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Ray Mabus: Some strides made during my governorship are gone, but the path forward remains clear

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mississippitoday.org – Ray Mabus – 2025-02-04 09:53:00

This essay is part of an ongoing Mississippi Today Ideas series showcasing first-person perspectives of former Mississippi governors. We asked them to write about their successes while in office and perhaps what they wished had gone a little differently during their tenure.


When I ran for governor in 1987, my slogan was “Mississippi Will Never Be Last Again.” For so long Mississippi had been last in the things you want to be first in and first in the things you want to be last in. A common statement from other states was “Thank God for Mississippi.” That had to end. Mississippi needed to lead.

As governor, I, and the folks with me, began working to make that promise a reality, and, in the four years that followed, we got an amazing amount of things done and Mississippi moved out of last place in virtually every category.

We began with education because it is the only sure, long-term way to success. Here are a few of the things that were accomplished:

  • Passed the largest teacher pay raise in the U.S.
  • Enacted the largest percentage funding increase for higher education in the country for two years.
  • Increased the high school graduation rate by 5.7% while the national rate declined.
  • Developed the Office for Literacy, which Atlantic Monthly called “the most ambitious initiative in the nation to combat adult illiteracy.”
  • In days before computers were everywhere, put a computer lab in every elementary school in the state, teaching a very successful “Writing to Read” program.
  • Led the nation in percentage of students taking upper level science courses.
  • Used fiber optics to allow students to participate remotely in courses through interactive audiovisual communications long before the ubiquitous internet.
  • Passed the most comprehensive education reform act in America.

In jobs and economic development:

  • 90,000 net new jobs in four years.
  • First in U.S. in new manufacturing plants by population.
  • $4 billion in new investments.
  • Complete rewrite of economic development laws including tax credits for child care and educational benefits.
  • Fifth largest drop in unemployment in country.
  • 11th fastest per capita income gain in America.
  • 25th in creation of new jobs.
  • Unemployment lowest in more than a decade.
  • Tourism increased by 41% and exports by 51%.
  • Growth in welfare cut by 87%.
  • Successful Jobs for Mississippi’s Graduates for highly at-risk youth started.

In health care:

  • Largest expansion of health care coverage in state’s history by increasing Medicaid covering more than 100,000 additional Mississippians and keeping the state’s hospitals open and vital.
  • The lowest infant mortality rate in state’s history.
  • An intense focus on early childhood and child care. 

In government:

  • Changed form of county government to reduce cost and corruption, which was part of my legacy as state auditor.
  • Largest restructuring of state government in history.
  • First governor to propose a budget.
  • Appointed first woman to head a Highway Patrol in the U.S.
  • Most Black Mississippians appointed to senior roles in state’s history.
  • Enacted first capital budget.
  • No tax increases.
  • Budget always balanced.

But all this is just a far-from-complete list of nearly four-decade old statistics. What this doesn’t capture at all was our goal. It wasn’t just to move Mississippi out of last place and up the list in these categories, it was to try to make lives better and futures brighter for ALL Mississippians. 

All this was done to make Mississippi more competitive and to provide opportunities so that young Mississippians would stay and build their lives here. All this was done to make sure babies were born healthy and had the best educational opportunities starting in early childhood so that they could make the most of their lives. All this was done so that all Mississippians had the right to good health care so that the state didn’t lead the country in preventable diseases and so many other bad categories and so that EVERYONE could fulfill their potential. 

But for all that we — the people of Mississippi — did at that time to make our state the positive exception and example, looking at today and to the future, so many of those gains are gone. Mississippi is one of only three states which lost population between 2010-2020. People are voting with their feet and moving out, and others are not moving in. The needs in Mississippi are the same as they were in the late 1980s. We know what we need to do to address those needs, and we know it will work.

A much better job has to be done in public education. Education for everyone is the only way to a better future and a better state. Public education has to be better supported both financially and culturally. Tax money should go to public education and none to private schools, which is just a way to help the well-to-do and a cruel hoax on everyone else.

Health care has to be a right and not a privilege. Do whatever is necessary to cover every Mississippian, starting with expanding Medicaid to the maximum extent possible. This will also keep rural hospitals open so that people can get care close to where they live. And women must have full autonomy on all their health care decisions.

There is a saying that “the only way to keep a person down in a ditch is to get down in the ditch with them.” Because of our history, Mississippi bears a special burden on race. As I said in my 1988 inaugural address: “… a new day depends fundamentally on our resolve to banish racism forever from the state of Mississippi. We know in our hearts that the chains of prejudice have bound more than one group; they have held all of us back. A society divided against itself cannot prosper. And we know from history and our own lives the anguish and frustration of racial injustice — and we can be proud that so many among us have given so much in the belief that we shall overcome. We share the faith that we are each God’s children. After all the years, let us hear anew His truth that we are all brothers and sisters. That idea is written into our laws; now it must be woven into the fabric of our lives.”


Ray Mabus served as Mississippi governor from 1988 until 1992. He had previously served as state auditor. On the federal level, he served as U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia in the 1990s and as U.S. Secretary of the Navy from 2009 until 2017. Mabus, an Ackerman native, resides in West Virginia with his wife Lynne. He has three children.

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

Mississippi Today

Ole Miss graduate facing new charge for hiding Jimmie ‘Jay’ Lee’s body

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mississippitoday.org – Molly Minta – 2025-02-11 16:53:00

The University of Mississippi graduate accused of killing Jimmie “Jay” Lee was indicted for tampering with physical evidence, a new charge that comes on the heels of the unexpected discovery of Lee’s body last week.

