- Voters will return to the polls on April 22 to decide who will fill the unexpired terms in the two Mississippi House seats.
Special elections for House District 23 and House District 82 were held Tuesday, with both races now headed to a runoff on April 22.
Five candidates were running in the House District 23 special election to fill the unexpired term of former State Rep. Andy Stepp (R), who died in December.
On Tuesday, voters sent Perry Bailey and Colby Bollinger on to a runoff, with Bailey leading the field with 41 percent of the vote and Bollinger coming in second with 33 percent of the vote.
Bailey, a farmer and businessman, held the House District 23 seat as a Republican for just over a year following the resignation of former State Rep. Jim Beckett (R) in 2022. Bailey lost his re-election bid to Stepp in 2023.
Bollinger, a member of the Calhoun County School Board, is a small business owner that calls himself a “no non-sense conservative.”
In the House District 82 race, three candidates were seeking to fill the unexpired term of former State Rep. Charles Young, Jr. (D), who also died in December.
Voters sent Gregory Elliott and Joseph Norwood to a runoff, with Elliott winning over 40 percent of the vote and Norwood narrowly finishing in second with nearly 30 percent of the vote.
The separation between Norwood and the third candidate in the race, Joseph Denson, came down to just four votes.
Elliott is known in the Lauderdale County area for his community service while Norwood served on the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors as a Democrat for six terms.
Special elections are non-partisan in Mississippi, meaning candidates do not run under a party label. However, candidates have not shied away from making their political ideology known on the campaign trail.
Frank Corder
