Democratic U.S. Senate candidate David Baria announced a five-figure ad buy Wednesday, Oct. 10. Photo courtesy Baria for Mississippi Baria for Mississippi
This story originally appeared in the Jackson Free Press. It was added to the Mississippi Free Press website in 2025. Note that any opinions expressed in legacy Jackson Free Press stories do not reflect a position of the Mississippi Free Press or necessarily of its staff and board members.
JACKSON — In what his campaign calls an “aggressive statewide ad campaign,” Mississippi House Minority Leader David Baria, D-Bay St. Louis, announced a five-figure television ad buy for his U.S. Senate campaign Wednesday.
In the 30-second ad, which is set to begin airing on local stations across Mississippi on a date to be announced, Baria seeks to make it clear that his campaign is against the incumbent Republican senator—not the president.
“I’m running for the Senate against Roger Wicker, not Donald Trump,” Baria says, standing in a room of supporters. “I’ll support the president when he’s helping our state, like rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, but I’ll oppose the president if he’s hurting Mississippi, like starting a trade war that’s costing our shipyards and farmers.”
Award-winning News Editor Ashton Pittman, a native of the South Mississippi Pine Belt, studied journalism and political science at the University of Southern Mississippi. Previously the state reporter at the Jackson Free Press, he drove national headlines and conversations with award-winning reporting about segregation academies. He has won numerous awards, including Outstanding New Journalist in the South, for his work covering immigration raids, abortion battles and even former Gov. Phil Bryant’s unusual work with “The Bad Boys of Brexit" at the Jackson Free Press. In 2021, as a Mississippi Free Press reporter, he was named the Diamond Journalist of the Year for seven southern U.S. states in the Society of Professional Journalists Diamond Awards. A trained photojournalist, Ashton lives in South Mississippi with his husband, William, and their two pit bulls, Dorothy and Dru.
