Mississippi State Auditor Shad White speaking at the Neshoba County Fair. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)
- In his opening salvo in what is a crowded 2027 gubernatorial field, White told Magnolia Tribune in an exclusive interview ahead of his official announcement that he is running for Governor “because the Mississippi political establishment doesn’t have the courage or energy to meet the most pressing challenges in our state.”
After months of speculation and build up, Shad White announced his bid to be Mississippi’s next Governor on Monday morning in Laurel.
The two-term State Auditor said he has spent the last eight years “catching politicians and corrupt insiders with their hands in the taxpayers’ pockets.”
White said his run for Governor will be to finish the job.
“There might be two parties in Jackson, but there’s only one good-old-boys club,” said White. “They tried to ban my office from even looking for government waste. As governor, I’m shutting the whole rotten system down.”
In his opening salvo in what is a crowded gubernatorial field, White told Magnolia Tribune in an exclusive interview ahead of his official announcement that he is running for Governor “because the Mississippi political establishment doesn’t have the courage or energy to meet the most pressing challenges in our state.”
“I’ve watched them, and they will not cut the waste and abuse in government benefiting their buddies,” he said. “They’ve even tried to sue me to stop me from recovering taxpayer funds and written bills to strip the Auditor’s office of power.”
He said Mississippi must end the fraud and use the savings to cut the sales tax on groceries, slash car tag fees, and freeze property taxes.
“Working families need relief,” White said.
About Shad White
White is a Certified Fraud Examiner who grew up in Sandersville in a blue-collar family. His father and grandfather were oilfield pumpers, and his mother and grandmother were public school teachers. His father was also a music minister at their small church, and his mother played the organ.
White holds degrees from the University of Mississippi, the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and Harvard Law School. He served as a special prosecutor and earned a certificate in forensic accounting from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. He also serves in the military as a captain in the Mississippi National Guard.
“I’m privileged to serve as a Captain in the Mississippi National Guard. I deployed this year to the Middle East for months during Operation Epic Fury,” White said. “I believe the next Commander-in-Chief of the National Guard should be someone who has actually served in the Guard.”
In July 2018, White was appointed by former Governor Phil Bryant (R) to fill the unexpired term of Stacey Pickering (R), who resigned to lead the Mississippi Veteran Affairs Board.
White went on to run unopposed in both the 2019 Republican Primary and the General Election. Four years later, he again ran unopposed in the Republican Primary but then faced Democrat Larry Bradford in the General Election. White won his second term by pulling in 58.6% of the vote in 2023.
Along the way, White has butted heads with a number of fellow Republicans, namely Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R), who is also running for Governor, and members of the Legislature who would prefer the State Auditor “stay in his lane,” as one lawmaker said last session on the condition of anonymity.
White and Fitch have been at odds for years over how the Auditor believes the Attorney General should have handled the state welfare scandal. As previously reported, White’s “tell-all” book, Mississippi Swindle, raised eyebrows, along with the blood pressures of some politicos, including former U.S. Attorney and current Mississippi Republican Party chairman Mike Hurst.
READ MORE: White’s ‘Mississippi Swindle’ hits shelves, last nerves
In separate interviews with Magnolia Tribune, both Fitch’s office and Hurst described Mississippi Swindle‘s treatment of their involvement in the TANF scandal as a “fiction.” The book paints Fitch as being uninterested in doing her job and Hurst as overly eager to take the glory. Fitch’s office raised additional questions about the ethics of writing the book as litigation continues on various fronts. Not one to shy from sharp elbows, White’s fired back, defending both his record and the book.
White said if elected Governor, “On Day One, I will take the exhaustive audits of state government my team has done, use them to cut the sweetheart deals and bloated contracts, and then use the savings to cut taxes on working families.”
The Growing Field
With Governor Tate Reeves (R) term limited, White joins a growing field of candidates running for Governor in 2027 in an open seat election cycle.
Other than he and Fitch, Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson (R) and former Speaker Philip Gunn (R) are also in the Republican Primary, with at least two others said to be considering a run – Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann (R) and businessman Tommy Duff.
In terms of campaign finances, Auditor White leads the current pack, reporting $3.8 million to end the 2025 reporting period, according to the January 2026 reports.
“I’ve been overwhelmed by the amount of financial support I’ve received,” White told Magnolia Tribune. “Some statewide officials raise absurd amounts of money from out-of-state firms. I’m proud of the fact that over 95% of my donations come from Mississippi.”
He said those donors include construction workers, speech pathologists, teachers, and everyone in between.
“We currently lead all potential contenders in cash on hand in the campaign,” White added.
