greg Brand, whom Hickingbottom mentioned unprompted, is another Mississippi political operative with a troubled past.
In 2016, then-Secretary of State Hosemann pushed then-Attorney General Jim Hood to pursue charges against Brand for violating election law — specifically for mailing attack ads without identifying the group or individual who sent it. Brand and another operative were sentenced to six months probation and a $500 fine. Brand briefly tried to sue Hosemann in federal court over the episode, but that lawsuit was dismissed.
There’s yet another strange tie between Hickingbottom and The Allain Group: they are immediate neighbors in the same Jackson office building, according to Mississippi Secretary of State records.
Hickingbottom, who owns a company called “Blackstone Distributors LLC,” lists his business address at 1755 Lelia Drive, Suite 232, Jackson, MS 39216. The office for The Allain Group is 1755 Lelia Drive, Suite 222, Jackson, MS 39216. The suites are directly next to one another on the second floor of the office building.
Hickingbottom told Mississippi Today he had a small office space at that address “a couple years ago, but I was wasting money by paying for it so I moved out.”
Murray repeated something similar.
“I’ve been in that office for four or five years,” Murray said of the office. “He had an office close to mine, a little one room thing. I might have seen him once or twice, but I don’t think he’s been in there for two or three years.”
Both Murray and Hickingbottom denied any coordinated effort to help McDaniel’s campaign.
Meanwhile, Hickingbottom continues posting incendiary Facebook posts about Hosemann. And McDaniel and his far-right social media circles keep using Hickingbottom’s posts to campaign directly against Hosemann. The strategy appears thorough and coordinated, and it has continued for weeks.
Radio host Kim Wade, a longtime and active public supporter of McDaniel, again had Hickingbottom on his show on Feb. 21 — just four days after Hickingbottom’s controversial Facebook post.
When Hickingbottom reiterated on the show that Hosemann was a Democrat, Wade replied: “Wow. There is some validity to what you’re saying given how he treated President Trump and how he treats conservatives. We can ignore it at our own peril.”
A clip of that radio show made its rounds on McDaniel’s social media.
“A MUST LISTEN,” McDaniel’s 2014 campaign manager and current state Sen. Melanie Sojourner posted to her Facebook page with a clip to the Wade interview.
McDaniel posted the same radio clip to his own Facebook page with similar language to Sojourner’s post: “BREAKING: This is a MUST LISTEN. Democrat candidate for Governor discusses Delbert Hosemann: ‘He’s a Democrat.’”
Others in right-wing media have been singing the same tune. Jim Cegielski, publisher of the Laurel Leader-Call newspaper and a longtime McDaniel lackey, wrote a column about Hickingbottom’s shock claim with the headline: “Delbert’s a Democrat … Bet your Hickingbottom dollar on it.”
McDaniel posted that column to his hundreds of thousands of social media followers multiple times. In all, McDaniel has posted at least 10 separate posts to his social media pages boosting Hickingbottom’s words and using them to paint Hosemann as a Democrat.
“BREAKING NEWS: Delbert Hosemann gets a huge endorsement this week,” McDaniel posted on Feb. 23. “You are not going to believe it! We’ve always known Democrats love Delbert Hosemann behind the scenes, but now they are becoming public in their support. A Democrat candidate for Governor, Bob Hickingbottom, publicly endorsed Delbert Hosemann this week!”
That long post from McDaniel went on to mention the Kim Wade radio interview, closing the post by writing: “Perhaps Bob Hickingbottom did say it best — Delbert is the best Lt. Governor that Democrats could possibly have in Mississippi. It’s time for a change, Mississippi.”
Hickingbottom, for his part, keeps on posting, even after Mississippi Today questioned him about his posts.
On March 7, Hickingbottom posted a letter he says he sent to Hosemann.
“To my fellow Mississippian and friend Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann,” Hickingbottom’s letter begins, “I have been told that I may have hurt you and your re-election campaign for Lt. Governor. I sincerely hope that is not true because that was not my intention. If you recall, I first met you many years ago when I was introduced to you by our mutual friend Louis Armstrong. In those days we were all proud Democrats like most of Mississippi at the time.”
On March 9, Hickingbottom posted a rambling, all-caps post that reiterates he never meant to hurt “Lt. Gov. Delbert Horseman (sic).”
On March 12, Hickingbottom posted a criticism of Hosemann for his work to change the Mississippi state flag in 2020, retiring the state’s last-in-American Confederate battle emblem design to a museum. That is a pirated talking point from many of McDaniel’s supporters.
Asked for comment, the Hosemann campaign appeared to be following the sequence of Hickingbottom events closely.
“This scheme was concocted to create a false narrative to support a losing campaign,” said Casey Phillips, senior adviser for the Delbert Hosemann campaign. “Why else would a former Klansman and known McDaniel supporter be running this person’s Facebook page? Before we know it, they will all be locked up in a courthouse again.”
