The lieutenant governor’s race is a bit different than the governor’s race this year in Mississippi. The real governor’s race showdown pits one strong Republican (Tate Reeves) against one strong Democrat (Brandon Presley) in the general election November 7.
In contrast, the strongest two candidates for lieutenant governor are both Republicans and they will face each other in the Republican primary August 8.
I got to hear both incumbent lieutenant governor Delbert Hosemann and challenger Chris McDaniel at the recent Mississippi Press Association meeting at the Refuge Hotel and Conference Center in Flowood. They both spoke over a half hour. It was a good chance to understand the differences between the two candidates.
My goal here is to give readers a clear indication of where each candidate stands on public policy issues. I will summarize the main points. For those reading on the web, I have attached the talks in an audio format so readers can listen to each speech in its entirety.
Delbert Hosemann
— Experience: Hosemann said his experience running a large law firm gave him the chance to interact with hundreds of businesses. That serves as a great base to understand the needs of the state.
— Transparency: “I’ve always looked at the press as the representatives of those who couldn’t be there themselves, so we started video live streaming our committee and senate meetings. I wanted you to be able to see our deliberations. I was a little worried that it would lead to some showboating but it didn’t. Most just forgot the camera was on. We did it all in the public domain.”
— Education: “We believe the best asset Mississippi has is a child’s brain. How we develop that and give that child an opportunity to be competitive — and I don’t want to be competitive with Arkansas, I want to be competitive with the world — and to get there we have to have children with the same ability to be educated as anywhere else . . . We started with a thousand dollar teacher pay raise just after covid and the next year we put $245 million in public education teachers. We raised them up to an average of $43,000. That was so important
. . . then we had $100 million this year just for teachers. People are telling me ‘our teachers are coming back.’ What a tremendous thing to have happen . . . Next is a school building program with $40 million.
Hosemann is a believer in the semester system that he saw in Corinth. It’s nine weeks on and three weeks off but the total number of days in the school year is the same. Hosemann said this is spreading rapidly throughout the state and he supports it.
Another education development supported by Hosemann is “career coaches” of which there are now 180. Hosemann talked about the rise of autism and other mental health issues that are appearing at an earlier age. He has been a major supporter of education assistance for autistic students. Fifty-five teachers will graduate this year with specialty training in this area.
— Infrastructure: “When we got here, we had not done any capacity work. That’s what MDOT calls new construction. We were only doing road maintenance work. I started going to MDOT and sitting in a room with these people asking ‘why aren’t we doing better.’ Three years ago, we did $460 million in contracts. This year we did $960 million. We are getting stuff out of our state agency onto the roads.”
Hosemann also said he has instituted a state matching program when local governments spend money on water and sewer infrastructure. Nobody else had done that. This led to a billion dollars in water and sewer investment this year.
—Economic Development: Hosemann talked about his “MFlex” plan that allows any company to calculate their state incentives by factoring in their capital expenditure and their payroll. It allows 100 percent write off of the capital expenses in one year. “This is contributing to the Mississippi miracle.” Hosemann mentioned numerous economic development projects ongoing around the state.
—Crime: Hosemann successfully pushed through a five year minimum mandatory sentence for carjacking with a weapon. He admitted that there was push back from that given Mississippi’s super high incarceration rate but he defended this because of the trauma it inflicts on the victims. “You go sit aside for five years and you figure out what you’re going to do with your life and part of it doesn’t need to be stealing a car with a gun.”
Chris McDaniel
Political Philosophy: “The path to success has already been established. Constitutionalism. Federalism. Individual Liberty. The only way I see to do that is to get the government out of the way as much as possible. In many respects, government has become incorrigible, corrupt, out of control. Exactly the thing our founders feared. We need to take power away and give it back to the people where it belongs
. . . I’ve done my best to uphold the principles of Goldwater, Reagan and others.”
McDaniel said the Mississippi senate had shifted too far to the left. “That’s an objective fact based on the American Conservative Union. They have scored us for years and watched our continued movement to the left on many policy issues . . . According to ACU, Mississippi has a more liberal legislature than Michigan. It’s more liberal than any legislature in the southeast except one . . . That’s Delbert Hosemann’s fault.”
—Tax Policy: McDaniel is for the elimination of the state income tax. He pointed out that Florida, Tennessee and Texas all don’t have a state income tax . . . “Mississippi more than anything else needs jobs.” He said jobs would solve most of our state problems from homelessness to healthcare. He said eliminating the income tax would spur spending which would spur job growth. McDaniel also wants to eliminate the grocery tax. “Only three states still tax groceries the way Mississippi and Alabama do. This seems terribly unfair to force the poorest among us to pay taxes for necessities. Unbelievable. Who do you think we are? Every time we take money from those people, it’s regressive. It’s not fair and it’s time to get rid of the grocery tax.”
—Direct Democracy: McDaniel said he was a strong supporter of giving voters the chance to pass laws through the ballot initiative process. “It’s important for free people to have that right. Let the people have their say. Give us a ballot initiative process that is workable.” In addition, McDaniel supports a voter recall process and term limits.
—Regarding Delbert Hosemann: “He is a collective minded politician more inclined to be a Democrat than a Republican.” He challenged Hosemann to a debate anytime, anywhere.
