With fewer than three million residents, Mississippi has often been described as being more like a club than a state. In other words, personality matters. And in this election year, with a potentially tight race for governor that could give the Democratic front-runner a real shot at the office, it may come down to likability.

On Tuesday, the state’s voters took to the polls to choose from an array of personalities to represent the Democratic and Republican Parties in a November election that will determine a number of statewide offices, from governor on down.

Most of the drama was expected in the Republican primary contest, which pits the party’s presumed front-runner, Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves, against two formidable challengers, a lawmaker and a former State Supreme Court chief justice. If no candidate receives more than 50 percent of the vote, a primary runoff will be held on Aug. 27.

[First results are expected at 8:30 p.m. Eastern. Follow along.]

Mr. Reeves, 45, a former banker, has been endorsed by Gov. Phil Bryant, a fellow Republican and staunch conservative who is leaving office because of term limits. Mr. Bryant has said that Mr. Reeves would carry on Mississippi’s conservative tradition in a state where Republicans have controlled the governor’s mansion for all but four years since 1992.

But momentum has been building in recent weeks for the former chief justice, William L. Waller Jr., 67, whose father, a Democrat, served as governor from 1972 to 1976.

Mr. Waller and a third Republican candidate in the race, State Representative Robert Foster, 36, have distinguished themselves from Mr. Reeves — and Mr. Bryant — by pledging support for a form of Medicare expansion under the Affordable Care Act. Though the health law is considered a big-government taboo for many Southern conservatives, such an expansion could have a profound effect on day-to-day life in one of the nation’s poorest states.

The Mississippi Center for Mississippi Health Policy, a nonprofit and nonpartisan group, predicted that an expansion could bring health coverage to as many as 300,000 uninsured residents and provide up to 9,000 jobs.

Mr. Reeves’s campaign message, in contrast, has focused on shrinking government, lowering taxes and promoting his penchant for saying “no.” “I will say no when yes is popular but too expensive,” he says in one of his ads.

In the Democratic Party, the heavily favored front-runner in a crowded field of eight candidates is the state attorney general, Jim Hood.

Mr. Hood, 57, is the only Democrat who holds statewide office in Mississippi, and his strong name recognition and moderate position — he is anti-abortion but also supports Medicaid expansion — may not make him such a long shot in the general election on Nov. 5.

In appealing to voters, Mr. Hood has sought to remind residents that he is one of them. One television ad shows him fixing farm equipment next to an American flag, loading ammunition into a firearm, driving a tractor and attending church with his family.

The ad also argues that Mr. Hood has stood up for the little guy, including a claim that Mr. Hood delivered “$3 billion to taxpayers from big insurance and scam artists.”

In the end, the race may come down to personality questions. Mr. Reeves has faced what the news website Mississippi Today called “perceived likability problems”; Mr. Waller, the site said, ran an early Facebook ad that asked, “Shouldn’t you like your candidate for governor? Now you can.”

Other statewide offices that will be decided this year include lieutenant governor and attorney general. Every seat in the state House of Representatives is also in play.

Source: Read Full Article