Sheldon Timothy Herrington Jr. reported to the Lafayette County Circuit Court on Tuesday to face a new indictment that alleges he obstructed justice by hiding Lee’s body after he killed Lee on July 8, 2022.

Herrington, who pleaded not guilty, was also appointed a public defender, Oxford-based attorney Denise Fondren, according to multiple reports. Then he was taken to jail where he will remain until his bond hearing next week.

That’s when Lafayette County District Attorney Ben Creekmore said he would announce if the state will seek the death penalty or life in prison in the event Herrington is convicted of capital murder at the next trial, a date for which has yet to be set.

Creekmore did not pursue the death penalty at the trial in December, but he told the Daily Journal that the finding of Lee’s body last week was a “material change in circumstances.”

READ MORE: ‘Hopelessly deadlocked’: Judge declares mistrial in Tim Herrington trial

Lee’s body was discovered last week at a well-known dumping site in Carroll County, about a half-hour from Herrington’s parent’s house. The day Lee went missing, Herrington was seen on video retrieving a long-handle shovel and wheelbarrow from his parent’s house and putting it into the back of a box truck that belonged to his moving company, according to evidence released in the case.

Also last week, the Oxford Police Department pulled from the court’s evidence file a partially used roll of duct tape that was discovered in Herrington’s apartment after police brought him in for questioning. Herrington purchased duct tape the morning Lee went missing, according to a receipt that police obtained.

READ MORE: Police investigation into Ole Miss student killing: Timeline, what we know so far

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

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Mississippi Today

Marshand Crisler heading to federal prison for 2 ½ years

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mississippitoday.org – Mina Corpuz – 2025-02-11 13:48:00

Former Hinds County interim sheriff Marshand Crisler has been sentenced to 2 ½ years in federal prison for soliciting and accepting bribes during his unsuccessful 2021 campaign.

U.S. District Court Judge Tom Lee sentenced him Tuesday for the two counts he was convicted of in November. Crisler received concurrent sentences of 30 months in custody of the Bureau of Prisons, followed by three years of supervision and an order to pay a $15,000 fine, according to court records. 

Crisler faced up to 10 years in prison. He remained out on bond until his sentencing. 

The court recommended Crisler to be assigned to the nearest facility to Jackson. Nearby federal facilities are in Yazoo City, Aliceville, Alabama, central Louisiana and Memphis.  

Crisler was charged with soliciting and accepting $9,500 worth of bribes during his 2021 campaign for Hinds County sheriff in exchange for favors from a man with previous felony convictions and giving ammunition the man can’t possess as a felon. 

The jury heard from several witnesses, including Crisler himself and Tonarri Moore, the man with past felonies and pending state and federal charges who the FBI recruited as an informant. 

Parts of recorded conversations between the men, which Moore made for investigators, were played in court.

During several meetings in Jackson and around Hinds County in 2021, Crisler said he would tell Moore about investigations involving him, move Moore’s cousin to a safer part of the Hinds County jail, give him a job with the sheriff’s office and give him freedom to have a gun despite prohibitions on Moore having one. 

Crisler was found guilty after a three-day trial in Jackson. The jury took about two hours to reach a unanimous verdict for both charges .

In November after the verdict, his attorney, John Colette, told reporters his client and family were disappointed in the decision and Crisler planned to appeal. 

Crisler was indicted in April 2023 – the same year he ran again for Hinds County sheriff. He lost in a runoff election to Tyree Jones, the incumbent Crisler faced two years earlier. 

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

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Mississippi Today

Court-ordered redistricting will require do-over legislative elections this year

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mississippitoday.org – Taylor Vance – 2025-02-11 11:23:00

Five House seats will be re-decided in a November special election, pending court approval, under a resolution the House approved to comply with a federal court order.

Even though voters just elected members of the Legislature in 2023, the races will be held again because a three-judge federal panel determined last year that the Legislature did not create enough Black-majority districts when it redrew its districts.

 The panel ordered the state to redraw the districts and create a new majority-Black district in north Mississippi’s Chickasaw County. 

House Elections Chairman Noah Sanford, R-Collins, told House members he believes the new map complies with the federal Voting Rights Act and will allow Black voters in Chickasaw County to elect a candidate of their choice. 

“I tried to keep the number of members affected minimal,” Sanford said. 

The House plan does not require incumbent legislators to run against each other. The main change in the new map is that it makes the District 22 seat in Chickasaw County, currently held by Republican Rep. Jon Lancaster of Houston, who is white and a majority-Black voter district. 

The other four House districts that lawmakers voted to redraw are: 

  • House District 16: Rep. Rickey Thompson, D-Shannon
  • House District 36: Karl Gibbs, D-West Point
  • House District 39: Dana McLean, R-Columbus
  • House District 41: Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus 

Lancaster told Mississippi Today he did not want to comment on the proposed maps since the litigation over the legislative districts was still pending, and he did not know if he would run in a November special election. 

Under the legislation, the qualifying period will run from May 19 to May 30. The primary election will be held on August 5, with a potential primary runoff on September 2 and the general election on November 4. 

The federal courts also ruled that the Senate must redraw its districts to create a new Black-majority district in the DeSoto County and Hattiesburg areas. 

Senate Rules Chairman Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, has introduced a measure to change some Senate districts. However, he told Mississippi Today he is still tweaking the plan and does not know when the Rules Committee will debate it. 

Once the Legislature passes a redistricting plan, it must go back before the federal courts for approval.

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

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