GOP NOMINATION FOR MISSISSIPPI GOVERNOR Waller, Reeves head to runoff for primary
Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves and former state Supreme Court Justice Bill Waller Jr. are headed to a runoff for the Republican nomination for Mississippi governor.
Reeves, long considered the heir apparent to the governorship, received nearly 49% of votes, according to unofficial election results early Wednesday morning. Waller picked up more than 33%, and first-term lawmaker Robert Foster finished with almost 18%. Reeves had tried to ignore his primary opponents, but will now face off with Waller in an Aug. 27 runoff election.
In the Democratic race, Attorney General Jim Hood easily advanced to the general election, garnering 69% of votes.
Waller told supporters in downtown Jackson that he considered Tuesday night a victory.
“Our goal from the very start was to be in a runoff and it appears right now that 52% of people that voted in this primary weren’t happy with the leadership they were given,” Waller said as votes continued to come in. “Folks, I believe people — the 52% — they’re gonna rise up, and we’re gonna take control of this thing.”
Waller never mentioned Reeves by name, but took jabs at the status quo in Mississippi.
“I think we need to start supporting our teachers instead of criticizing them,” Waller shouted to a cheering audience. “I think we need to pay our teachers instead of seeing them at the welfare offices. I think we need strong hospitals instead of closed hospitals.”
Reeves joined his supporters at a restaurant in his hometown of Flowood as it became clear the race was headed toward a runoff. Reeves also framed the evening as a victory.
“We are the only campaign that won in every region of our state,” Reeves said in his brief speech, flanked by his wife and two daughters. “Because of you, we’re going to win over 70 counties across Mississippi tonight.”
He praised his supporters for having helped him run a “wonderful campaign.” And he said he’s confident about his chances against Waller in a runoff.
“I can tell you tonight, I am going to be the Republican nominee for governor of this state,” Reeves said. He also pledged: “We are going to beat Jim Hood in November.”
“Tonight is a great victory for us, tonight is a great night for the conservative cause, let’s go win this thing,” Reeves said.
The race was expected to be a shoo-in for Reeves, but it turned into a heated — though largely civil — primary race. Reeves had the most name recognition statewide, having served eight years as treasurer, followed by eight years as lieutenant governor. He also far outstripped his Republican opponents in fundraising, with about $5 million still in his campaign coffers.
However, critics assailed Reeves as unlikable and the Republican candidates split over key issues. Reeves railed against expanding Medicaid, objected to raising the gas tax to fix roads and bridges, and pumped the brakes on guaranteeing further pay raises for teachers.
Foster and Waller both supported a type of Medicaid expansion passed in some other Republican-led states. They said it would help the state’s working poor and assist its cash-strapped rural hospitals.
Foster and Waller also backed raising the state’s gas tax to pay for road and bridge repairs. In return they proposed cutting the state’s income tax — Foster wanted to eliminate it entirely.
Foster appeared to benefit from blocking a female journalist from reporting on his campaign, citing the so-called Billy Graham rule, in which a married man never allows himself to be alone in a room with a woman who is not his wife.
Foster’s stance — which Waller said he also followed — drew statewide and national media attention, likely raising his name recognition throughout Mississippi.
Foster called the primary campaign a “tremendous journey” in a concession speech Tuesday night.
“I think everybody’s going to be up pretty late tonight watching to see whether or not we have a runoff between Justice Waller and Lt. Gov. Reeves,” Foster said. “And we will be just as curious as everyone else to see how that plays out.”
Waller told reporters that he spoke with Foster after Foster conceded. Waller said he believes Foster’s supporters will support him in a runoff election against Reeves.
“We have a lot of issues in common and I believe his supporters are gonna be very, very receptive to coming over to my side and I’m certainly going to welcome them,” Waller said. “But right now it would be premature until we have some official results and we have a chance to sit down and talk.”
In the Democratic primary, Hood easily beat out seven other candidates with more than two thirds of voters supporting him. Hood won more votes than the other candidates in every county in Mississippi.
“Onward toward November,” Hood said in his election night speech before supporters in Jackson. “We’re halfway home, and we can make this work.”
He reiterated campaign pledges to improve the state’s education system, its roads, its health care and eliminating the grocery tax. But he spent much of his speech hammering the state Legislature, pledging to clean up the “legal corruption” there related to corporate campaign contributions, gifts, and records that aren’t required to be disclosed.
“Nothing else can get accomplished without reigning in the Legislature,” Hood said. “Because what they have done over the past eight years, they have given our tax money away. They have given either tax breaks or contracts to their buddies, and we have got to break that cycle.”
Hood, a moderate Democrat who has played down party labels, claimed there were both Democrat and Republican supporters in the crowd at his election party — “people who just want to make a change.”
Contact Luke Ramseth at 601-9617050 or lramseth@gannett.com. Follow @lramseth on Twitter. Contact Giacomo “Jack” Bologna at 601-961-7282 or gbologna@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @gbolognacl.
Staff Writer Wilton Jackson contributed to this report.
Giacomo Bologna and Luke Ramseth