With momentum growing in the Mississippi Legislature to expand Medicaid, Gov. Tate Reeves said nary a word Monday evening during his annual State of the State address about the issue he has opposed for more than a decade.

Republican House Speaker Jason White has filed legislation to expand Medicaid to provide health insurance to primarily poor working Mississippians. Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, who presides over the Senate, also has indicated that his leadership team will take up the issue this session.

Instead of urging legislators not to expand Medicaid as he did during last year’s State and of the State speech, the Republican governor focused his speech on how he said Mississippi could be the new manufacturing hub for America.

Full transcript: Gov. Tate Reeves’ 2024 State of the State address

Reeves, who is known during his more than 20-year political career for his often aggressive and contentious demeanor, said he was “not going to focus on our differences … I am here tonight instead to challenge you as a Legislature to waste no time on the things that divide us, and instead spend your energy this year on things that unite us. Our state has many challenges. We also have many opportunities. In fact we have more opportunities than we have ever had before.”

Some were disappointed, though, that Reeves did not address the health care crisis facing the state. Rep. Timaka James-Jones, D-Belzoni, has been outspoken on the need for state officials to address a lack of hospitals and access to medical care in areas like her district in the Mississippi Delta.

James-Jones, a freshman lawmaker, said she hopes the governor will take serious steps to find bipartisan solutions to all of Mississippi’s issues, but she said it was “problematic” for the governor not to mention the state’s health care crisis in his speech.

“We definitely need to have a candid conversation about health care,” James-Jones said. “I don’t know why he’s not addressing that issue. Folks want to hear what the state is doing about our health care statistics. Don’t avoid the issue. Just work with the people.”

PODCAST: Inside the Medicaid expansion debate at the Capitol

Reeves, who touted two major economic development projects he announced earlier this year, said jobs are returning from overseas to America. He said that is good for Mississippi, which has “never stopped making real things.”

Speaking to a joint session of the Legislature in House chamber of the state Capitol, Reeves said, “We can take advantage of this moment and create unimagined wealth, prosperity, and purpose for our state. We can make Mississippi the new American capital of manufacturing, industry, and agribusiness. Mississippi can be the headwaters of America’s supply chain if we are bold.”

He said to achieve those goals the state must make a significant investment in airports, rails and ports, as well as in Mississippi’s highway system.

In terms of education, Reeves said, “We must be open to new and different models. We should fund students, not systems. We should trust our parents, not bureaucrats, and we should embrace education freedom.”

The governor, who was interrupted multiple times by applause, proposed 12 mathematics and engineering schools across the state modeled after the long-standing Mississippi School for Mathematics and Science located in Columbus. Eight of the new schools would be for pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and three would be for high school students. He proposed one of those schools be located in downtown Jackson blocks from the state Capitol in the old Central High School Building that currently houses the Department of Education.

The governor also called for improving technology across state government through the formation of a task force and bolstering public safety.

Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, who gave the minority response, said to move Mississippi forward, as the governor said he wanted to do, health care must be addressed in a state that has many of the worse health care outcomes and one of the highest percentages of uninsured residents in the nation.

READ MORE: What’s in the House Republican Mississippi Medicaid expansion bill?

While Johnson said House Democrats support what is known as traditional Medicaid expansion, he said the Legislature should go even further this session.

He said the Democrats’ plan “would insure Mississippians up to 200% of the federal poverty level – those are individuals making roughly $30,000 a year. Traditional Medicaid expansion would only insure individuals who are at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. This hybrid plan – a 50/50 combination of traditional Medicaid expansion with private options and premium assistance – will provide insurance coverage to the people that need it most, make insurance coverage more affordable for working families, and would help address the myriad issues facing the healthcare system in our state.”

Johnson also called for the governor to work with the same zeal to bring economic development projects to impoverished, Black-majority areas of the state as he has in more affluent, White-majority areas.

“Mississippi has the lowest per capita income in the country. We have the highest rate of poverty in the country – nearly 20%. And both of those statistics are doubled or disproportionately worse in the Mississippi Delta and southwest Mississippi,” Johnson said. “Those numbers simply don’t improve without intentional, equitable economic development.”

Johnson concluded: “We’re a better place when we work together and overcome our differences for the good of the people we represent. We need leaders who bring people together, who acknowledge the problems we face and try to understand the causes of those problems alongside the people most affected.”

Reeves also provided a conciliatory tone during his speech.

‘There will be time to go back to politics and disagreement later,” Reeves said. “But this year, at this time, with these opportunities, let’s come together.”

Whether that spirit of cooperation will extend to Medicaid expansion to provide health insurance for an estimated 200,000 poor working Mississippians remains to be seen.

READ MORE: Gov. Tate Reeves’ lonely last stand against Medicaid expansion

This article first appeared on Mississippi Today and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.