JACKSON, Miss.— Mississippi Democrats say Republican leaders should not be focused on cutting taxing and removing DEI programs from public schools while Mississippians still do not have Medicaid expansion, robust voting rights or a ballot initiative process.
“Our health care system is strained and collapsing,” Mississippi House Democratic Minority Party leader Rep. Robert Johnson, D-Natchez, said at a press conference in the Mississippi Capitol rotunda on Feb. 25.
Mississippi House Rep. Omeria Scott, D-Laurel, noted the noise and chatter that filled the rotunda on Feb. 25 as the Democratic Caucus held its press conference. She accused Republican lawmakers of not offering the same respect for Democratic lawmakers as they offer Republican leaders who speak at the Capitol rotunda.
Tax Cuts
The Mississippi House and Senate this week sent a bill to Gov. Tate Reeves’ desk cutting income and grocery taxes while raising the gas tax. The final bill does not increase general sales taxes, however.
“I think we’re lowering the burden on Mississippi families. We’re creating a scenario where they’re going to be able to keep more of their hard-earned money, and they’ll be able to choose how they spend it,” Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, told reporters on Feb. 24.
Mississippi House Rep. Robert Johnson criticized the authors of the tax plans because he said they did not ask Democratic lawmakers how the plans could affect their districts nor did they host tax studies or hearings to determine if cutting taxes was feasible for Mississippi.
“It sounds like a show—one that could be dangerous for the people in the State of Mississippi and when you combine that with what’s happening in Washington, it’ll put a severe strain on the state’s resources and people here in the state,” Johnson said at the press conference on Feb. 25.
Mississippi House Rep. Omeria Scott, D-Laurel, spoke against cutting taxes on the House floor on Thursday, March 20. She said the Trump administration’s looming cuts to federal funding could cause Mississippi to suffer economically since Mississippi gets two-thirds of its budget from the federal government. Mississippi would not be able to make up the difference from the federal government’s decreased allocation to the State while cutting taxes if the federal government reduces spending, she argued.
“Now, the question is, as I said to you the other day: Can you make it up? Y’all, we are the poorest state in the Union, and we cannot make it up. So instead of this what you have before you, somebody should’ve brought a bill to pause that $166 million that’s coming out of your 2022 tax cut. That’s what we should’ve been doing, and we should’ve been saying, ‘Let’s wait and see what happens,’” Scott said.
Redistricting
The Mississippi Legislature needs to put “equitable redistricting at the forefront of” its priorities, Mississippi House Rep. Daryl Porter, D-Summit, said on Feb. 25. The House’s and Senate’s current proposals for redistricting make minor adjustments that “do not capture our state’s real demographics,” he said.
The House’s redistricting plan modifies Mississippi House districts 12, 22, 36, 39 and 41 while the Senate’s proposal changes Mississippi Senate districts 1, 2, 10, 11, 19, 34, 41, 42, 44 and 45. A federal court ruled that Mississippi must create more-Black majority districts around the City of Hattiesburg, DeSoto County and Chickasaw County.
Porter noted that the proposals do not follow the federal court’s requirements for redistricting to “empower Black voters.” He said not following the court’s order would cause additional legal disputes and waste taxpayer dollars.
“These communities need even greater support to champion their concerns and secure the resources they deserve. Equitable representation in the people’s House isn’t just a procedural manner; it’s the foundation for fair, effective activity in government that truly reflects its people,” he said at the press conference on Feb. 25.
House Apportionment and Elections Chairman Rep. Noah Sanford, R-Collins, is the primary author of J.R. 1. He said he worked on the House’s redistricting plan with the representatives in the affected districts to gain insight for redrawing the map.
“Members have provided input about options for redraws,” he said on the House floor on Feb. 6. “Every member in the affected area has met with me and the staff to review their district lines and accompanying data and make requests and suggestions.”
Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Dean Kirby, R-Pearl, is the main author of J.R. 202. He said he also met with senators in the affected districts to hear input for redistricting. The senator said on the Senate floor on Feb. 26 that he had two goals for J.R. 202: “Whatever the court said, that’s what we have to do,” and to “be as fair to everyone as I can possibly be and be as open as I can possibly be to everyone.”
Rep. Dan Eubanks, R-Walls, voted against the Senate’s redistricting plans. He said he did not support the Senate’s proposal because it splits part of DeSoto County into a district with counties in the Delta.
