Mississippi voters will elect candidates to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives in the general election on Nov. 5. Use this guide to learn about candidates’ backgrounds and policy views.
1st Congressional District
Trent Kelly, Republican Incumbent
Background: Incumbent Republican U.S. House Rep. Trent Kelly is a Saltillo, Miss., resident and University of Mississippi law school graduate. He is an Iraq War veteran and the assistant adjutant general for the Mississippi National Guard.
The representative serves on the U.S. House Armed Services Committee and is the chairman of the Seapower and Projection Forces Subcommittee. He is on the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and serves as chairman of the Defense Intelligence and Overhead Architecture Subcommittee. He also sits on the House Agriculture Committee.
In the 2023 legislative session, Kelly voted to direct House committees to continue investigating whether or to impeach President Joe Biden related to his son Hunter Biden’s business deals.
The Mississippi representative also voted to raise the federal debt limit until January 2025; limit non-defense funding for the 2024 fiscal year; rescind unspent COVID-19 relief funding; cancel some Internal Revenue Service funding; increase the work requirements for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program; simplify energy projects’ environmental reviews; and to stop the student loan debt repayment pause in August 2023.
The Republican representative voted against the Women’s Health Protection Act of 2023, which was legislation intended to protect access to abortion in every state. He cosponsored H.R. 705, the Heartbeat Protection Act in 2022, which would enforce a nationwide ban on abortion once a baby’s heartbeat became detectable at around six weeks of pregnancy. The bill died in committee during the 2022 legislative session.
Kelly also voted against a $1.7 trillion government-funding bill that included $600 million to help address the Jackson water crisis. Despite Kelly’s nay vote, Congress passed the bill and President Joe Biden signed it into law in December 2022.
In the 2024 legislative session, Kelly condemned Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and 13 other people for their part in withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan and the noncombatant evacuation operation by voting for House Resolution 1469.
Policy Views:
- Opposes new gun restrictions
- Supports a federal six-week abortion ban
- Wants to protect Social Security and Medicaid
- Opposes student debt relief
- Supports more work requirements for SNAP and TANF
- Opposed Afghanistan withdrawal
Website: trentkelly.house.gov
Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Dianne Dodson Black, Democrat
Background: Democrat Dianne Dodson Black is a Bolton, Miss., native and small business owner of 40 years in Olive Branch, Miss. In 2022, she became the first Black woman to be on the ballot for Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District in the House of Representatives. The candidate is involved in the DeSoto and Marshall County Federation of Democratic Women, the Desoto County NAACP and the Olive Branch Chamber of Commerce.
She does not have any previous political experience, but she has said that her unique background could offer a new perspective for her potential colleagues.
“Life’s experiences are varied and all offer a valuable perspective when combined together with the rest of the House members,” Black said in a Ballotpedia questionnaire.
Black’s key policies in her campaign are women’s rights to healthcare privacy and to choose their own doctors; equalizing the pay gap between men and women so that women are paid equitably; giving Mississippians free community college tuition; pardoning student debt; and expanding Pell grants.
She says that Mississippi is missing out on $2 billion each year by not expanding Medicaid, and she wants health care to be more accessible for Mississippians. Black agrees with the Women’s Protection Act of 2023, which would have protected abortion access nationwide. She also wants to raise the minimum wage but has not proposed a specific figure.
Black says she supports enacting “common-sense gun laws” to make schools, workplaces and communities safer. She says she wants to fix the climate crisis and reform the criminal-justice system but did not specifically list on her website how she would address those topics.
Policy Views:
- Supports Medicaid expansion
- Wants to forgive student loan debt
- Supports protecting abortion access nationwide
- Wants to raise the minimum wage
- Hopes to expand Pell grants
Website: diannedodsonblackforcongress.com
Social Media: Twitter | Instagram
2nd Congressional District
Bennie Thompson, Democratic Incumbent
Background: Incumbent U.S. House Rep. Bennie Thompson is a Bolton, Miss., native and a graduate of Tougaloo College and Jackson State University. Before he represented Mississippi’s 2nd congressional district, he was an alderman; the mayor of Bolton, Miss.; and a Hinds County supervisor.
He is the longest-serving Black elected official in Mississippi and is the only Democrat in Mississippi’s Congressional delegation.
The representative was the chair of the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee and the House January 6th Committee. He is a ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.
Thompson was the only Democrat who voted against the For the People Act in 2021, which would have reformed campaign finance and election laws as well as expanded voting rights. At first, he co-sponsored the bill, but he ultimately voted against it, saying his constituents opposed it, telling the Epoch Times that his constituents opposed it.
After leading the investigation into the insurrection, Thompson filed a bill to strip Secret Service protection from imprisoned felons ahead of Trump’s conviction on 34 felony counts in New York in May 2024.
Thompson criticized the U.S. Supreme Court’s July 2024 decision to grant presidents “immunity” for “official acts.”
“As someone who led Congress’s investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, let me be very clear: today, a lawless and corrupt Supreme Court extreme conservative majority rewrote the Constitution for their master, Donald Trump, and dangerously undermined the rule of law in this country,” Thompson said in a statement on July 1, adding that “these extreme Justices clearly put the ex-President above the law.”
