Sparks enters race for State Auditor

• With incumbent State Auditor Shad White now all but officially running for governor in the 2027 election cycle, state Senator Daniel Sparks has decided to join a growing field running for the open seat.

State Senator Daniel Sparks’ name has been tossed around for State Auditor for going on two years. The Republican from Belmont who once downplayed those rumors is now throwing his hat in the ring for the statewide office.

“I actually went to the State Auditor a couple years ago because I kept hearing my name bubbling up and I wasn’t the one bubbling it. I wanted him to understand it wasn’t me,” Sparks told Magnolia Tribune Tuesday morning ahead of his announcement.

With incumbent State Auditor Shad White (R) now all but officially running for governor in the 2027 election cycle, Sparks has decided to run for the open seat.

“I appreciate that there were people talking about it before I was talking about it,” the senator said. “So I hope that that certainly means it is the right fit. And I would certainly be excited to have the opportunity to move into that role.”

About Daniel Sparks

Sparks is a two-term state Senator representing Itawamba, Prentiss, and Tishomingo counties in Senate District 5. He was elected to the position in 2019, winning a four-person Republican primary without a runoff and then defeating a Democrat in the general election. He was then unopposed in his re-election bid in 2023.

After graduating from Belmont High School, the senator attended Northeast Mississippi Community College. He went on to work in the wholesale closeout grocery business for about 7 years before going back to school. Sparks double majored in accounting and economics at Ole Miss, and then went on to law school where he focused on tax law.

“A lot of my law practice and then my time in the Legislature has been dealing with complex financial matters. It’s been trying to hold state agencies accountable,” Sparks said.

In his first term in the Legislature, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (R) appointed Sparks vice chair of the Senate Corrections Committee. The senator now serves as chairman of the Senate Economic and Workforce Development and vice chair of the Senate Judiciary, Division B. He also sits on a number of other committees in the chamber, including Appropriations, Finance, and Business and Financial Institutions, to name a few.

“It’s always kind of been in my nature that we want to do more with less. I don’t like to waste money or waste resources,” Sparks said of his approach to legislating, adding that it why be believes the State Auditor’s office is a good fit for his skills.

Before running for the state Senate, Sparks was among the crowded 13-person field that ran for the open seat special election in the 1st Congressional District in 2015, a race current Congressman Trent Kelly (R) ultimately won.

Why State Auditor?

Sparks said his legislative track record “of doing these things as a Senator and with my educational background,” led him to believe that he can be effective as Mississippi’s next State Auditor.

“I love the job I have, but part of that job serving on Appropriations and Finance and on the Joint Legislative Budget Committee, we get to see a lot of presentations from state agencies,” he said. “We’re working on a limited amount of funds in the State of Mississippi, and I believe we can run leaner. I believe we need to run leaner with what’s going on at the federal level, from an accountability standpoint.”

Sparks believes Mississippi is going to see less money coming into state government, both in tax collections and by way of the federal government.

“I do believe in the next few years with the state income tax reductions and elimination, with federal rules changing daily, our own funding programs and what we’ll see out of the Trump administration for the next few years, I think we need to be proactive on accountability because I believe it’s coming, especially with a federal government debt of almost $40 trillion,” Sparks said. “They can’t keep sending the money to the States and Mississippi is one of the largest net receivers of funds.”

He said if Mississippi runs leaner and more efficiently, and if accountability is the focus with an eye on cutting out wasteful spending and properly reallocating monies, the State will be better for it.

“We spend enough money in the State to probably attack most problems we claim we want to solve but sometimes they just don’t get to where they need to go, and so we will look at all of that,” Sparks said, adding, “At the end of the day, I believe we can be more effective in this role than as a part-time legislator.”

The Likely Field

Sparks enters the race with at least one opponent and another likely to make their announcement soon. None of the names being seriously mentioned as candidates for State Auditor have run a statewide campaign.

“I do recognize that it is 82 counties and that legislators overestimate their name ID, so we’re going to approach it as if nobody knows us, and we’re going to try to meet as many people as we can across the state,” Sparks said.

Nick Bain, a former member of the Mississippi House of Representatives, officially announced his candidacy for State Auditor last month. He was immediately endorsed by former Governor Phil Bryant (R).

Adams County Supervisor and oilman Kevin Wilson is also said to be considering a run for the auditor’s office. Wilson most recently ran unsuccessfully for Congress in the 2nd District Republican Primary this year, losing to Republican nominee Ron Eller. To date, Wilson has not publicly conceded that race and endorsed the GOP nominee.

Campaign finance reports from earlier this year show Sparks with $101,000 in his legislative account. His State Auditor campaign filed their formation on Monday. For comparison, Nick Bain reported nearly $240,000 while Kevin Wilson does not have a campaign finance report on file with the Mississippi Secretary of State. Given Wilson’s personal wealth, it is believed he could fund his own campaign should he enter the race. He loaned his congressional campaign roughly $150,000.

Sparks believes being an incumbent in the Legislature, actively working with his colleagues, gives him momentum and the ability to gain support.

