Donald Trump was Tate Reeves' silver bullet in 2019 governor's … – Mississippi Today
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Welcome to The Homestretch, a daily blog featuring the most comprehensive coverage of the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race. This page, curated by the Mississippi Today politics team, will feature the biggest storylines of the 2023 governor’s race at 7 a.m. every day between now and the Nov. 7 election.
Just five nights before the 2019 governor’s election, about 10,000 Republicans packed into the BancorpSouth Arena in Tupelo to hear a rambunctious President Donald Trump plead with Mississippians to vote for Tate Reeves.
It was borderline baffling that an immensely popular Republican president had to fly down to a strong Republican state in the eleventh hour and campaign for a well-known Republican candidate. But Reeves was struggling to reach the 50% mark in polling against longtime Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood, and Democrats smelled blood in the water.
“Wait a minute, how is this guy … I can’t believe this is a competitive race,” Trump acknowledged from the podium that night. “I’m talking to Mississippi, I can’t believe it. I don’t think (Hood) is going to be the right guy. I think the right guy is Tate Reeves. He will be a great governor.”
More than a few prognosticators still believe that rowdy, high-energy Trump rally won Reeves the 2019 race. Advisers close to Hood said they had internal polls going into the last two weeks of the election that actually had the Democrat leading Reeves. But on Election Day five days after Trump’s Tupelo visit, Reeves won with 51.9% of the vote.
Four years later, much is the same. Reeves is again favored at the top of the ticket for governor. But yet again, he’s struggling to reach the 50% mark in polling against another tough Democratic challenger, this time longtime Public Service Commissioner Brandon Presley.
But not all is the same this year. Trump, of course, is not the president. Instead of jetting off to political rallies to boost Republican allies across the country, the former president is tied up in numerous legal proceedings at both the state and federal levels. Late this week, two of his closest allies accepted plea deals and appeared to turn on him in those deliberations. And a judge slapped him with a $5,000 fine on Friday for violating a gag order in his New York fraud case.
Trump, who clearly has other things on his mind than Reeves’ chances in November, has not weighed in yet on the 2023 Mississippi governor’s race, and it’s not clear if he will. It’s also not clear if it would mean nearly as much to Mississippi voters if he did.
A Mississippi Today/Siena College poll conducted in September showed an even favorable/unfavorable split among Mississippi voters on Trump — a much more negative overall view of the former president than in previous years’ polling.
With Republican operatives buzzing about GOP enthusiasm and turnout concerns, Reeves likability concerns, and a Democratic campaign that is making some strides, is another Trump visit on the horizon?
And if not, is there another silver bullet Reeves can load into his chamber?
Headlines From The Trail
Should Tate Reeves be concerned about Republican voter enthusiasm?
Despite vows of ‘debates,’ there will be only one for Mississippi governor race
‘Let’s Go Brandon’: Why Democrats are hoping for an upset in Mississippi
Tate Reeves used a Mississippi state plane to get to a Mardi Gras party
Could Gov. Tate Reeves benefit again from Trump legal woes?
1) Presley announced a statewide bus tour to close out his 2023 campaign. The campaign said the tour will make 55 stops across the state in the final weeks of the election.
2) Reeves spent his Friday in southwest Mississippi, visiting McComb, Liberty and Woodville. Interestingly, Amite and Wilkinson counties — home to about 21,000 people between the two — got visits from both Reeves and Presley this week. Presley visited the counties Thursday to officially fulfill a promise to visit all 82 counties this year.
3) It’s linked in the headlines above, but Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender settled any questions or debate today about how many gubernatorial debates there will be. Pender reports: “It appears (Nov. 1) will be the only gubernatorial debate, not the first. It also would appear Reeves agreed to the single debate just days before the election to defang Presley’s claim — and campaign fodder — that he was dodging and ‘hiding’ from the voting public, not because of Reeves’ strong desire to debate.”
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by Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today
October 21, 2023
This <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org/2023/10/21/donald-trump-tate-reeves-brandon-presley/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org">Mississippi Today</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MT_square-thumb.jpg?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=1105435&ga3=UA-75003810-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;">
Adam Ganucheau, as Mississippi Today’s editor-in-chief, oversees the newsroom and works with the editorial team to fulfill our mission of producing high-quality journalism in the public interest. Adam has covered politics and state government for Mississippi Today since February 2016. A native of Hazlehurst, Adam has worked as a staff reporter for AL.com, The Birmingham News and The Clarion-Ledger and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post and Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Adam earned his bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Mississippi.
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