Policy Views:
- Supports codifying protections offered under Roe v. Wade
- Wants to strengthen disaster preparedness and recovery programs
- Says Congress’ main job is to create jobs for Americans
- Wants to strip Secret Service protection for imprisoned felons
Website: benniethompson.com
Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
Ron Eller, Republican
Background: Military veteran and St. Dominic’s Hospital surgeon Ron Eller is from West Virginia and moved to Mississippi after he retired from the military after 20 years of service and garnering many recognitions, including Soldier of the Year.
He previously unsuccessfully ran for the Republican primary for the 2nd Congressional District in the 2022 election.
Eller says that federal and state funds should not go to Planned Parenthood and other clinics that provide abortion and says that abortion is only acceptable if the pregnancy is causing harm to the mother. He says he does not support banning birth control or other forms of contraception.
He told the Mississippi Free Press in 2022 that “LGBTQ is not a protected class but a personal lifestyle choice” and that “LGBTQ individuals should have all the same rights as any U.S. citizen.” But he has since expressed opposition to transgender rights, including trans participation in sports.
The candidate says that church and state are independent from each other, but that the church is crucial to the foundation of the U.S. and that he believes the founding fathers built the country on Judeo-Christian principles.
Eller does not support same-day voter registration and says that all voters should cast their ballots on paper so that there is a permanent physical record of their votes. He says he believes that the government should not mandate vaccines because getting vaccinated is a personal choice.
The veteran says education is critical to the future of the U.S. and that youth should not be the only ones to benefit from education because prisoners deserve to learn life skills, too.
“We need major prison reform to break the chain of repatriation of inmates. Inmates need to be taught life skills and an occupation to change their course,” he told the Mississippi Free Press in 2022.
Policy Views:
- Anti-abortion access but supports access to birth control
- Opposes gun-control laws
- Supports term limits
- Supports access to education for prisoners
- Says he wants to increase the number of health-care providers in Mississippi
- Supports building a wall on the U.S. border
Website: voteroneller.com
Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
3rd Congressional District
Rep. Michael Guest, Republican Incumbent
Background: Incumbent Republican Rep. Michael Guest is running unopposed for his fourth term as representative for Mississippi’s 3rd congressional district. He lives in Rankin County and has degrees from Mississippi State University and the University of Mississippi School of Law. Before he began serving in the U.S. House, he was the district attorney for Madison and Rankin counties.
He unsuccessfully pushed for a national six-week abortion ban with no rape or incest exceptions in July 2022. Mississippi implemented a strict abortion ban after the June 2022 Dobbs ruling that does not include exceptions for rape once cardiac activity is detectable, which is around six weeks.
“Mississippi is on the front lines, and I’m proud that Mississippi has led the fight in Dobbs v. (Jackson Women’s Health Organization) to undo Roe v. Wade and protect life as we know it,” Guest said in an interview on Centerpoint TV in November 2023.
The congressman supported a May 2021 bill that would have created a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attacks on the U.S. Capitol but later opposed establishing the House select committee that investigated the attacks. He voted against a $1.7 trillion government funding bill in 2022 that included $600 million to alleviate the Jackson water crisis. Guest has endorsed former President Donald Trump for re-election and has accepted an endorsement from him.
As chairman of the House Ethics Committee, Guest introduced a resolution to impeach Republican U.S. House Rep. George Santos of New York from Congress in November 2023.
Guest also voted against a $60 billion military aid package for Ukraine in 2024.
Though Guest is running unopposed, voters have the option to write in another candidate on their ballots.
Policy Views:
- Says he wants to lower taxes
- Supports a six-week abortion ban
- Opposes gun-control laws
- Says he is pro-law enforcement
Website: michaelguest.ms
Social Media: Twitter | Instagram | Facebook
4th Congressional District
Mike Ezell, Republican Incumbent
Background: Pascagoula, Miss., native U.S. House Rep. Mike Ezell graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi, the Mississippi Law Enforcement Training Academy and the FBI National Academy. He worked for the Pascagoula Police Department and served as its police chief for two terms before he became Jackson County’s sheriff in 2014. Ezell’s first term in Congress began in 2023 after he unseated former Republican U.S. House Rep. Steven Palazzo in the 2022 primaries.
Ezell called for banning access to the abortion-inducing pill mifepristone in a 2022 legal brief. He co-sponsored the Life at Conception Act in 2023, designed to pave the way for banning abortions from the moment of conception.
The congressman also co-sponsored the national Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, which would have banned transgender child and adult athletes from participating in girls’ and women’s sports. The Republican-led U.S. House passed the bill but it died in the U.S. Senate in 2023.
He calls himself a “longtime supporter” of former President Donald Trump and pushes for “Trump-era policies that keep our nation strong.”
“I believe in smaller government, I believe in less taxes; I believe in more accountability,” Ezell said in an interview with C-SPAN in January 2023.
- Opposes abortion, supports life-at-conception legislation
- Opposes gun control laws
- Wants to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border
- Opposes cuts to the military budget
Craig Raybon, former Democratic candidate
Democrat Craig Raybon of Gulfport, Miss., won the Democratic primary on March 12 but said he was dropping out of the race in October. He will still appear on the ballot.
Read more coverage of this year’s election cycle at our Elections Zone 2024 page.
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