McRae seeking third term as Mississippi’s State Treasurer

• In an interview with Magnolia Tribune, State Treasurer David McRae talks about his bid for re-election, Mississippi’s fiscal health, PERS, and more.

While most other Mississippi statewide elected officials are eyeing higher office in 2027, State Treasurer David McRae has chosen to seek re-election to a third term.

“People are very happy that I’m staying as Treasurer,” McRae told Magnolia Tribune in a recent interview. “People are very excited with what I’ve done for the last seven years as Treasurer and look forward to what I’m going to be doing the next four years in my third term if I’m re-elected.”

If rumors are true, out of the eight statewide offices on the ballot in 2027, Treasurer McRae and Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney are the only two current officeholders who intend to seek re-election, bypassing the opportunity to run for Governor or Lt. Governor.

McRae said the response to his re-election bid has been “overwhelming.”

“I think people are happy to have somebody stay where they are so there is some sense of normalcy,” he said.

His family, too, is supportive of his decision to seek a third term. McRae said of his wife, Katie, “If my wife didn’t want me to do this, if Katie didn’t want me to do this, I wouldn’t do it. She is an amazing partner. She’s a great teammate. She understands the commitments that are required of me, whether it’s traveling around the state, whether it’s coming back late at night. She just knows that this is where I belong, this is where I’m needed in public service and is 100% in for anything in the future.”

From McRae’s to the Treasury

Many Mississippians grew up shopping at a McRae’s Department Store. Treasurer McRae’s great-grandfather, Sam McRae, opened the first store in Jackson in 1902. The family-owned business grew into one of the Southeast’s premier retail chains, serving shoppers for more than 100 years in locations across Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and Florida until 2006.

“My grandfather, Richard McRae Sr., ran the store and then my father, Richard McRae Jr., ran the store up until we bowed out of it,” the State Treasurer said. “I was a private businessman.”

In 2015, McRae decided he wanted to run for Mississippi’s State Treasurer.

“I thought this was the best place to put my tools that I have to work and to help the state and I think we’ve done that,” he said. “Between law school and running for Treasurer, I managed my family’s private office, so handling investments and handling everything that dealt with that. That unique set of skills and tools that I have, I’ve been able to use that unique skill set that I have to help the State Treasury.”

McRae, who was the Managing Partner of McRae Investments, earned his law degree from Mississippi College, where he served as Chief Justice of the Honor Court.

McRae ran against then State Treasurer Lynn Fitch in the Republican Primary. Fitch was seeking her second term in office. She won the primary over McRae by 13% and then defeated a third-party challenger in the general election.

But that did not deter McRae from making another run in 2019 when Fitch decided to run for Attorney General.

The 2019 election saw McRae match up with then State Senator Eugene “Buck” Clark in the Republican Primary. Clark had served in the Senate for four terms and chaired the powerful Appropriations Committee during his tenure. Yet, it was the newcomer McRae that came out on top in the primary, besting Clark by 23% to be the GOP nominee that cycle.

McRae then went on to succeed Fitch as Treasurer, defeating Democrat nominee Addie Lee Green in the general election by just over 21%.

Four years later, McRae ran unopposed in the Republican Primary and again faced Green in the general election, defeating her by nearly 17% in 2023.

Fundraising for a State Treasurer Campaign

State Treasurer campaigns have not traditionally garnered as much support in terms of donations as higher ticket races which can easily surpass $4 million or more.

In her 2011 race for Treasurer, Fitch raised $771,000 to initially win the seat.

McRae essentially self-funded his first campaign in 2015 to challenge Fitch, putting in over $860,000 of the reported $1.56 million raised during that cycle. The incumbent Fitch, on the other hand, raised just under $325,000 that cycle when she defeated McRae in the Republican Primary.

In the 2019 race, McRae reported raising $1.94 million, of which $1.45 million came from the candidate himself. His Republican opponent, Clark, raised $372,000 while the Democrat nominee reported raising only $2,300.

Then in 2023, McRae’s re-election campaign pulled in just $110,000, running unopposed in the primary, and again facing Green in the general election. The Democrat raised $4,500 that cycle.

McRae is currently sitting with a cash on hand balance of $85,000 as of his January 2026 campaign finance filing. He said his campaign had a fundraiser in June to kick off his re-election bid.

“It is a lower ticket race. People generally don’t pay as much attention as I like, even though I think we are one of the most important statewides out there,” McRae said. “I might be a little bit biased on that, but I think we’re one of the most important.”

McRae said he could self-fund as he had done in prior contested races, as “the way I look at self-funding is, if I’m willing to put in skin in the game, that means I believe in myself.”

“I believe in what I’ve done, and I hope people will contribute because I believe in myself,” he added.

Potential Competition

To date, there has not been much serious talk of a potential challenger to McRae on the Republican or Democrat side in 2027. Most of the focus has been on the open seat races for Governor and Lt. Governor as Tate Reeves and Delbert Hosemann, respectively, are term limited. There will also be open seat races for Secretary of State and Agriculture Commissioner with Michael Watson and Andy Gipson announcing for Lt. Governor and Governor, respectively. In addition, Attorney General and State Auditor could come open as well with Lynn Fitch and Shad White rumored to be all but in for a higher office race.

