Mississippi Today
Democratic Governor’s Association announces $750,000 donation to Presley campaign
The Democratic Governors Association announced Tuesday the organization is donating $750,000 to Brandon Presley's campaign for governor, giving the Democratic candidate a boost in operating expenses as the bitter governor's race heats up.
Meghan Meehan-Draper, the executive director of the DGA, said in a statement that the organization has a track record of unseating unpopular incumbent Republican governors in tough states like Kentucky, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
“As Brandon Presley continues to run a strong campaign and Mississippi families are bearing the burden of Tate Reeves' costly grocery tax and car tag fees, corruption, and hospital closure crisis, we know there's a real chance in Mississippi this year to once again defy the odds,” Meehan-Draper said.
The DGA's investment mirrors a similar donation it made in 2019 to Democratic Attorney General Jim Hood's campaign for governor, though that appears to have occurred later in the year compared to the current election cycle.
The organization donated $750,000 to Hood in September of that year and contributed $250,000 in October, according to the former attorney general's campaign finance records. Reed defeated Hood in the 2019 contest by 5%, making it the most completive governor's race since 2003.
“This race is competitive because Brandon Presley is gaining support from Republicans, Democrats, and independents who know he will cut taxes for Mississippi families, fight corruption, and end Tate Reeves' hospital crisis once and for all and expand Medicaid,” Presley spokesperson Michael Beyer said in a statement.
For Presley to become the first Democratic governor since Ronnie Musgrove's 1999 election, the four-term utility regulator will have to convince donors to invest in his attempt to oust a Republican governor from office in the Deep South.
But the Democratic candidate will likely face a brutal fundraising competition with Republican Gov. Tate Reeves' reelection campaign.
The DGA's conservative counterpart, the Republican Governor's Association, through its Mississippi Strong political action committee, contributed $500,000 to Reeves' campaign earlier this year. The RGA was also a major contributor to his 2019 bid for the Governor's Mansion.
Reeves is expected to capture the GOP nomination for governor in the Aug. 8 primary. The winner of the party primary will compete against Presley, the only Democratic candidate in the race, in the Nov. 7 general election.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1892
MAY 21, 1892
Crusading journalist Ida B. Wells published a column exposing the lynchings of African-American men and denouncing claims that the lynchings were meant to protect white women.
Her anti-lynching campaign came after a mob killed three of her friends, who had reportedly opened a grocery store that competed with a white-owned store in Memphis.
Upset by Wells' writings, a white mob destroyed her presses and threatened to kill her if she ever published again. She left Memphis for Chicago, but she continued to expose lynchings, calling for national legislation to make lynching a crime.
In 1898, she took her protest to the White House.
“Nowhere in the civilized world save the United States of America do men, possessing all civil and political power, go out in bands of 50 and 5,000 to hunt down, shoot, hang or burn to death a single individual, unarmed and absolutely powerless,” she wrote. “We refuse to believe this country, so powerful to defend its citizens abroad, is unable to protect its citizens at home.”
The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, which opened in 2018, features a reflection space in honor of her.
Congress finally passed an anti-lyncing law in the 2021-22 session. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act defines lynching as a federal hate crime.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
On this day in 1961
MAY 20, 1961
A white mob of more than 300, including Klansmen, attacked Freedom Riders at the Greyhound Bus Station in Montgomery, Alabama. Future Congressman John Lewis was among them.
“An angry mob came out of nowhere, hundreds of people, with bricks and balls, chains,” Lewis recalled.
After beating on the riders, the mob turned on reporters and then Justice Department official John Seigenthaler, who was beaten unconscious and left in the street after helping two riders.
“Then they turned on my colleagues and started beating us and beat us so severely, we were left bloodied and unconscious in the streets of Montgomery,” Lewis recalled.
As the mob headed his way, Freedom Rider James Zwerg said he asked for God to be with him, and “I felt absolutely surrounded by love. I knew that whether I lived or died, I was going to be OK.”
The mob beat him so badly that his suit was soaked in blood.
“There was nothing particularly heroic in what I did,” he said. “If you want to talk about heroism, consider the Black man who probably saved my life. This man in coveralls, just off of work, happened to walk by as my beating was going on and said ‘Stop beating that kid. If you want to beat someone, beat me.' And they did. He was still unconscious when I left the hospital.”
To quell the violence, Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent in 450 federal marshals.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
Mississippi Today
Podcast: The controversial day that Robert Kennedy came to the University of Mississippi
Retired U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Edward Ellington talks with Mississippi Today's Bobby Harrison and Geoff Pender about former U.S. Attorney General Robert Kennedy's speech at the University of Mississippi less than four years after the riots that occurred after the integration of the school. Ellington, who at the time headed the Ole Miss Speaker's Bureau as a law school student, recalls the controversy leading up to the speech.
This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.
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