Phillips said Hosemann does not know Hickingbottom, and that Hosemann has never received any letter from Hickingbottom — including that strange March 7 letter posted to Facebook.
McDaniel’s campaign denied working with or communicating with Hickingbottom’s campaign and said that Murray is not working for the campaign.
“Unequivocally, neither Senator McDaniel nor any member of his campaign apparatus are communicating with, coordinating alongside, nor focusing on Bob Hickingbottom’s candidacy,” said Nicole Tardif, spokesperson for McDaniel’s campaign.
Murray, who told Mississippi Today last week he was not working with McDaniel, apparently fashions himself as working behind the scenes for the conservative state senator.
With the past week, Murray sent text messages to several people across the state. One person, granted anonymity over fear of retribution from the Ku Klux Klan, shared the Murray text with Mississippi Today. The message’s focus: “Delbert the Democrat.”
Jackson, Miss. (Clarion Ledger) – After three years of debate, Mississippi joined the rest of the United States by extending Medicaid coverage for new mothers beyond 60 days.
Jackson, Miss. (AP) – Mississippi Senate leaders are pushing to rewrite the state’s education budget formula, which has only fully funded public schools twice since it was put into law in 1997.
Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and Senate Education Committee Chairman Dennis DeBar, both Republicans, said the proposal would fully fund the Mississippi Adequate Education Program for the third time in the state’s history and provide a $181 million infusion into school budgets. The proposal, which was unveiled Monday at the Capitol, would end a roughly 16-year period in which lawmakers have failed to fully fund the program, which helps public schools cover basic expenses.
After passing a teacher pay raise bill last session, Hosemann said the latest push to fully fund public schools shows the Senate’s emphasis on education.
“We don’t compete just with Alabama anymore; we compete with the world,” he said. “We fully intend for our kids to be competitive when they get there.”
The election year proposal is expected to be put before the full Mississippi Senate on Tuesday. House Speaker Phillip Gunn has not said whether he supports the proposal.
The proposal would change the way the state’s department of education calculates the base student cost, the funding level deemed necessary to provide an adequate education to one student. It would also raise the percentage cap that determines how much local school districts are responsible for paying. Four school districts in the state would end paying more, but senate leaders committed to helping cover that cost.
MAEP was put into law by a Democratic-controlled Legislature in 1997 over the veto of Republican Gov. Kirk Fordice. It is designed to give each district enough money to meet midlevel academic standards.
The program was written largely in response to equity-funding lawsuits being filed in other states, which challenged the level of money being spent in poorer districts compared to wealthier ones.
Republicans have controlled both chambers of the Legislature since the 2012 session. In 2017, then Lt. Gov. Tates Reeves and Gunn led a failed attempt to replace the formula with a new plan which they said would link money more explicitly to the needs of each student.
“I think what happened in 2017 was an obsession with repealing the formula so that there would be no way to measure underfunding,” said Democratic state Sen. Hob Bryan. “That by definition whatever the Legislature came up with to fund things would be acceptable.”
Reeves, who is now the governor, did not say Monday whether he supported the proposal.
Nancy Loome, executive director of The Parents’ Campaign, a public education advocacy group that has long pushed for MAEP funding, said she supports the formula changes “alongside a commitment to fully fund public schools this year.”
“Importantly, the Senate’s plan leaves intact the formula for the base student cost, which is the primary determinant of school funding, it enhances the equity provision of the MAEP, and when fully funded, will increase significantly funding for public schools statewide,” Loome told The Associated Press.
DeSoto County, Miss. (DeSoto County News) – Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann is getting the endorsement of state realtors as the Mississippi Association of REALTORS® Political Action Committee (MARPAC) Wednesday gave Hosemann their nod for a second term in office.
MARPAC Chair Karen Glass cited Hosemann’s dedication to economic development, education, and homeownership issues as primary reasons for their support.
“MARPAC and the Mississippi REALTORS® are proud to endorse Delbert Hosemann for Lieutenant Governor,” Glass said. “Delbert Hosemann has proven to be a staunch supporter of private property rights, a champion of economic development, and a wonderful ambassador for the state of Mississippi.”
The Republican primary election is slated for Aug. 8 , followed by the general election on Nov. 7. State Sen. Chris McDaniel is challenging Hosemann in the primary election, along with Tiffany Longino and Shane Quick. Ryan Grover is the lone Democrat who qualified.
“Our realtors help Mississippi families find homes and Mississippi businesses find places to operate,” Hosemann said. “These professionals are integral to economic development, quality of life, and the health and safety of our communities. We are honored to have their support.”
Greenwood, Miss. (Greenwood Commonwealth) – Back in 2014, Mississippi politicos underestimated Tea Party zealot State Sen. Chris McDaniel and it almost resulted in one of the state’s most shocking political upsets. At the outset, most thought McDaniel was taking on then-incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran as an exercise in building name recognition for a future race.