As for Treasurer, McRae said he does not know if a Republican will run against him.

“If they do, you know, I wish them the best of luck,” he said. “But I feel like my record speaks for itself. What I’ve done here as Treasurer, what I’ve done with unclaimed money, what I’ve done with the investments, what I’ve done with college savings. So, I wish them all the best of luck on that.”

As far as any Democrat who may run, McRae simply said, “Good luck.”

“Addie Lee Green is a nice woman, but never really quite understood what this office did,” he said. “Anybody that would think of running against me needs to look at my record and then think twice.”

Business-minded Approach to the Treasury

Having come from the private sector, McRae is proud of the business-minded approach he and his staff have brought to the State Treasurer’s office.

“I always tell people I never see the Treasury as a government agency,” he said. “We’re a bank, we’re a business. I try to run it like a business, like all Republicans should run their agency like a business.”

He said the “unprecedented success” with unclaimed money, college savings, state investments, and more have led to the success of the office in the last seven years.

“What separates me from any potential opponents is that my experience in the business world really contributes to what the Treasury does on a day-to-day basis,” McRae said. “It’s not so much of a political job. It’s really a business. And what we do and how I talk to the banks, what I deal with the banks, how I deal with Wall Street, how in my early part of my term, first term, I dealt with DEI and ESG, knowing that that was just wrong, and not just from a political standpoint, but from an economic standpoint, knowing that I have a fiduciary duty to the state to make money and ESG and DEI really fought against that, and so it wasn’t a political thing, but it was a business-minded sense. I bring that to the table.”

The Treasurer said Republicans talk constantly about wanting business people to be in politics.

“We want government agencies to be run like a business and if someone wants a government agency to be run like a business, you need to elect a businessman and that’s me,” he said.

Fiscal Health of Mississippi

The State Treasurer believes Mississippi’s fiscal health is looking good.

“Our fiscal year ended a couple weeks ago. We were above our revenue estimate, which is great. New businesses are coming into the state, which is great. That will help revenue. That’ll bring ancillary businesses to the state, and it’ll bring people to the state,” McRae said.

He said Mississippi is unique because it is an agricultural state.

“We’ve embraced agriculture and it is still our tried-and-true economic engine. It works very well,” McRae said.

But he is glad to see Mississippi embrace new technology at the same time as cultivating its other sectors. He credits Governor Reeves and his team for the billions in new investments flowing into Mississippi.

“We have the best of both worlds – agriculture and tech – and our revenue is doing great,” the Treasurer said.

McRae said that mix is good for the future fiscal health of Mississippi should the national economy see a downturn.

“What I always find interesting is that even if the national economy dips, Mississippi with its strong conservative leadership and what we’ve done with the safeguards we put in place and the investments that I’ve been able to do, we have a surplus of money and we’re able to kind of ride out maybe a bad national economic situation,” McRae noted.

Earlier this year, Reeves and McRae jointly celebrated when S&P Global Credit Ratings raised Mississippi’s outlook from “negative” to “stable,” saying the announcement sent a strong signal that the Magnolia State’s fiscal foundation is strong and that the state is well positioned for continued long-term growth.

“One of my big points when I took over in 2020 was to ensure that our credit rating would improve and it has. We are AA rated,” McRae said. “What that means is that when we have to borrow money, which we haven’t had to do in a bit, but when we borrow money, the rate in which we borrow that money will be significantly less than it would be if our rating was bad. That’s good.”

Treasurer McRae emphasized that Mississippi outperforms other much larger states.

“That goes to show you that strong conservative leadership, strong conservative economic principles and fiscal responsibility and keeping our house in order, having very little debt on the books. That is what keeps that credit rating good and positive and that’s what the credit agencies are looking for,” McRae said.

As for the state’s debt, he believes Mississippi “is in great shape.”

“Governor Tate Reeves when he was Lt. Governor really focused on spending what we have and not spending what we don’t have. And he’s continued that as Governor,” said McRae. “Our debt is roughly 1/3 of what it could be. So, we are well below what the state constitution allows us to take our debt to. So, we’re in great shape. We’re not borrowing money. We’re using the cash we have, which is great, which is great fiscal responsibility.”

Being able to use cash and have a surplus on hand gives credit agencies confidence in Mississippi.

“They like that, they like seeing us use cash. They like seeing us not having to borrow money and having liability on the books,” McRae explained.

College Savings

What people are really excited about, McRae said of his office, is what they have done with college savings.

“When I took over as State Treasurer, it was funded in the low 70s in terms of the legacy fund being funded. It was a problem. I was going to have to probably go to the Legislature and ask for money to figure out how to get this funded. It was a mess,” McRae said.

Now, the Treasurer said the legacy fund is up to 106% funded, as of the latest report.

“That gives assurance and reassurance to anyone in the legacy fund that this is safe, this is good, that I can trust the state with my child’s education and that we are able to continue and help with that and that there’s nothing to worry about,” McRae said.

He also said the horizon fund is roughly 140% funded.

