Ron Eller, a physician assistant at St. Dominic Hospital in Jackson, Miss., is the Republican nominee for Mississippi’s 2nd congressional district, currently held by Democratic incumbent U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson.
Eller, a veteran of the U.S. Army and longtime physician assistant during his service, is a conservative running against an incumbent who has represented the district for over 30 years.
The Mississippi Free Press sat down with Eller to discuss his positions and how his tenure would contrast with Thompson’s. You can read our interview with Thompson here.
The following interview has been edited for length, context and clarity.
Nick Judin: You feel there is a regime of regulations that act as law when in fact they should not have the weight of law. Walk me through this—we have all these regulatory agencies. Should they exist and how should they enforce regulations?
Ron Eller: There are a lot of regulatory organizations out there, whether we’re talking about the EPA, the FDA, etcetera. You know, if they bring a regulation that needs to be made into law, let’s put it on the books as a law, run it through the appropriate channel.
Recently, there was a Supreme Court case, the Chevron Act, that was brought back up from the 1950s. And the Supreme Court actually overturned that and said these organizations with their regulations–these aren’t laws. These are more of a suggestion. (Editor’s Note: Eller is responding to the Chevron deference doctrine, a 1984 U.S. Supreme Court case that the current U.S. Supreme Court overturned in June 2024).
So, you would really dismantle the regulatory state as we know it. You mean that if, say, the EPA wanted to pass new environmental regulation, they would need to present it to Congress. Congress would then need to vote on it, and if they couldn’t pass it in Congress, EPA couldn’t enforce it. Is that right?
And additionally, to that, some regulations are actually more at the state level. You have to go through the appropriate channels in that state.
Case in point, we have a project here in Mississippi that’s been on the books since the 1940s.
The Yazoo Pumps.
Correct. The Yazoo Pump Project. They were ready to put the pumps into place about two years ago, the levees were built, everything was in place and Bennie Thompson went to the EPA and got them to relook at it and they shut that down.
This is an important issue, particularly for the 2nd congressional district and my constituents. Because one, their homes are being damaged; two, it drives down property values; and three, it decreases growing seasons.
I want to stick with the broader context you’re talking about here. You want to strip all regulatory authority from the executive and make it legislative. And would that apply on the state level as well? Back to the environment, it wouldn’t devolve to the governor, or to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality—
That’s basically it.
You would need to go through the Mississippi Legislature for state issues and through Congress for federal issues.
Right now, we have agencies out there, for lack of better words, that are running cowboy over the American population, good or bad. I’m sure some of the regulations are good and probably really do need to be on the books as laws.
Bennie Thompson was a key figure on the January 6th Committee. He sees the conspiracy to undermine the peaceful transition of power as a key threat to democracy. I’d like to get your thoughts on January 6th—not just the Capitol riot but also the broader conspiracy to derail the certification of the election.
As for January 6th itself, I’d be hard-pressed to call that an insurrection. I would tell you what was done here in Mississippi years ago was more of an insurrection. The Republic of New Afrika–they actually had executed a few police officers. And that movement was to take the states of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana and make (those states) an independent nation, a communist state. (Editor’s Note: Eller is referring to a Black separatist organization that formed in 1968; a 1971 raid on its compound left one Jackson police officer dead and two federal agents wounded).
That’s an insurrection. The incident that happened … is of concern. It was a riot at best. And if you broke the law, then you should be prosecuted. But there are probably people that are caught up in that that are guilty of standing out there on the grass inside the so-called perimeter.
I’m talking about the broader plan—the fake elector plot, for example. The idea that you could influence, say, the vice president or some key element of the transition of power to invalidate the results of an election, as the committee concluded that Trump tried to do.
Well, it’d be nice to know. But you know, they got rid of the evidence. I can’t see the evidence, you know, and we still have people that are being tried. And yet that evidence was… I don’t know. Some say it was destroyed. Some say it’s lost.
I really don’t know where that evidence is. I’d like to see it for myself. I have concerns about it from both sides. I’m hard-pressed to find a whole lot of folks that would tell you, “I voted for Biden.”
Was it a fair election? I don’t know, because we the people have not gotten to see the evidence. If you’ve seen Dinesh D’Souza’s (“2000 Mules”) movie, it’s suggestive of a lot of voter fraud. I don’t know. (Editor’s note: There is no evidence of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election, despite dozens of lawsuits and extensive analyses; D’Souza’s “2000 Mules” film has been widely debunked and the conservative media company behind it pulled it from distribution and apologized earlier this year).
So you are not convinced that Biden won a free and fair election.
I’m not convinced, no, but I would back him as my president and I would still back him today because Congress installed him.
I believe in our Constitution. I believe in American traditional values. If that’s who they install as a military officer, that’s who I back.
In a 2022 questionnaire you answered for us, you described your economic vision as an America-first free market system. I feel there’s a bit of tension there. The free market tends to favor offshoring and the cheap labor of the global South over, say American manufacturing.
