(TheConservativeTimes.org) – 46-year-old centrist Democrat Brandon Presley, the second cousin of Elvis Presley, attempted to challenge Republican Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves on Tuesday.
Brandon was born in 1977, just days before Elvis Presley’s death.
A report shows Presley fought to extend Medicaid and support its broad abortion restrictions. Presley was mayor of Nettleton until joining the Mississippi Public Service Commission in 2008. Presley tweeted on Monday that if Mississippi were to expand Medicaid, 16,000 new, well-paying healthcare jobs would be created, and the health of 220,000 working Mississippians would be ensured.
In a state having its lowest income per capita and greatest poverty rate, Presley campaigned on immediately extending Medicaid, while Reeves has said he would strive for better employment that offers health insurance.
Reeves’ bid for reelection had been beset by controversy. According to the Mississippi auditor’s office, from 2017 to 2020, while Reeves had been lieutenant governor, at least 77 million dollars in federal money meant for the state’s poor had either been misappropriated or handed to wealthy and connected Mississippians.
In the biggest governmental corruption case in the state’s history, the former head of the state’s welfare department pled guilty last year. Presley hasn’t been shy in criticizing Reeves about it. Reeves denies any involvement.
In 2022, Mississippi had a four-billion-dollar surplus thanks to Reeves’s administration.
A report shows Reeves was among the 26 Republican governors who, in April of last year, declared that they were forming a group called the “American Governors’ Border Strike Force” to address the open border problem that President Joe Biden had created.
A measure prohibiting transgender athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports was signed into law in 2021 by Reeves.
In 2019, Reeves received 52.1% of the vote against Democrat Jim Hood’s 46.6%, making for a tight result in Mississippi’s governor’s race.
Trump received 57.6 percent of the vote in 2020, while Biden received 41.1 percent.
As of Wednesday, Tate Reeves won his bid for reelection.
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