Incumbent Republican U.S. House Rep. Michael Guest was disappointed when Congress began its break a week early this fall.
“I was not asked whether or not I agree with that … ,” Guest told Supertalk Mississippi host Richard Cross on Sept. 30. “I could walk through a laundry list of bills that need to get done between now and the end of the year, and I’m scared that when we come back for the month of November and December, we’re not going to have the time to complete our work.”
Guest, closing out his fourth term as the representative for Mississippi’s 3rd Congressional District, joins Supertalk shows every few weeks, discussing politics and policy with its hosts. Guest’s campaign team declined the opportunity for him to participate in an interview with the Mississippi Free Press for his campaign profile.
Guest ran for office after U.S. Rep. Gregg Harper announced he was not planning to run for re-election in 2018. At the time, Guest was serving as the Rankin County District Attorney.
He took office after beating fellow Republican Whit Hughes in a runoff and winning his election against Democratic opponent Ted Evans. Now in his eighth year in office, Guest is on the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security and serves as the chairman of the Border Enforcement and Security Committee, among other positions.
Guest told Supertalk host Gerard Gilbert on April 13 that he believes the current Iran War could lead to peace in the Middle East. He has subsequently voted five times against war powers resolutions raised in the House.
“You could see the expansion of the Abraham Accords, where we’re seeing free trade between Israel and the nations that’s around them,” Guest told Gilbert.
Guest sees the Iran war as a potential step towards completing President George W. Bush’s destruction of what he called “the axis of evil,” he told Gilbert.
The phrase was first coined in Bush’s Jan. 29, 2002, State of the Union address just a few months after the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
“He was referring to North Korea, Iran, and Iraq … ,” Guest said. “We’ve taken Iraq off the board. If we could have free a Iran, and then we would only be left with North Korea. I think not only would America be better, but I think the world would be a better place.”
Guest also voted against withdrawing U.S. forces from Lebanon on June 30 and against directing then-President Joe Biden to withdraw American troops from Somalia in 2024.
Guest introduced a ban on TikTok app downloads on Department of Defense devices on March 3, 2022, although military branches began advising members to delete the app from their work phones as early as 2019. Eleven months after Guest introduced his bill, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-MO, introduced a similar act banning TikTok on government devices altogether.
Then-President Joe Biden signed Hawley’s version into law on Dec. 29, 2022, although it was condensed into the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2023, which finalized the initial federal budget for the year.
Debt Collection Company
Michael Guest served as Rankin County DA from 2008 through 2018, taking the position after working as an assistant DA since 1994.
While serving as ADA, Guest helped found Mississippi Court Collections Inc. (MCC), which collects delinquent court fines and fees in at least 20 counties across the state.
He served as president of the company from its founding in 2002 until his removal on Sept. 16, 2018, just prior to his first congressional election. Guest was initially registered as a founder of MCC, but all founder information was excluded from the business’s filings completely following the Sept. 16, 2018 filing, Mississippi’s Secretary of State website shows.
Guest listed himself as only a stockholder in MCC in Mississippi’s Economic Interest Disclosures from at least 2009, where digital records begin, through 2017. First mentioned 13 pages into his 2018 federal financial disclosures, Guest listed the asset as a “partnership” income and estimated its worth as between $100,000 and $250,000 in 2018, but as a business income in 2025.
When asked about this by the Clarion Ledger in 2018, Guest explained that he had no intent to mislead the public, and that he was both president and a 50% stockholder at the company.
“I don’t have anything to do with the day-to-day operations,” he said. He stepped down as the company’s president in 2018, the company’s filings with Mississippi’s Secretary of State show.
Guest faced criticism as district attorney after, years prior to the infamous 2023 Rankin County Goon Squad incident, Guest found evidence that Rankin County Sheriff Brian Bailey was seeking fraudulent subpoenas to stalk his married girlfriend, The New York Times reported.
After finding evidence of the alleged criminal misconduct in 2016, Guest recused himself from the case due to conflict of interest concerning his personal friendship with Bailey. He referred the case to the state attorney general, then Jim Hood, who later chose not to press charges.
