The Mississippi Delta needs a congressman who can bring “real economic revitalization” and “stand up to cheating corporations,” and 33-year-old Democrat Evan Turnage says that representative should be him.
Today, he officially launched his campaign to challenge 77-year-old incumbent Democratic U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson, who has represented Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District since 1993. The district spans the west side of the state from Tunica County in the north to Wilkinson County in the southwest, and includes most of the City of Jackson.
“Mississippi’s 2nd was the poorest district in the poorest state when I was born,” Turnage said in a campaign announcement Wednesday morning. “Sadly, after 33 years of the same leadership, that’s still true. Families across my community have been forced to watch their loved ones grow up online as they build lives past the state line, chasing economic opportunities that simply don’t exist at home. … It’s time someone fought for Mississippi.”
In an interview with the Mississippi Free Press ahead of the announcement on Dec. 8, he said that Mississippi needs “people who are going to present real plans for real change right away.”
“This is the wealthiest country in the history of the world, so it doesn’t make any sense that we have children who go to school hungry, we have parents who don’t know how they’re going to pay rent and we have grandparents on Social Security who have to pick and choose which of their prescription drugs they can afford,” he continued. “And that’s all because the government, frankly, hasn’t done what it needs to take care of working families.”
Turnage will be on the ballot against Thompson in the Democratic primaries on March 10, 2026; the general election for the midterm will be in November 2026.
Turnage, who was born in Cleveland, Mississippi, and grew up in Jackson, is the director of the Southern Justice Project at the Open Markets Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. His campaign says the project is “a bold initiative to help communities across the Black Belt reclaim economic and political power.”
Before he launched the initiative, Turnage worked as a counselor for U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat, for several years and helped her craft policies regarding monopolies, the U.S. Supreme Court and price gouging.
Later, he served as the chief counselor for then-Senate Majority Leader U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer during the Biden administration from 2023 to 2025, where the pair brought policies on voting rights, reducing gun violence and criminal justice to the full U.S. Senate Democratic Caucus.
“A top complaint for people in the House of Representatives is that they pass bills in the House—they’re good bills—but they’re not able to go through in the Senate,” Turnage said. “Well, I have the certain access in the Senate that Congressman Thompson doesn’t have. I think it’ll be a huge benefit to this district to have a representative who has a strong working relationship with the Senate Democratic leader.”
During his time in Congress, Thompson has amassed significant power. He served as the chairman of the powerful U.S. House Homeland Security Committee from 2007 to 2011, and again from 2019 to 2023, while Democrats were in power; with Republicans controlling the House currently, he now serves as the committee’s ranking member and could resume the position if he keeps his seat and Democrats regain control of the chamber in November 2026.
After Trump supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol in an attempt to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory on Jan. 6, 2021, then-U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appointed Thompson to lead the U.S. House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol. The bipartisan committee issued a damning report regarding the actions of Trump and his supporters, but after Trump won the 2024 election, Biden preemptively pardoned members of the committee, including Thompson, to avoid political prosecutions.
Turnage told the Mississippi Free Press on Dec. 8 that one of his top priorities if elected would be to address “brain drain” by bringing in competitive jobs and strengthening Mississippi’s economic system. Grandparents should be able to watch their grandchildren grow up in Mississippi instead of watching them through the internet because the young parents moved out of state for better career opportunities, he said.
The Mississippi Free Press contacted Thompson’s campaign team for comment, but did not receive a response.