2019 runoff wrap up: Reeves and Fitch get statewide GOP nod, Jackson and Foster win locally in low-turnout election

By 9:40 p.m., the results were in for Warren County residents voting in the Aug. 27 primary runoffs.

In Warren County, as in the rest of Mississippi, turnout was low for this election, with only 24 percent of registered voters casting ballots in the county. In the Aug. 6 primary, county turnout was 32 percent. Statewide, about 1.8 million Mississippians are registered to vote of the 2.2 million eligible. Roughly 32 percent of those registered showed up to cast ballots yesterday.

Locally, all eyes were on the Warren County District 3 Supervisor’s race on the Democratic ballot, and the choice came down to experience versus change for many voters. Change won the day as newcomer Shawn Jackson handily defeated 23-year incumbent Charles Selmon by nearly 18 points. In the final, unofficial tally, Jackson received 463 votes to Selmon’s 326. That total does not include absentee and affidavit ballots, which will change the raw numbers but not the outcome. Jackson will face independent David Sharp in November.

The Mississippi House District 63 race also delivered an upset as challenger Stephanie McKenzie Foster defeated incumbent Deborah Butler Dixon in a landslide. Foster garnered 62 percent of the 3,365 votes cast. Foster has no challengers in the general election, making this race her de facto victory for the legislative seat.

At the top of the Republican ballot, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, 45, won his party’s nomination for the office of governor, defeating former Mississippi Supreme Court Chief Justice Bill Waller Jr. by nine percent. It was Reeves 54 percent, Waller 46 percent in the final, unofficial tally.

Reeves’ centered his campaign on his support for President Donald Trump. He touted his record as a two-term lieutenant governor and two-term state treasurer, and came out forcefully against expanding Medicaid for uninsured Mississippians.

Reeves will face Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood on Nov. 5, along with Constitution Party candidate Bob Hickingbottom and independent David Singletary.

Mississippi is one of only three states choosing a new governor this year. The other two are also in the South: Louisiana and Kentucky.

In the second statewide GOP runoff race, two-term state Treasurer Lynn Fitch narrowly defeated Andy Taggart, Republican pundit, author and chief of staff for former Gov. Kirk Fordice. The race was one of the last to be called Tuesday, but in the end Fitch came out ahead by four points. It was Fitch 52 percent, Taggart 48 percent.

Fitch will face Democrat Jennifer Riley Collins, a military veteran and former head of the Mississippi ACLU, in the Nov. 5 general election. Whoever wins in November, it will be a historic milestone in Mississippi, as the winner will be the first woman to hold the office of attorney general in the state. If Collins wins, she will also be the first African American attorney general in Mississippi.

In the one regional race for Warren County Democratic Party voters, Jackson City Councilman De’Keither Stamps handily defeated perennial candidate Dorothy “Dot” Benson in the race for the Central District public service commissioner. The final, unofficial tally gives Stamps 59 percent of the vote and Benson 41 percent. He will face Republican Brent Bailey in November.