- The businessman is among a growing list of names considering a gubernatorial run in 2027.
When Tommy Duff started out in business with a single tire shop, his dream was simple.
“My American Dream was to be able to make payroll on Friday,” he told a packed crowd at the Rankin County Republican Lincoln-Reagan-Trump Dinner in Flowood Monday night.
Decades later, Duff is reportedly the wealthiest man in Mississippi, employing 15,000 people nationwide.
He has also played a behind-the-scenes role in GOP politics, even more so after launching a political action committee amid rumors of a gubernatorial run in 2027. His being the keynote speaker at Monday’s packed house of Republican powerbrokers added fuel to that growing fire.
Yet, instead of using his time to announce a run for office, Duff focused on bringing a different perspective to the problems facing the state in a similar way that he finds appealing about President Donald Trump on the national level.
“I think the thing that appeals to me the most about him and watching his policies is the fact that he’s an outsider,” Duff said of Trump. “He looks at things from a different perspective.”
Duff, a Pine Belt native, owns Southern Tire Mart, the largest truck tire dealership and retread manufacturer in the nation, with his brother, James. The brothers also own Duff Capital Investors, the largest privately owned business in the state. They are one of the largest job creators in Rankin County with around 1,200 employees.
During his half-hour address to the estimated 300 people in attendance, Duff said that at times, there is a need for outsiders in business, organizations, and politics. Being an outsider while serving on the state’s higher education commission, Duff said he saw a way to save Mississippi millions. At the time, the state was paying anywhere between 3 to 6.5 percent interest on bonds. Duff asked why the board didn’t “redo all the bonds,” which led to the savings, he said.
Another savings came from asking why a Mississippi university offered a doctorate in music education. Only one student received the degree in five years, but there were three tenured professors on staff. Duff told the Board at the Institutions of Higher Learning that the funds for the program could be used elsewhere within the state’s college system.
Duff said he has noticed a trend in higher education that has him concerned. Roughly half the graduates from Mississippi’s colleges and universities leave the Magnolia State within three years of receiving their diplomas. Jackson, Hattiesburg, Biloxi, or Greenville are not places recent graduates want to call home, he told the audience. In talking to young people, he learned they want to be in Nashville, Atlanta, or Austin.
Why the young and educated are leaving is financial, he believes.
“The answer may not be popular, it’s not business or culture, but what people are paid,” Duff said.
The businessman told the gathered GOP faithful about a recent meeting with Jamie Diamond, chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase, where the banking executive asked several questions about Mississippi’s businesses. Diamond asked why Mississippi does not have any Fortune 500 companies headquartered in the state, but neighboring Arkansas has five – Walmart, Tyson Foods, Murphy USA, J.B. Hunt Transportation, and Dillard’s Department Stores.
Duff said he responded that while the state does not have any Fortune 500 headquarters, Mississippi is proudly the home to the highest number of corporations that do more than $1 million in annual business than any other state, and has six corporations that do over $1 billion in annual revenue.
Duff admitted that Mississippi has not always been the economic hotspot it has recently become. About 10 years ago, it was chugging behind other southeastern U.S. states, but within the last decade, state leaders have stepped on the gas pedal.
Many legislative feats made the state more business-friendly, Duff said, including tort reform under Governor Haley Barbour, and reducing red tape and regulation under various administrations.
However, Duff said there is more to be done.
“We’ve got to get our car up to 60 miles per hour,” he said.
While Duff did not throw his hat in the ring for governor, he remarks did put those gathered on notice that he is looking for a seat at the policy table and is bringing an outsider’s perspective on how to move Mississippi forward.
Should he enter the 2027 gubernatorial race, Duff will likely be among a crowded field in the Republican primary. Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson has already announced he is in while State Auditor Shad White and Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann have not shied away from being named among possible candidates for governor. Former Congressman Gregg Harper’s name has also been floated as considering a run as has Attorney General Lynn Fitch, Congressman Trent Kelly and former Speaker Philip Gunn.
