Hugh Keating (left) and Sonia Williams-Barnes (right) campaigning (Photos from Keating and Williams-Barnes' Facebook pages)
- Republicans are working to hold on to the mayor’s seat in Mississippi’s second largest city while Democrats work for an upset in the open seat election.
Mississippi’s second largest city will elect a new mayor on June 3, ending a three-term run for Billy Hewes who has been at the helm of the Coast city since 2013.
Voters will decide between Hugh Keating, a Republican, and Sonia Williams-Barnes, a Democrat.
Hewes, a Republican, announced in May 2024 that he would not be seeking re-election.
“The good news is that with a city like Gulfport, there’s always good work to be done,” Hewes told Magnolia Tribune last year.
The outgoing mayor has spoken highly of Keating, saying the city has been fortunate to have had his decades of service to the community. Hewes said Keating brings more opportunity for confidence, stability, and continued growth in Gulfport.
Keating, a former President of the Mississippi Bar, has worked extensively in the Gulfport community, serving as Vice-President of the Gulfport Redevelopment Commission, President of the Mississippi Coast Crime Commission, and Chairman of the Board of Trustees for Leadership Gulf Coast. An attorney, Keating has worked with Dukes, Keating, Hatten, McRaney, and Blum as Vice President/Treasurer.
Keating said Tuesday that for Gulfport to move forward into the future, “we need the right vision and proven leadership in the mayor’s office.”
“I’m running for mayor to help Gulfport reach our shared goals. That means bringing a focus on the blue economy so that all things water-related are a major economic engine for our city,” Keating said on social media. “It also means recruiting more police officers to keep us safe and to improve community relations.”
Keating was unopposed in the city’s Republican Primary in April. He has drawn the backing of many state and local Republican elected officials.
Challenging Keating is Democrat Sonia Williams-Barnes, who won over 84 percent of the vote in the city’s Democratic Primary, pulling in 3,316 votes. That vote total resonates with locals, especially the GOP, as only 2,680 out of 4,204 total voters turned out in 2021 to re-elect Hewes.
Williams-Barnes, owner and Vice President of Lockett-Williams Mortuary, is a former state legislator who served in the House of Representatives for 10 years before she resigned in 2022 to become the Policy Director for the Southern Poverty Law Center. She also previously chaired the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus.
Her campaign made headlines after Coast-native Stacey Abrams, a now often controversial national Democratic Party figure and failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate, donated to Williams-Barnes.
Williams-Barnes time in the Legislature has allowed her to pick up endorsements from prominent state Democrats, most of who are in the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus.
She has said that there is a “real lack and divide between police officers, law enforcement and community.”
“There is a distrust there. And if we’re just being honest with each other, we will admit that some people in Gulfport don’t trust law enforcement,” Williams-Barnes recently told a gathering. “So, the very first thing I will address is ensuring that we rebuild that trust.”
Williams-Barnes has said Gulfport needs new leadership, not what Keating, who has been involved in the city’s development since the 1990s, brings to the table.
“So, if we want change, we have to create change,” she said. “And you create that change at the polls.”