“Here’s the general concern that our county has is that if you look at the map, it takes the heart of DeSoto County, our county seat, and it drops it into a district that goes down four counties into the Delta,” he said on the House floor on March 5. “Now, here’s the problem: The needs and the problems of DeSoto County are unique to DeSoto County and the needs of the Delta and the problems of the Delta are unique to the Delta.”
Medicaid Expansion
With the 2025 Legislative session set to end in April, Medicaid expansion for Mississippi is looking increasingly unlikely, Mississippi House and Senate Medicaid Committee Chairmen Rep. Missy McGee, R-Hattiesburg, and Sen. Kevin Blackwell, R-Southaven, told the Mississippi Free Press in late February.
“We still have the code sections alive. (We’re) waiting to see what we get out of D.C., if there’s any information, because we know there’s going to be a lot of changes. But I just don’t know that we’ll get that information in the time before we adjourn,” McGee told the Mississippi Free Press on Feb. 20.
Measures to expand Medicaid in the 2024 legislative session failed after the House and Senate could not come to an agreement on work requirements and Senate President Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann said expansion would have to wait for Donald Trump to become president. Under both chambers’ plans, a person would have to work a certain number of hours a month to qualify for Medicaid coverage under the expanded program.
The Senate plan hinged on the federal government allowing a work requirement for Medicaid expansion, which the Biden administration was unlikely to approve. The Biden administration rejected Arkansas’ and Kansas’ work requirements for expansion, but Trump’s first administration approved work requirements in 13 states.
Without Medicaid expansion, Mississippi will spend $845.8 million on its Medicaid budget and receive $7.2 billion from the federal government to fund the program. The federal government would give Mississippi about $1 billion extra dollars per year if it expands Medicaid.
But President Donald Trump supports a Republicans’ proposal to cut $880 billion from federal Medicaid funding nationwide, which could leave Mississippi “on its knees,” Rep. Omeria Scott said at the press conference on Feb. 25.
“But if they cut $880 billion out of the budget, Mississippi is going to be on its knees. Some of y’all may want that, I don’t know,” she said.
Mississippi lawmakers anticipate the federal government will give $7.4 billion to the state’s Medicaid program, while the state budget would add $911 million for a total of $8.3 billion. Scott noted that lawmakers have allocated less money to the state Medicaid program in the past decade—going from $1.017 billion in 2016 to $911 million in 2025.
Voting Rights Restoration, Ballot Initiatives
Mississippi House Rep. Kabir Karriem, D-Columbus, reflected on the failed voting rights restoration bills that ultimately died on deadline days in 2024 and 2025. In Mississippi, people are banned from voting for the rest of their lives, even after release from prison, if they commit any of the 23 disenfranchising crimes. The law dates back to 1890 when white lawmakers adopted Jim Crow laws designed to disenfranchise Black voters.
Approximately 235,000 people, or 11%, of Mississippi’s eligible voting population, are barred from voting for life, and a significant portion of those people are Black, data from the Citizen Project shows. While the state’s population is less than 40% Black, 62% of people in Mississippi who are incarcerated, on probation or parole are Black, the Citizen Project reports.
“This is not just a matter of policy; it is about the fundamental rights of our fellow citizens,” Karriem said.
House Constitution Committee Chairman Rep. Price Wallace, R-Mendenhall, told the Mississippi Free Press he did not bring up the felony disenfranchisement voting rights restoration bill because it did not have enough support to meet a three-fifths majority vote.
“There wasn’t no need trying to get out on the floor and argue it. I had some House members that just had issues with it. We’ll try again next year,” he told the Mississippi Free Press on March 18.
Mississippi’s 1992 constitutional amendment created the ballot initiative process that once allowed citizens to collect signatures from each of the state’s five congressional districts to put issues that concern them on the ballot.
But Mississippi’s population declined in the 2000 census, and the state lost a congressional district. For about two decades afterward, secretaries of state, including current Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson, interpreted the law to be valid as long as petitioners garnered signatures from each of the former five congressional districts as the lines existed before the 2000 redistricting.
However, the Mississippi Supreme Court stripped the ballot initiative from Mississippi law in 2021 after the City of Madison, Miss., filed a lawsuit against Initiative 65, which was a ballot initiative that a majority of voters adopted in 2020 to legalize medical cannabis. In a 6-3 vote, the Court ruled that Initiative 65 was invalid because the state no longer has five congressional districts and thus nullified the ballot-initiative system entirely.
The Legislature has failed to pass a ballot initiative restoration bill in the four Legislative sessions since the state Supreme Court’s decision.