He is correct, based on the January reporting. Fitch was second among gubernatorial candidates, at least for now, with $3.55 million cash on hand, while Hosemann showed $2.85 million. Gunn listed $591,000 and Gipson reported $256,000. Duff’s political action committee reported $1,000 cash on hand but it is widely known that the billionaire businessman could self-fund a campaign should he decide to enter the race.
But even with a large GOP primary field, White said he is not concerned with who else is running.
“I’m concerned about having good leadership for our state that gets relief to working families,” he said. “We will have no shortage of candidates with good talking points this year. What we often lack is candidates with the courage to take on the biggest challenges facing our state.
White said he has stood up against powerful politicians, crooked insiders, and even a few famous people.
“As governor, I will continue to fight for you,” he said.
As for Democrats, two women have thus far stepped into the ring – Priscilla Till and Ivana Williams. It is believed that former Northern District Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley, who ran unsuccessfully against Reeves in 2023, will give it another go next year but no official announcement has been made to that end. Presley’s appearing with Democrat Scott Colom on the campaign trail for U.S. Senate has fed further speculation of his future plans.
Standing for Conservative Values
White, who describes himself as “pro-Trump,” said growing up in Sandersville, a town of 700 people in Jones County, and his parents being who they were, “instilled values in me that I still hold today.”
“Always fight for the little guy, do what’s right even when it’s hard, put God first in everything you do,” he said.
The Auditor said Democrats today are now the party that “tries to push crazy, woke ideology in our classrooms and who will tax you to no end so they can hand out benefits to illegal immigrants and people who don’t work.”
“I think that’s unacceptable,” White said. “And a lot of our so-called ‘Republican’ officials here seem to never stand up to them on these important issues. They’re too scared of being called racist or having a negative headline written about them.”
The biggest challenge White sees in his running for Governor is facing “the good old boys club in Mississippi that just does not like what I’m doing.”
“They have proven they won’t write tougher laws to throw the book at politicians who steal taxpayer funds, and they spend more time trying to get along with everyone than standing up to crazy people on the Left,” he said.
He predicts “the good ole boys club and the media” will try to tell voters he is the worst guy in the world, but he said it does not bother him.
“There’s an old saying: if you’re taking fire, you’re probably over the target,” White said.
Because of his strong, conservative stances, White said the response to his candidacy for Governor has been well received.
“I’ve been humbled by the overwhelming support I’ve received from Mississippians towards my candidacy,” he said. “Mississippians are sick of being told by the good old boy system that someone is ‘next in line’ so that’s who you have to support.”
Goals as Mississippi’s Next Governor
If elected, White wants to clean up state government and ensure that it runs more efficiently for the benefit of taxpayers.
“We absolutely have to get all this waste and fraud cut from state government and then pass those savings onto taxpayers,” he said. “We’re going to freeze property taxes and cut your other taxes.”
In addition, as the son of a teacher, White said the state must do right by its teachers.
“My mom was a public school teacher so I know firsthand how much teachers sacrifice to help educate our next generation,” he said. “It’s unacceptable that we still have some of the lowest-paid teachers in the country while also spending more on administration than every other state in the South.”
As Governor, White said, “We’re going to cut the administrative bloat in our education system and send that money back into the classroom.”
By doing that, he said his team estimates that Mississippi can raise teacher pay by 20% and make sure teachers have access to their classroom supply fund well before the school year starts.
“Mississippi families are getting squeezed at the grocery store, for their car tags, and every time the property tax bill shows up,” said White. “Meanwhile the insiders are getting richer and richer. We’re going to take the money they’ve wasted and give it back to the people who earned it.
White also said he plans to push lawmakers to pass the toughest laws on politicians stealing taxpayer money in the country, “and we’re going to pass the toughest laws on violent criminals in the country.”
“Mississippi leads the nation in homicides per capita,” White said. “That must stop.”
In a video posted on his campaign website, White said “We will ship illegal immigrants to the states who say they want them. I’ll make sure our tax dollars are used to teach and not brainwash our kids. We will make our laws on violent criminals and politicians who steal our money the toughest in the nation. We will ban China from controlling our farmland. In short, we will make a Mississippi that is prosperous, where our kids have an opportunity to stay and build a life here when they get older.”
Inspired by His Family
White is a husband and father of three young children. He said he would not be running if he did not have the full support of his family.
“I wake up every day thinking about the things I could do to make this state better for my kids,” he said. “They’re 7, 5, and 3 years old right now and they already had to go for months without me earlier this year when I was deployed overseas as part of Operation Epic Fury.”
The gubernatorial candidate said it was tough being away from his family for so long.
“But I served overseas for the same reason I want to serve as governor: to safeguard the future of our state and nation for my kids,” White said.
