What a Brandon Presley win would mean for Mississippi
Brandon Presley, the democratic candidate for governor running against Tate Reeves in the state of Mississippi has a real shot. What does that mean for us?
Tate’s takeover
Tate Reeves (no we are not related) is simply another one of the failing politicians in the state of Mississippi. As we can see below, we obviously have a trend of winners in this state.
However, the losers in this are us- the citizens of the state. Even as republicans continue to vote red for 4+ decades, the state has only gotten lower on the list in positives and higher in the negatives.
Thats where Presley comes in. As we can see, he IS already a member of office, however he does not have near the influence of someone like Tate Reeves. Presley, a conservative democrat from Nettleton (a town you can almost count the population on one hand) has decided that he has had enough of Tate Reeves’ lies and corruption.
As mentioned before, Brandon Presley is no champion of a progressive movement. He is anti-abortion, and is no supporter of transgender people being in sports. By most states standards, there is no way he would be on the democratic ticket. In fact, most Republicans from other states would agree with almost every policy he wants to enact. So why is he running as a democrat? Well, that comes down to one man: Tate Reeves.
Tate Reeves, the Rankin County native (yes, that Rankin County with the “Goon Squad”) has been involved in politics since before I was born. So— what are his issues? Well for starters, he wasn’t exactly opposed to banning IUD’s post-roe, which is one of the most popular and effective forms of birth control. During Covid, he decided to throw some parties! Who needs vaccines and masks when we can just have fun? He has also put forward many, many, many bills to make voting as restrictive as possible. His criminal justice is also abhorrent. Tameka Drummer, who was arrest for having less than two ounces of marijuana and is now serving a life sentence without parole, was denied a pardon by Reeves. Did I mention he holds a “Confederate Heritage Month” every April?
Anyways, back to Presley. He has said he will dedicate himself to expanding Medicaid (a huge no-no in the eyes of Reeves). This will lead to rural hospitals in the state staying open. Brandon has also dedicated himself to voter reform by opening ballot initiatives back up to the public. Another big one that will have (in my opinion) the biggest long-term impact is his willingness to reform the lobbying system within the state. He believes that there is too much money and corruption flowing through the political machine, and he plans to change that. This comes as a breath of fresh air since Tate Reeves is now famous for his involvement in the spending of 77 million dollars in TANF funds on various things unrelated to helping the public. This includes a volleyball court at the University of Southern Mississippi.
So, what does this mean for Mississippi? It means a start. Should Presley be the end goal for this state? Of course not. But electing him will give democrats within the state confidence in our ability to vote in people that are not republicans. This opens up new funding for the Democratic Party’s institutions within the state and opens up the floodgates to potentially a bluer Mississippi.