“When the Legislature fails to act on behalf of the people, the ballot initiative serves as a beacon of hope—a tool for the citizens of Mississippi to reclaim their voice,” Karriem said.
Wallace said he did not bring his committee’s ballot initiative bill up for a full House floor vote because the legislation had “some issues” on the House side and would not gain the necessary votes to reach a three-fifths majority. He said he also thought the Senate would bring up a bill addressing the ballot initiative but the body ultimately did not.
“I’m not going to change nothing on the ballot initiative bill next year. I’m going to bring out the same exact bill and just work in the off-season with my colleagues and with the speaker to try to drum up some support and see what the heartburn was with it,” he told the Mississippi Free Press on March 18.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Public schools and universities would not be allowed to have diversity, equity and inclusion programs under a bill the House passed on Feb. 5 and the Senate passed an amended version of on March 10. The bill drew criticisms from many Democrats who questioned the motive behind Ackerman, Miss., Republican Rep. Joey Hood’s bill.
“Make no mistake about it, House Bill 1193 is not merely another piece of legislation; it is an attack on fairness, on truth and on the values that bind us together,” Rep. Jeffery Harness, D-Fayette, said at the press conference on Feb. 25. “When our Republican colleagues claim they want a better Mississippi, the question remains: ‘For whom?’ Their proposed bans on diversity, equity and inclusion programs in our public educational institutions tell us the answer loud and clear. It is not for the majority of Mississippians.”
Diversity, equity and inclusion programs helped everyone have equal access to education and opportunities, he said.
Harness defined diversity, equity and inclusion. “Diversity means ensuring representation. Equity means recognizing that people start in different places. Inclusion means creating environments where every individual feels valued,” the representative said.
“The act is to ensure (that) the employment (and) academic opportunities and student engagement are based solely on individual merit qualifications and academic performance without consideration of an individual’s views on diversity, equity and inclusion,” Sen. Tyler McCaughn, R-Newton, said on the Senate floor on March 10.
Mississippi’s anti-DEI bill comes at the heels of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order to end DEI programs in federal agencies. Harness said Mississippi Republicans were assisting Trump’s “agenda” to dismantle “our democracy.”
“They want you to be afraid. They want you divided. They want you to believe that this state is theirs to control, that your future is theirs to dictate. But they are wrong. Mississippi belongs to the people, and the people have the final word,” he said.
Sen. Tyler McCaughn, R-Newton said the bill was not related to executive orders happening on the federal level when introducing the bill on the Senate floor on March 10.
“We want to take the step as a state to provide the guidance (that) is out there so that when a letter comes down from somebody in D.C. who thinks they know how to run Mississippi that we can step out and say, ‘No, sir, we’ve had that in place for a period of time. This is what DEI means. This is where they’re not out there going against the statutes of the State of Mississippi.’” McCaughn said.
TANF Scandal
The Mississippi State Auditor’s office identified at least $77 million in misspent Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds in 2020. The state arrested and charged six people, including former Mississippi Department of Human Services Director John Davis with involvement in moving over $77 million in welfare funds away from the state’s poorest residents and giving it to wealthy people and the projects they liked. That included millions that went to retired NFL star Brett Favre or projects he favored.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in a December 2024 letter ordered Mississippi to pay back almost $101 million in TANF funds that the agency says Mississippi officials misappropriated during Gov. Phil Bryant’s administration.
Democratic Rep. Omeria Scott noted at the Feb. 25 press conference that the Legislature has not held an investigatory hearing regarding the misspent TANF funds nor has it assigned an oversight committee to review the case.
The Legislature allocated the Mississippi Department of Human Services $1.7 billion for its 2025 fiscal year budget. DHS requested an additional $27.4 million for its 2026 fiscal year budget, but instead, lawmakers allocated $1.5 billion to DHS for 2026, reducing funds by $237 million.
“We hadn’t convened a hearing; we don’t know anything. So, maybe we do need to cut them $237 million,” Scott said on Feb. 25 at the press conference.
However, she said reducing DHS’s budget would cut food, transportation and children’s programs. DHS is responsible for overseeing the TANF program and other public-assistance programs that provide social services and support for children and low-income people and families.
Mississippi State Auditor Shad White, a Republican, told state senators they should have asked him to testify about the welfare scandal long ago during a heated exchange in a Mississippi Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on Jan. 22.
“You should have been asking tough questions about why this amount of money was misspent in the first place,” White replied. “You should have been holding hearings on why this money went missing. I’ve never been asked a single question about the seven people who pleaded guilty to state or federal charges.”
