The June 27 presidential debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump may have been the most consequential debate in U.S. history. It led to a cascade of voices calling for the incumbent to exit the race. Now, millions of Americans will tune in on Tuesday, Sept. 10, to watch Trump debate the new nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.
But for Mississippians, it is a reminder that so few of our elected officials feel the need to debate challengers.
For instance, Mississippi’s senior U.S. senator, 15-year Republican incumbent Roger Wicker, has not agreed to debate an opponent since he first won the seat by defeating former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove in a close special election in 2008. His Democratic opponent this year, Ty Pinkins, has repeatedly urged him to debate with no response.
Mississippi’s junior U.S. senator, six-year incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, last debated in 2018 when she defeated Democratic opponent Mike Espy in a close special election (though she refused to join an earlier debate that would’ve included Republican opponent Chris McDaniel); she declined to debate Espy in a 2020 rematch.
No U.S. House representative from Mississippi has debated an opponent as an incumbent. That includes U.S. House Rep. Trent Kelly, an eight-year Republican incumbent; U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson, a 31-year Democratic incumbent; U.S. House Rep. Michael Guest, a five-year Republican incumbent; and U.S. House Rep. Mike Ezell, a two-year Republican incumbent. This year is the first time Ezell has had an opportunity to debate as an incumbent, but so far, no debate has been scheduled between him and his Democratic opponent Craig Raybon. Remember: U.S. House members run for reelection every two years.
Sometimes, Mississippi politicians win office without ever debating an opponent. That happened in 2019, when Mississippi voters first elected Lynn Fitch as attorney general. Not only did she refuse to debate her Democratic opponent, Jennifer Riley Collins, but Republican voters also gave her their party’s nomination even though she refused to debate her GOP primary opponents Andy Taggart and Mark Baker.
Fitch was one of the first people that came to mind for me when the Mississippi GOP’s official Twitter account tweeted, “Democracy works best when the American public hears directly from their elected officials”—criticizing Harris for only agreeing to one sitdown interview with the media since becoming the nominee in July. But Fitch has been notoriously unavailable to the media ever since winning in 2019, refusing to hold press conferences or grant media interviews (unless you’re a partisan SuperTalk host or an anti-abortion anchor on EWTN, it seems).
Not all of Mississippi’s incumbents are like this, thankfully. To his credit, Republican Gov. Tate Reeves debated his opponent not only in his first run for governor in 2019, but again in 2023 when Democrat Brandon Presley challenged him. Reeves also frequently held press conferences during the early days of the pandemic, though those have been more sparse since then. Incumbent Republican Mississippi Secretary of State Michael Watson fielded questions alongside his Democratic opponent at a forum in 2023. Republican Mississippi Insurance Commissioner Mike Chaney is probably one of the easiest elected officials to get in touch with in the country.
There are, of course, other elected officials I could list who are responsive to the public—and many, many more who are not (and who refuse to engage opponents in policy debates).
Even though all four incumbents in Mississippi’s U.S. House delegation and one of its U.S. senators on the ballot in November, no debates are currently scheduled; all except Guest have challengers.
Over the years, I’ve heard Mississippi incumbents give a lot of excuses for not debating their opponents. But Sen. Hyde-Smith’s explanation for why she wouldn’t debate Espy in 2020 really stuck out. “The only people interested in debates are reporters and losing candidates,” she said.
And maybe she had a point; after all, she defeated Espy in that election by an even wider margin than she did in 2018 when she actually agreed to debate him.
Ultimately, it’s up to residents and voters to demand that their elected officials give them the kind of openness and transparency they deserve—and to hold them accountable when they don’t.
This MFP Voices essay does not necessarily represent the views of the Mississippi Free Press, its staff or board members. To submit an opinion for the MFP Voices section, send up to 1,200 words and sources fact-checking the included information to voices@mississippifreepress.org. We welcome a wide variety of viewpoints.
