Mississippi gubernatorial race 2019.

[hbenthow]

Tate Reeves is the establishment candidate, backed by Phil Bryant and the rest of the Mississippi political machine. His two challengers in the Republican primary are Robert Foster and William L. Waller, Jr. What are your thoughts on the latter two candidates? DOes either show a clear advantage over the other?

[Superfluous Man]

Has Chris McDaniel endorsed any of them?

[hbenthow]

Has Chris McDaniel endorsed any of them?

Not to the best of my knowledge.

[dannno]

2019 ELECTIONS AUG. 7, 2019
Mississippi GOP Favorite Tate Reeves Forced Into Governor’s Race Runoff


In this heated period of national politics, a gubernatorial race in deep-red Mississippi isn’t getting much attention. But yesterday’s primaries should stimulate some interest among those who like seeing conventional wisdom challenged.

The longtime front-runner for the Republican nomination and the general election as well, two-term lieutenant governor Tate Reeves, just missed getting the majority that would have enabled him to avoid a runoff. Instead, he will face former State Supreme Court justice Bill Waller Jr. (the son of 1970s-era Democratic governor Bill Waller Sr.) on August 27. The winner will face four-term attorney general Jim Hood, who easily brushed aside seven opponents in the Democratic primary.

There are a number of unusual things about this race. For one thing, Reeves, a very conventional conservative being backed by (among others) incumbent term-limited Governor Phil Bryant, could lose the GOP nomination to a rival who supports not only Medicaid expansion but higher teacher pay. For another, Reeves might have won anyway if not for a late surge of support, presumably among conservative Christians (of whom there are many in Mississippi) for a third candidate, Robert Foster, who got some buzz for refusing to let a woman reporter accompany him on a campaign trip without a male chaperone (he called it the “Billy Graham Rule”).

Waller’s lack of conservative ideological rigor would normally doom him in a state this heavily Republican. But the Medicaid expansion he favors is one accompanied by the conservative policy riders that other states have used to secure Trump administration waivers — designed more to game the system for more federal dollars than to expand coverage. (“Gaming the system for more federal dollars” could be the unofficial bipartisan motto of this very poor state.) And low teacher pay has become a powerful public concern in many Republican-controlled states.

Reeves got close enough to a majority to make him the clear favorite in the runoff, particularly given his fundraising prowess, though there are savvy Mississippians who think his charisma deficit could produce a Waller upset. Whoever wins will face an unusually strong Democratic candidate in Hood, who appears to have been biding his time in anticipation of an election year like this one.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019...ce-runoff.html