Matt Gaetz Investigation
Michael Guest serves as chairman of the House Ethics Committee, and presided over their investigation into former U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz from Florida in 2024. Gaetz had been accused of illicit drug use and sexual misconduct, including an allegation that Gaetz paid for sex with a 17-year-old child. Gaetz denied all wrongdoing.
Guest, alongside all of his Republican colleagues on the committee investigating Gaetz, voted against releasing the 37–page report in November of 2024.
Guest removed the House Ethics Committee from the investigation after Gaetz resigned from his congressional position and withdrew his nomination for U.S. Attorney General.
“He has withdrawn his nomination. He is no longer a member of Congress, and so I think that this settles any involvement that the Ethics Committee should have in any matters involving Mr. Gaetz,” Guest told reporters after the decision not to release the report.
The report on Gaetz was later released that December, detailing allegations of drug use and sexual misconduct. The U.S. Justice Department declined to prosecute Gaetz following an earlier investigation.
Guest released a statement denouncing the release of the investigation on Gaetz, noting that the committee had not released an investigation on a subject not under its jurisdiction since 2006.
“Representative Gaetz resigned from Congress, withdrew from consideration to serve in the next administration, and declared that he would not seek to be seated in the 119th Congress,” Guest said in the Dec. 23, 2024, statement. “The decision to publish a report after his resignation breaks from the Committee’s long-standing practice, opens the Committee to undue criticism, will be viewed by some as an attempt to weaponize the Committee’s process, and is a dangerous departure with potentially catastrophic consequences.”
While he opposed the release of the files, Guest noted that he does not challenge any of the committee’s findings.
Competition and Campaign Finance
Guest beat Shuwaski Young, the last Democrat to run against him, in 2022 with 132,481 votes compared to Young’s 54,803 votes.
While Guest has previously faced competition in Republican primaries, no candidate challenged him in the 2024 or 2026 elections. This year, he has an opponent in the general election.
Guest raised more than $1 million in funds in this election cycle as of Sept. 30, FEC records show. He is campaigning against Democratic nominee and first-time candidate Michael Chiaradio to keep his seat. Chiaradio raised about $208,000 in the same period.
Guest’s campaign received donations from political action committees belonging to major U.S. military contractors like Huntington Ingalls Industries (the largest military shipbuilder in North America), CACI International, Leidos, Airbus, Tenable and RTX (formerly known as Raytheon).
There is a $5,000 cap on total donations from an individual or PAC for primary elections, with another $5,000 donation allowed for the general election.
Five PACs reached their donation limits for Guest’s campaign for both the primary and general election: Airbus Americas, the Credit Union Legislative Action Council, ENTERGY, the Anti-Woke Fund and at least three Republican leadership committees.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee PAC (more commonly known as AIPAC), The Council Of Insurance Agents & Brokers PAC, Home Depot’s PAC, OSI Systems’ PAC, and two PACs associated with Mississippi electric companies, among other donors, met donation limits for Guest’s primary election.
Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies PAC and the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry reached their donation limits for the general election, but did not contribute to Guest’s primary. Guest’s other top donors include PACs associated with Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation, National Beer Wholesalers Association, American Bankers Association and steel manufacturer Nucor.
Guest, like most elected officials, is obligated to disclose his financial interests every year, in addition to disclosing campaign finance information.
A review of congressional records indicate Guest violated the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act earlier this year by failing to disclose stock trades made by Kennedy Investments in time, Notus reported.
Michael Guest’s wife, Haley Kennedy, owns Kennedy Investments, based in Madison, Mississippi. Members of Congress are required to publicly disclose individual stock trades within 45 days of a trade’s execution, even if they are made by their spouse or children.
Once this exclusion was corrected, Guest disclosed investment in stocks from nine different companies in 2026.
It was the second time Guest violated the STOCK Act, with the first, nearly identical incident occurring in 2021. Guest still heads the ethics committee that determines fines under the STOCK Act.
Guest’s congressional voting record for 2026 can be found here, collected by Bill Track 50. The Library of Congress maintains a full record of Guest’s activity in congress.
Follow the Mississippi Free Press’ coverage of the 2026 elections and read past stories here.
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