“After two terms in the state Senate, the relationships that I’ve built with my colleagues, I think they know me and that I’m going to shoot them straight. I’m going to dig into the details. I’m going to be honest about what we bring to the table. In other words, they don’t ever have to doubt if I’m misleading them,” Sparks said of earning the support of his fellow lawmakers. “They know that, good, bad or indifferent, I’m going to tell them like I believe it’s true. I really believe that the relationships I’ve built over the last two terms as Economic Workforce chairman, being able to move across the state, that we have built a strong network of relationships, and that, combined with my colleagues, gives me a great opportunity to connect with people across the state. “

No Democrat has stepped forward as of yet to announce a run for the State Auditor’s office.

Sparks’ Priorities if Elected Auditor

Sparks said under his watch, a primary focus of the State Auditor’s office over the next few years will be the implementation of new technology to assist in both data collection and analysis for lawmakers, state agencies, and local governments, “using technology to look at reports where it’s not the naked eye trying to compare numbers.”

“Working with the Legislature to try to get compatible technology at our agencies and with the folks that are spending the money because we don’t do a great job of that in state government, of having systems that can talk to one another,” Sparks said.

He also considers education to be a key function of the auditor’s office, particularly as it pertains to municipalities, counties and school districts.

“This means making sure that you have training and strong technical assistance because a lot of people really want to do things the right way. You’ve got people across all levels of government at the largest agency down to the smallest county or municipality. They’re good people trying to do the right things, but there is complexity that’s involved,” Spark explained. “You’ve got federal rules, you’ve got state rules, you’ve got agency regulations. So we want to make sure that we’re a resource to all of our clerks, our supervisors, all the people that often end up the subject of an audit – school districts – that we are out there making sure we’re keeping them on the cutting edge of changes, making sure they’re utilizing technology where they can, and that if we can, avoid somebody making a mistake.”

However, the senator knows there are bad actors, “always have been, always will be.”

“If somebody is intentionally doing it the wrong way, then we’re going to use the laws to protect our tax dollars,” Sparks said. “I would say an ounce of prevention in this case is worth a pound of prosecution. Our goal is to catch it beforehand or to prevent it.”

He said the State Auditor should be visiting cities and counties, attend their conferences, and let the local officials know the auditor’s office is here to help.

“Here’s our technical assistance arm, for example,” Sparks said. “You’re responsive to their questions, but you also are laying out with clarity that if it’s done the wrong way, we have a duty to follow the law. I want people to look at it from a standpoint of we are here to help you, but we are also here to protect the taxpayers’ dollars and whether that is an inadvertent mistake, if there’s a claw back, there’s a claw back. If there’s an intentional act, then there’s consequences for that.”

As for working with the Legislature, Sparks said the auditor’s office needs to make sure it is in tune with what is going on at the federal level “so we don’t put funding at risk on a state level, much less that local unit of government which is mostly dealing with either their local tax dollars or some grant or pass through from the State or the federal government.”

“If we have the opportunity to have this position, I believe lawmakers can use the resources the auditor’s office provides to help them pull the data they need and get the questions answered they’re needing for potential legislation,” he said. “One of the most common answers that the Legislature gets is, ‘We’ll get that to you, Senator.’ And it often never comes. If I am the State Auditor, it would be incumbent upon me to sit down with the Lieutenant Governor, to sit down with the Speaker and look at their legislative priorities, to say, ‘Hey, guys, what are we looking at where we can help or where we can be of assistance?’ Having that experience in the Legislature I hope can be an asset to lawmakers.”

Sparks added that such coordination would be almost as if the Auditor is providing information to help lawmakers target their potential legislation “because it may be that an area they thought was a problem is not the problem, but it’s another area.”

“I see this as a great opportunity to work alongside the Legislature because they make laws and they make the rules,” he said.

Sparks also wants to focus on administrative costs and their impact.

“We’re getting eaten alive in state government by administrative costs, and we’ve let the administrative part of government grow out of control. Too many agencies think they’re an employment service,” the senator said, also noting the need for transparency in NGOs. “And if we’re going to really right size government, especially with the technological advancements that are out there, we need to be serious about right sizing government, and that’s payroll, that’s process, and I believe that that’s a huge piece over the next 8 to 10 years that will be part of our financial story.”

“Do we embrace technology, do we embrace efficiency, or do we wait until the federal government forces it on us and then we face losing money or paying multimillion dollar penalties because we’re not in compliance?” asked Sparks.

He said his approach to the auditor’s office will take “a holistic look.”

“I believe that that office can be a great resource to the appropriators and to the Legislature and most of all to the taxpayers of the State of Mississippi,” Sparks said.

What Grounds Him

Sparks expressed appreciation to his family in their support for him and his run for statewide office.

“When I got elected, I was neither married nor had a child and I have both now very thankfully,” he said. “I wouldn’t have made this decision without full support of my wife and my family. They are excited about the opportunity.”

Sparks concluded by saying he and his family know Mississippi is a big state, “but my family also knows me and the work that I’ve done the last seven years. I just want the opportunity to carry that on in a different way.”