JACKSON, Miss.—Looking at his wife and three daughters who were standing by his side in the warm atrium of the Mississippi Trade Mart, Republican Secretary of State Michael Watson vowed to improve relationships between lawmakers and state leadership as he launched his campaign for lieutenant governor on Tuesday.
“As lieutenant governor, no one individual can get anything done in Jackson by themselves. It takes a team. It takes working with our 52 state senators, our 122 House members, moving the direction forward. It takes a governor that’s willing to talk to and work with our legislative leaders. It takes a speaker that’s willing to work with and talk to our legislative leaders as well,” he said to a crowd of family, friends, lawmakers, lobbyists and journalists on Tuesday evening. “I don’t see that much in Jackson right now. It’s unfortunate. You know, they all claim to be Republicans, but don’t even communicate. That’s not a way to lead the state. Mississippi deserves better, and Mississippi’s going to get that when I’m lieutenant governor.”
Relationships between the Republican-led House and Senate have often been acrimonious, including during the 2026 legislative session as the two chambers came to blows over policy disagreements, such as private school vouchers. Both chambers have often found themselves at odds with the Republican governor, Tate Reeves. When he broke tradition and cancelled his annual State of the State address at the Capitol this year, House lawmakers whooped and cheered. Later during the session, the governor vetoed a winter-storm aid bill that both chambers had approved, inaccurately accusing members of the Senate and staff of a “possibly criminal act” for making changes to the bill before sending it to him.
Watson is the first candidate to publicly declare his candidacy for lieutenant governor. The winner of the 2027 election will succeed incumbent Republican Delbert Hosemann, who is term-limited.
If voters elect him to serve as Mississippi’s next lieutenant governor, he said he would continue working to improve education outcomes and protect “the sanctity of life” and the “nuclear family.” Watson wants to cut more taxes, shrink government and reduce burdensome regulations for business owners, he told reporters.
“Because regulations cost time and they cost money, so when businesses are spending money on regulatory burdens getting to work or navigating the process, that’s more time and more money they have to spend as opposed to paying the wages even higher for their workers,” he told reporters after his campaign event on Tuesday.
Watson, 48, has served since 2020 as Mississippi’s secretary of state, overseeing elections, voting, business regulation, public lands, nonprofits and securities. He has led efforts to verify U.S. citizenship for Mississippi voters and workers, file all campaign finance documents online, integrate paper ballots for voting instead of using electronic machines and conduct post-election audits.
The White House picked Watson to lead a group of other secretaries of state to talk about election integrity because the Heritage Foundation, the right-wing organization that authored Project 2025, gives Mississippi high marks for “election integrity.”
Before his time as secretary, Watson served Mississippi Senate District 51 in Jackson County from 2008 to 2020, where he supported bills that cracked down on illegal immigration and opposed abortion rights. In 2010, he sponsored bills to create charter schools in Mississippi. The bill failed that year, but Mississippi enacted a law in 2013 to allow the formation of charter schools.
He voted for the state’s 15-week abortion ban that led to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization that overturned Roe v. Wade and ended federal abortion rights. Watson also voted to ban abortions once the fetal heartbeat becomes detectable, “unless a medical emergency necessitates” abortion.
“I’m one of the most conservative individuals in the state and I don’t hide from that,” Watson said on Tuesday.
If elected, he would serve as the president of the Mississippi Senate, appointing all Senate committee chairs and members and assigning bills to committees, with tremendous sway over what kind of legislation is prioritized or even allowed to make it to the floor.
“Sometimes you’re going to have differences of policy, agreements, disagreements, you’re going to have different personalities, but I know Mississippi deserves individuals that can rise above that. Mississippians deserve individuals who care about them more than they care about petty politics,” Watson told the Mississippi Free Press after his campaign event.
Former Gov. Phil Bryant was at Watson’s campaign event in Jackson and endorsed Watson in a promotional video. Mississippi House Rep. Lee Yancey, R-Brandon, Rep. Fred Shanks, R-Brandon, and state Sen. Josh Harkins, R-Flowood, attended the event to support the Republican candidate.
Harkins recalled meeting Watson for the first time in 2011 when the Flowood Republican was running for state Senate.
“I could tell instantly that there was something different about Michael. It wasn’t his 5 o’clock shadow at 9 a.m.,” Harkins said on Tuesday as event attendees laughed. “I see a lot of friends in here, and you know Michael. We could talk about his integrity, his honesty, what motivates him, and I know we have a candidate in front of us that’s going to do it for all the right reasons. But I think the title, seemingly, he’s probably the proudest of is that of husband and father, and I think that’s what motivates him.”
The current lieutenant governor, Delbert Hosemann, has not signaled his plans for the 2027 election. The primaries for all eight statewide offices and legislative offices will be held in the summer of 2027.
See a photo gallery from Michael Watson’s campaign launch here.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of the 2027 elections here.