“This is a great way for my team to sell these programs to people that they’re safe, secure programs, that when the people of Mississippi want to help their child go to school and graduate with little to no debt these programs are there and they will be there when it’s time to call on them,” McRae said.

He believes the work on the college savings funds is important because education is important.

“We can all agree that education is important and what’s even more important is helping a child or a young adult graduate college with little to no debt,” McRae said.

PERS

As State Treasurer, McRae sits on the Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) Board. He has been pleased to see the renewed interest from lawmakers on addressing the issues with PERS in recent legislative sessions.

“PERS is an interesting animal because when I first took over this office, PERS was kind of one of those taboo subjects you didn’t talk about. It was kind of one of these things that, you know, everybody just knew it was there and you just didn’t talk about it,” McRae said. “Now, I’m really happy the Legislature wants to talk about it, wants to try to find a solution.”

He pointed out that Republicans “didn’t create the PERS problems; Democrats created the PERS problem, and we inherited and now we’re trying to find a solution to it.”

McRae assured anyone currently in the PERS system that they will get paid what they are owed.

“We have a fiducial obligation to the individuals to pay that money,” he said. “So, it is my job to figure that out because I sit on the PERS Board, to figure out how to fix or remedy in some form or fashion Tier 4 because there is a problem with Tier 4 and the tiers below it.”

McRae said Tier 4 and below “is not funded well enough.”

“I’m willing to work with the Legislature to figure out how to fund Tier 4 and below because when we were talking about credit rating it is one of the big albatrosses on the credit rating,” the Treasurer said. “They see it as a massive liability, depending on what numbers you want to look at. It’s roughly $23 billion to $26 billion worth of a liability.”

But there is a positive side to PERS, McRae said does not get talked about enough.

“I had several governor candidates, some that may or may not have announced, come up to me and ask me, ‘Well, David, isn’t the investments the problem with PERS?’ and I go, ‘Absolutely not.’ The investments for PERS at the end of the fiscal year, which was a couple weeks ago, was roughly 17.3% return on investment,” McRae said. “That’s amazing.”

He said PERS sits at roughly $40 billion of total assets in the bank.

“That’s amazing. The investments are not the problem,” McRae reiterated. “The problem is the compounded interest that is part of PERS that the Democrats put in in the early 2000s.”

He said he is ready to work with the Legislature on trying to find a fix to that issue.

“It’s not going to be an immediate fix. This problem didn’t just get created overnight,” said McRae. “It’s a problem that’s been boiling for a while and it’s something that needs to be looked at and I’m ready to work on it.”

Unclaimed Money

Treasurer McRae has heard from people who are excited about what his office has done with unclaimed money over the last seven years.

“Unclaimed money has done a great job,” he said. “They’ve done a great job in returning money to the people of Mississippi. We’ve been able to give back more money than any other Treasurer in the history of Mississippi has ever done.”

Nearly $200 million of unclaimed money has gone back to the people of Mississippi since he took office in 2020.

Working with Other Elected Officials

Treasurer McRae welcomes state lawmakers and other elected officials to contact his office anytime should they need assistance in understanding a matter dealing with Mississippi’s finances.

“I always offer this to any lawmaker. If they want to learn about bonds, if they want to learn about PERS, if they want to learn about anything financial, I have people here ready to go to their office and talk or call them on the phone. I offer that to any legislator,” McRae said.

As far as unclaimed money, he urges anyone in any government agency – state or local – to call the Treasurer’s office and see if there is unclaimed money sitting out there.

“You’d be amazed at the amount of cities that have unclaimed money. Some cities are better at it than others,” McRae said.

His office also sends the Legislature a link to unclaimed money tailored to the Senator or Representative’s district or general area.

“You’d be amazed at the number of people, I don’t have the exact number, but you’d be amazed at the number of people who don’t even click the link. It’s just amazing to me,” McRae said. “But a lot do and a lot use it, and I’ve very happy with that.”

He knows the Treasury and the work they do can be very complicated.

“So, I’m more than happy to send anybody from my team to talk to anybody that wants to learn more about what we do and to help them make more informed decisions, especially during the legislative session,” McRae offered. 

Looking Ahead

As he begins in earnest his re-election bid, McRae said he has been overwhelmed by the response so far. He has his sights set on continuing the work as State Treasurer and ensuring the state meets its financial obligations while embracing innovation.

“Embracing innovation, embracing where we can take the Treasury,” McRae said when asked about his priorities should he win a third term. When I got to this office, I knew the potential that this office had and I wanted to get that potential out there. And I think I’ve done that.”

The Treasurer’s office “still has tons of potential left in it,” McRae added, saying he is ready to continue improving college savings, how unclaimed money is returned, “the investments can always continue to improve.”

He also wants to show that the Treasurer’s office is there for the people of Mississippi.

“Customer service. How can I make that better? Every day I look at what banks are doing in terms of technology and how they make it better for their customers,” McRae said. “I want to do that at the Treasury as well. There’s a lot to do and there’s a lot more that the Treasury could do and a lot more potential that I see, and I’m ready to do it.”

Qualifying for the 2027 Mississippi election cycle opens on January 2, 2027.