Brandon Presley conceded to the incumbent Mississippi governor, Tate Reeves, on Tuesday night after the Republican managed to hold on to his position.
During the state’s only gubernatorial debate this season, Reeves and Presley, who is related to Elvis Presley, had exchanged verbal blows, with Reeves alleging that Presley had been bought by out-of-state, liberal political interest groups. Presley hammered Reeves on his and his family’s alleged involvement in the state’s ongoing corruption scandal.
Corruption, the state’s ongoing healthcare crisis and education were at the forefront of voters’ minds this election season. In commercials and during his 82-county campaign, Presley missed no opportunities to reference Reeves’s alleged involvement in the TANF fund corruption scandal, the largest such scandal in state history, or to remind voters of Reeves’s refusal to expand Medicaid.
Though pointedly asked about it twice during the debate, Reeves refused to say whether or not he would support the efforts of the state attorney general, Lynn Fitch, to receive information about women who travel out of state to receive abortions.
After Presley pushed the issue of the state’s collapsing healthcare system, including closing hospitals and blamed the collapse on Reeves’s refusal to expand Medicaid access, Reeves announced plans to solve the hospital crisis, just months before the election, despite him and his team saying a similar plan would not work earlier this year.
The night before the gubernatorial debate, Reeves received an 11th-hour endorsement from Donald Trump. With his victory over Presley, Reeves continues his streak of not having lost a statewide election since he entered Mississippi politics two decades ago.
