Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) solidified a theme of targeting people of other ethnic backgrounds beyond Wonder Bread white when he dedicated the month of April to the celebration of Confederate heritage in 2020.
To announce that he'll be seeking a second term, Reeves is furthering that theme with a troubling campaign video featuring his face superimposed over Clint Eastwood, gunning down people of color with a Colt revolver.
We’re back. #msgov pic.twitter.com/sLzpwsqThq
— Team Tate! (@TeamTateReeves) May 2, 2023
Response to the video, which Tate shared to Twitter on Tuesday, ranges from "Vile" and "Who thought this was a good idea?" to "You can put a poncho on a potato, but it's still a potato."
Although a deep scroll through the replies to the clip did not produce anything along the lines of "You did a great job here," Reeves seems content with having made the point he set out to make.
"I have a message for all those governors in New York and California and Illinois: Mississippi is coming to take your jobs, and we have no intention of giving them back," Reeves said during a campaign event on Wednesday. "Help us one more time . . . Let's defeat the national liberals. This is Mississippi's moment. This is Mississippi's time."
"My friends, this is a different governor's campaign than we have ever seen before in our state because we are not up against a local-yokel Mississippi Democrat, we are up against a national liberal machine," Reeves said during his campaign kickoff event, per reporting by Mississippi Today. "They are extreme. They are radical and vicious. They believe welfare is success. They believe that taxes are good and businesses are bad. They think boys can be girls, that babies have no life, and that our state and our nation are racist."
Elsewhere in his speech, Tate voiced concern over liberals making Mississippi the butt of jokes.
