- Magnolia State voters will decide who they want representing them in the U.S. Senate, U.S. House and the White House, as well as on the state Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.
Mississippi voters will cast their ballot for the next President and Vice President of the United States next Tuesday. They will also be electing their Representative to the U.S. House, one of two U.S. Senators, and state judges, along with a handful of special and local elections.
As of Monday – one week from Election Day – 119,818 absentee ballots have been received in the state of Mississippi ahead of the 2024 November General Election. That number surpasses the 2016 absentee ballot total of 103,000 but is well short of the 2020 total of 234,000.
Here’s a look at who is on the ballot in Mississippi.
U.S. President and Vice President
There are 9 choices for U.S. President and Vice President on the Mississippi ballot in 2024. The primetime matchup, however, is between Republican nominee former President Donald Trump with his running mate Ohio U.S. Senator J.D. Vance and Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris with her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.
Trump is trying to become the first former President to win non-consecutive terms since Grover Cleveland in the late 1800s. Mississippi has voted in Trump’s favor by over 57 percent in each of the last two presidential elections in 2016 and 2020.
Harris would like to become the first sitting Vice President to win the presidency since George H. W. Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan in the late 1980s.
The last time Mississippi’s electoral votes went to a Democratic presidential candidate was 1976 with Jimmy Carter.
Notably, former Independent candidates Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and his running mate Nicole Shanahan suspended their campaign in August before endorsing Trump’s candidacy. Their names will still appear on the Mississippi ballot.
The Mississippi presidential ballot choices are:
- Kamala Harris-Tim Walz: Democrat
- Chase Oliver-Mike ter Maat: Libertarian
- Jill Stein-Rudolph Ware: Green
- Randall Terry-Stephen Broden: Mississippi Constitution
- Donald Trump-J.D. Vance: Republican
- Shiva Ayyadura-Crystal Ellis: Independent
- Claudia De La Cruz-Karina Garcia: Independent
- Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.-Nicole Shanahan: Independent
- Peter Sonski-Lauren Onak: Independent
U.S. Senate
Democrat Ty Pinkins has canvassed the state looking for votes in hopes of upsetting incumbent Republican U.S. Senator Roger Wicker for nearly two years. Yet, Pinkins’ campaign has only been able to raise roughly $888,000 this election cycle-to-date while Wicker has pulled in over $9.3 million.
Pinkins is an Army veteran and former lawyer with the Mississippi Center for Justice. He became the Mississippi Democratic Party’s substitute candidate for Secretary of State during the 2023 statewide election, suspending his bid for the U.S. Senate, after Shuwaski Young withdrew as the party’s nominee citing health reasons. Young has since left the Democratic Party. Pinkins lost the race for Secretary of State to incumbent Republican Michael Watson by nearly 20 percent.
Pinkins was unopposed in the Democratic Senate Primary.
Wicker, an Air Force veteran and former state lawmaker, is the Magnolia State’s senior Senator, having served in the chamber since 2007. He also previously served in the U.S. House. The incumbent Senator is the ranking Republican member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a senior member of the Senate Commerce Committee, which he previously chaired. Should Republicans win back the majority in the U.S. Senate, as is currently predicted, Wicker is likely to become the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Wicker faced two challengers in the Republican Senate Primary, winning the three-man race by drawing in over 61 percent of the vote.
Mississippi has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate since John C. Stennis’ re-election bid in 1982. In that race, Stennis defeated future Republican Governor Haley Barbour.
U.S. House of Representatives
1st District
Incumbent Congressman Trent Kelly won a special election in 2015 and has served in the U.S. House ever since. He has spent 39 years in the Mississippi Army National Guard as a Combat Engineer and is currently serving as a Major General. Prior to being elected to Congress, Kelly served as a District Attorney for the 1st Circuit Judicial District.
Kelly, who serves on the House Armed Services Committee and chairs the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee, was unopposed in the 1st District Republican Primary.
His Democratic challenger is Diane Black, a cosmetologist and small business owner.
Black easily won her party’s primary election, pulling in 85 percent of the vote in June. Black previously ran for the 1st District seat in 2020, losing to Kelly by 46 percent. She has also sought state legislative offices in prior election cycles, most recently losing the State House District 52 race in 2023 by over 20 percent and the State Senate District 19 race in 2019 by 27 percent.
The last Democrat to hold the 1st District seat was Travis Childers, serving a partial term winning a special election and then one full term ending January 2011.
2nd District
Congressman Bennie Thompson, the lone Democrat representing Mississippi on the federal level, has served in the U.S. House since 1993, winning a special election to succeed Mike Espy who became Secretary of Agriculture under former President Bill Clinton.
Thompson is considered to be among the upper echelon of Democrats in the U.S. House, having previously chaired the Homeland Security Committee and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s select committee to investigate the January 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Thompson began his political career as an Alderman for his hometown of Bolton before serving as Mayor. He was later elected as a Hinds County Supervisor.
His Republican challenger is Ron Eller. Eller is a retired U.S. Army Captain who is now a business owner and a cardiothoracic physician assistant. He is the founder and CEO of Buck Warrior Enterprises LLC.
This is the second attempt at running for the 2nd District seat for Eller, having sought the GOP nomination in 2020 but losing to Brian Flowers in the runoff. This year, Eller won the Republican Primary runoff to claim the nomination, defeating Andrew Smith by over 53 percent.