Trump has plans for extremely harsh tariffs: 60 percent on everything from China, 20 percent from everywhere else, with possibly even higher punitive tariffs against Mexico. How do you balance this very America-first tariff model with free market principles?
You know, a free market means we need to have the same ability in their countries.
I saw a report today that said in India, their tariffs against us are five times what our tariffs are against them. China, their tariffs against us or two times what we have against them. You know, if we’re gonna play, let’s play fair. If you don’t have tariffs against us, we won’t have tariffs against you.
But the introduction of these tariffs, specifically the new Trump tariffs. You think that they are a good idea? And you would support them?
I believe that we’re probably going to need more tariffs because if we make it more expensive for them to make their product and ship it here than to make it here, you know, we’re going to have to make it here. They’re going to make it here.
Case in point, I’m going to say it’s Smithfield. Smithfield used to be an American company, largest pork producer in the United States. It’s owned by China now because they knew that they couldn’t ship their stuff here. And what are they doing? They bought up the American assets and it’s a Chinese-controlled company now.
Right or wrong, at least it’s being made here.
Israel’s war in Gaza is now expanding into a regional conflict in Lebanon. Even conservative estimates acknowledge tens of thousands of fatalities in the bombardment of Gaza, including over 10,000 children, often killed with American munitions specifically. Should a red line exist for continued American support—financial, political, material? And if so, what is that line?
Yeah, that’s an interesting question. Having lived in Israel and worked in Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula, I would tell you the idea of a two-state solution–I don’t think is a very sound idea.
I think it needs to be a one-state (solution) with representation from both sides, just like here. We need to throw out this, “I’m a Republican or I’m a Democrat” or “I’m of this ethnicity or that ethnicity.” People need to work together. And you know, under Trump’s leadership, they were actually coming together.
I mean, the Egyptians and Israelis were really talking, you know, but… where that red line is on a conflict is really tough to say.
Have we seen it in Gaza so far?
Well, no. You know, I don’t see much of a red line being drawn from either side. You know they pull back, they stop.
And then what do the folks on the other side do? They shoot some more rockets—you know, you swing at me, I’ll swing back. It’s time for people to stop hating each other. Rodney King probably said it as well as anybody: why can’t we all just get along?
But specifically, with regards to how the war is being carried out, what conduct should America be expecting in order to continue delivering military, financial and political support?
You know, we have an obligation to support our allies. They are our one true ally in the Middle East.
And if we’re going to continue that relationship, then you have to support your allies. Just like we would expect the French, the Germans, etcetera, NATO members to support us if we got into a conflict with China or Russia.
Even if we violated international law?
Who knows?
We kind of see that it’s happening somewhat in Ukraine because Ukraine is kind of the bread basket for that area. Ukraine is strategic for the Russians because it gives them a warm-water port, strategic for the farm industry because a lot of fertilizer for the world comes out of there.
And you know, sometimes it’s hard to see where you draw the line. In the case of Gaza and Israel, it’s going to be a tough decision. The IDF actually killed Sinwar. So maybe this thing is now going to come to an end.
You think neutralizing the leadership of Hamas will end the conflict?
Yeah, you know, maybe that will help bring this to an end.
A big portion of your issues page is dedicated to your thoughts on the separation of church and state. You see a meaningful difference between freedom of religion and freedom from religion. What does that mean in practice and how would you change public policy to fit that?
Well, I actually was able to get a bill, with the aid of (Mississippi House Rep.) Dan Eubanks, introduced to the Mississippi State House H.B. 1250, … which would put the Holy Bible back in every classroom within the state.
The Holy Trinity Church v. U. S. 1892 Supreme Court case, I believe it was–Justice (David J.) Brewer’s unanimous Supreme Court decision that basically said nature is God and the Judeo-Christian principles are the foundation of our laws and our nation and cannot be separated.
The Mississippi State Constitution Bill of Rights Article 3 Section 18—the last line reads roughly to the effect: “the Holy Bible is part of the school system and shall not be removed.” (Editor’s note: The section says that its prohibitions on religious tests and preferential treatment “shall not be construed … to exclude the Holy Bible from use in any public school of this state.”)
America, I believe, did three things that harmed the nation and caused a lot of the problems we have right now. The first thing is we took God out of the town square. The second thing is we took fathers out of the homes. And the third thing is that we made young people not responsible for themselves and their actions.
If you change those three things, I think you could fix most of the problems in this country overnight.
When you say put the Holy Bible back in schools again, what does that look like in practice? Just having a Bible there, or teaching it?
That brings us back to a daily pledge of allegiance, prayer in school, things like that.
So you believe children should be led in Christian prayer at the beginning of school days?
Well, you know, if a child does not want to participate because of their family religion or you know, if they’re agnostic, atheist, they don’t have to participate. But as a general rule, you know, the class itself.
What kind of Bible?
When you say what kind of Bible, what—
King James? New International Version?
I mean, that’s a flip of the coin for me.
Some people are very serious about their version of the Bible.
Some of ‘em are. Some people tell you it’s only King James.
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