Not so. Cochran, then the state’s most influential member of Congress and in line to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee, was pushed to the limit by McDaniel’s insurgent campaign – a campaign financed largely by out-of-state super political action committees representing Club for Growth and Senate Conservatives Fund.
But in the GOP second primary, Cochran rallied to win the nomination based and eventual re-election to his final term in a 45-year career on Capitol Hill that saw him render heroic and historic service to Mississippi and the Gulf South after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
In every race, the McDaniel playbook is nothing if not predictable. His opponent is “not conservative enough” and fails McDaniel’s political purity test. McDaniel postures as a courageous champion of conservative issues and a skilled legislator who can effect real change really fast.
But the reality of the McDaniel shuck-and-jive is somewhat different – and often jarring in its hypocrisy. In almost every one of the four four-year terms (that’s 16 years, folks) that McDaniel has sought in the Mississippi Legislature, he’s filed a bill to implement term limits – it fails, then he runs for re-election. And as to his supposed legislative superpowers in the State Senate, a study of his actual record shows that McDaniel has rarely been successful in passing substantive legislation.
In the vast majority of instances in which McDaniel was the principal author of legislation, his Senate colleagues simply allowed his offerings to die in committee. McDaniel was successful in getting resolutions passed honoring school athletic championships or contestants who won pageants.
Notably, he successfully led to passage “Nathan’s Law” which enhanced the penalties for motorists who pass loaded school buses after the 2009 death of Nathan Key.
After losing the 2014 and 2018 U.S. Senate campaigns, McDaniel now returns to a statewide race challenging incumbent Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. His campaign announcement featured exactly the pitch McDaniel has made before – Hosemann’s insufficiently conservative and fails McDaniel’s purity test by working across the political aisle when possible.
The 2014 campaign saw McDaniel take on an aging Cochran who never was a firebrand campaigner and who genuinely dislike “in your face” political discourse. And the GOP primary in 2014 was a $16.4 million affair with the tab swollen by outside spending on both sides.
In that race, spending by PACs, super PACs, and 501(c) groups tossed in $10.7 million from third-party groups seeking to influence the outcome of the race either in support of or in opposition to the two candidates. That level of outside national money simply won’t be available in a Hosemann-McDaniel race.
The 2018 U.S. Senate special election race saw McDaniel run third in an open primary race to the ultimate winner U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, who gained the key endorsement of then-President Donald Trump. The self-proclaimed “conservative fighter” earned just 16.7 percent of the vote.
Most of all, the key difference in this race for McDaniel is that in Hosemann, he faces an opponent who will take the political fight to him. Based on recent campaign finance reports, Hosemann has a decided campaign finance advantage of $2.75 million more than McDaniel. McDaniel’s campaign finance numbers are drawing scrutiny over whether his disclosure and reporting comply with state rather than federal campaign finance rules.
Hosemann has been extraordinarily popular with Mississippi voters who have elected him to statewide office four consecutive times. The “not conservative enough” bilge doesn’t hold water and Hosemann’s honest efforts to listen across the political aisle and seek consensus over conflict when possible should be lauded, not criticized.
Voters remember Hosemann’s gentle little lady on the park bench “It’s Delbert, ma’am” series of TV political ads, but if the McDaniel camp ponders that series of ads and deciphers that Hosemann isn’t temperamentally prepared for a political street fight, think again.
McDaniel is the far-right conservative who developed a national brand and following in 2014 when he nearly defeated longtime U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. In that 2014 race, McDaniel ran what is considered the first Mississippi campaign to realize the full political power of social media. He has since sharpened that skillset and has hundreds of thousands of followers of like-minded, fired-up conservatives across the state and nation.
That evening, though, several Facebook users posted a different version of the Hickingbottom screenshot that spread quickly through Mississippi’s far-right conservative online spaces. This separate version of the Hickingbottom screenshot clearly showed something peculiar under the post: “Posted by Ashley Rae Bright.”
McDaniel posted the same radio clip to his own Facebook page with similar language to Sojourner’s post: “BREAKING: This is a MUST LISTEN. Democrat candidate for Governor discusses Delbert Hosemann: ‘He’s a Democrat.’”
Others in right-wing media have been singing the same tune. Jim Cegielski, publisher of the Laurel Leader-Call newspaper and a longtime McDaniel lackey, wrote a column about Hickingbottom’s shock claim with the headline: “Delbert’s a Democrat … Bet your Hickingbottom dollar on it.”
Hickingbottom, for his part, keeps on posting, even after Mississippi Today questioned him about his posts.
On March 12, Hickingbottom posted a criticism of Hosemann for his work to change the Mississippi state flag in 2020, retiring the state’s last-in-American Confederate battle emblem design to a museum. That is a pirated talking point from many of McDaniel’s supporters.