A Republican has not held the 2nd District seat since the end of Webb Franklin’s term in 1987.
3rd District
Congressman Michael Guest, an incumbent Republican, was unopposed in both the GOP Primary and the General Election this cycle.
Guest, currently in his third term serving since 2019, is a former District Attorney for Madison and Rankin Counties. He was appointed this Congress as the Chairman of the House Ethics Committee and Vice Chairman of the Committee on Homeland Security. Guest also serves on the House Appropriations Committee.
Republicans have held the 3rd District seat since 1997 following the retirement of Democrat Sonny Montgomery.
4th District
Congressman Mike Ezell is seeking re-election for the first time since defeating former Congressman Steven Palazzo in a Republican Primary Runoff Election in 2022. Ezell went on to win the seat two years ago over two General Election opponents, drawing over 73 percent of the vote.
This year, Ezell was challenged in the GOP Primary by two candidates, but he easily won the party’s nomination again with over 73 percent of the vote.
Ezell served in law enforcement for nearly 40 years and is the former Sheriff of Jackson County. He, along with Thompson and Guest, serves on the House Homeland Security Committee and is a member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, where he is the Vice Chair of the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Subcommittee. He also serves as the Vice Chair of the Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability Subcommittee and a member of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Protection subcommittee for Homeland Security.
Democrat Craig Raybon, a non-profit organizer and commercial truck driver, is seeking to unseat Ezell. Raybon may be a political newcomer, but he was unopposed in the party’s primary election in June.
The last Democrat to hold the 4th District seat was Gene Taylor. Taylor was defeated by Palazzo in 2010 but later switched to the Republican Party, unsuccessfully challenging Palazzo in 2014 in the GOP primary.
State Supreme Court
Northern District
State Supreme Court District 3, Positions 1 and 2 are both unopposed this cycle, with Bobby Chamberlin and Jimmy Maxwell, respectively, returning to the bench.
Chamberlin has served on the state high court since 2017 after winning an open seat election the prior year. He previously served for 12 years as a circuit judge of the 17th Circuit District.
Maxwell was appointed by former Governor Phil Bryant to the Mississippi Supreme Court in January 2016 and was elected to an eight-year term in November 2016. He previously served as a judge on the Mississippi Court of Appeals.
Central District
There are five candidates vying for the State Supreme Court District 1, Position 3 seat:
- Jenifer B. Branning
- Byron Carter
- Ceola James
- Jim Kitchens
- Abby Gale Robinson
The leading candidates in the race are incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens and State Senator Jenifer Branning.
Kitchens, a former three-term District Attorney, has served on the bench since 2008. While judicial campaigns are non-partisan, Kitchens has been endorsed by high profile state Democrats in his past elections.
Branning has represented State Senate District 18 since 2016 as a Republican. She has drawn endorsements this cycle from the Mississippi Republican Party as well as numerous GOP elected officials.
Combined, the two campaigns have raised nearly $1 million this cycle, with Branning pulling in nearly two-thirds of those donations.
Southern District
The race for State Supreme Court District 2, Position 2 in South Mississippi features incumbent Justice Dawn Beam and challenger David Sullivan.
Beam was appointed to the seat by former Governor Phil Bryant in 2016. She served for three years as county prosecutor for Lamar County, and for five years as a chancellor of the Tenth Chancery District. Beam is the fourth woman to serve on the state’s highest court, and the first woman appointed from the Southern District.
Challenging Beam is David Sullivan, a municipal judge in Harrison County who also serves as a Public Defender in the Circuit Courts of Harrison, Stone, and Pearl River Counties.
Court of Appeals
There are three Court of Appeals elections on the General Election ballot, although only one is contested.
District 2, Position 2 and District 3, Position 1
Incumbent Judges Latrice Westbrooks and Jack Wilson are unopposed for the District 2, Position 2 and District 3, Position 1 Court of Appeals seats, respectively.
Westbrooks has served on the Court since 2017. She became an Assistant District Attorney in the Second Circuit District of Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties in October 1997. She was the first African American woman Assistant District Attorney in the Second Circuit District before opening her own law practice. Westbrooks also previously served as a public defender in Holmes County and was a municipal judge in Lexington.
Wilson was appointed to the Court by former Governor Phil Bryant in 2015. He was elected to an eight-year term in November 2016. Wilson previously practiced law with the firms of Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP in Jackson.
District 5, Position 2
The three candidates in this South Mississippi judicial race have raised nearly half of million dollars combined this calendar year.
Jennifer Schloegel is in her fourth term as a Chancery Court Judge for Harrison, Hancock, and Stone Counties. She’s practiced law since 1991.
Amy St. Pe has served as a city attorney and municipal judge in Jackson County while practicing law since 2003.
Ian Baker has practiced law since 2006 and previously served as an Assistant District Attorney.
The likely top two candidates – Schloegel and St. Pe – have accounted for most of the fundraising for the seat, with St. Pe’s campaign bringing in $197,000 to Schloegel’s $174,000 this year.
Whoever wins this seat will replace outgoing Judge Joel Smith who was appointed to the Mississippi Court of Appeals by Governor Tate Reeves in 2021.
Frank Corder
