13 seek North Mississippi House seat

More than a dozen candidates will compete for North Mississippi’s vacant 1st District House seat in a May 1 2 special election.

Thirteen contenders qualified by t he 5 p.m. deadline March 27 to part icipate i n t he nonpartisan vote to replace the late Alan Nunnelee, who died i n February of brain cancer.

The list of qualifiers includes some fa milia r names, such as Northern Dist r ic t Tra nsportation Commissioner Mike Tagert of Starkville and Henry Ross of Eupora, who lost t he seat to Nunnelee i n 2012.

In addition to Tagert and Ross, the list includes Boyce Adams, Sam Adcock, Nancy Collins, Edward Holliday, Starner Jones, Trent Kelly, Chip Mills, Greg Pirk le , Daniel Sparks, Quentin Whitwell and Walter Zinn.

Absent from t he l ist a re DeSoto County ca ndidates , even t hough DeSoto is one of t he most populous counties in the district that stretches across northern Mississippi and i ncludes Tupelo.

Hernando Mayor Chip Joh nson had been considered a possible contender, but he ultimately filed for the Transportation seat currently held by Tagert.

Given DeSoto County’s st rong support of state Sen. Chris McDaniel i n his unsuccessful, tea partybacked challenge of Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., last year, t here had been speculation that a conservative candidate supported by McDaniel’s United Conservatives Fund political action committee might emerge from DeSoto County. But t he PAC was noncommittal, saying early i n the process that it was only consideri ng its options i n t he race.

If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of t he vote, which seems likely considering the crowded field, the top two finishers will compete in a June 2 r unoff election.