The Mississippi Free Press sent the following questionnaire to U.S. Senate candidate Ty Pinkins, who is running as an Independent in the Nov. 3, 2026, general election.
We present his responses unedited. Candidate responses do not reflect the views of the Mississippi Free Press or its staff.
Tell us about yourself, your background and past political or professional experience.
I’m an author, lawyer, U.S. Army veteran, and an Independent candidate for U.S. Senate. I was born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, where I chopped cotton every summer as a teenager to help my parents put food on the table. I became the first in my immediate family to graduate high school and go to college. After attending Tougaloo College, I joined the U.S. Army and served 21 years on active duty, including three combat tours in Iraq. I earned the Bronze Star for my actions in combat. I completed my undergraduate degree, earning a B.A. in Political Science, at the University of Maryland while on active duty.
As an Army Officer, I served as a communications aide to both Republican and Democratic Presidents—work that gave me a clear, behind-the-scenes understanding of how Washington operates, both publicly and privately. After retiring, I used the GI Bill to earn my J.D. and an LL.M. in National Security Law from the Georgetown University Law Center.
Upon graduating from law school, I returned home to Mississippi where, for the past six years as a public interest lawyer, I’ve practiced law entirely for free in some of Mississippi’s most underserved communities. I’ve fought for families facing eviction in the dead of winter during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, and I’ve helped secure millions of dollars for Mississippi workers who were cheated out of their pay by big businesses. I also took on unfair district lines by teaching myself to use redistricting software and then drawing fairer maps at the local county level. I sued the Governor, Secretary of State, and the Attorney General over gerrymandered Supreme Court districts and won. Now, I’m running as an Independent for U.S. Senate because I believe both political parties have failed us and Mississippians deserve a Senator who answers to the people—not party bosses—and who delivers results with accountability for communities that have been overlooked for far too long.
I’m admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court Bar and the Mississippi Bar, and I’m affiliated with the Magnolia Bar Association. I’m also a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
I am a member of Mount Herald Missionary Baptist Church in my hometown of Rolling Fork. I’m married to Dr. Sabrina J. Curtis, and we are the proud parents of Joseph and Rukiya.
What does Mississippi need most from Congress? What are our most pressing issues for Congress to solve?
I’m running as an Independent because both political parties have failed us. The Republican Party has failed us, and the Democratic Party has failed us. Mississippians are tired of watching Washington turn every problem into a team sport while our communities are left to deal with the consequences.
Mississippi needs Congress to deliver practical, measurable improvements in everyday life: affordable health care, strong rural hospitals, good jobs with wages people can live on, resilient roads and water systems, reliable broadband, and disaster recovery that reaches small towns as quickly as it reaches big cities. Those are the bread-and-butter issues because when a hospital closes, a bridge fails, or a community can’t get internet access, families lose opportunities and businesses can’t grow.
Mississippi also needs Congress to restore trust through real oversight and reform. That starts with banning elected officials from buying, selling, or trading individual stocks while in office, because public service should never look like private gain. It also means term limits for members of Congress and term limits for the Supreme Court, so power doesn’t become permanent and institutions stay accountable to the people.
At the end of the day, Congress should be judged by outcomes: Are families healthier? Are paychecks rising? Are communities safer, more stable, and better prepared for the next storm?
What are your views on immigration and ICE, particularly in light of the Trump administration’s nationwide immigration enforcement actions and the deaths of Renee Good and Alex Pretti?
We can secure the border and uphold the law without losing our values or our restraint. I support an immigration system that is orderly, humane, and economically realistic: modern ports of entry, efficient asylum processing, serious action against trafficking and fentanyl networks, and a long-overdue pathway to earned legal status for long-term, law-abiding contributors. When enforcement becomes overly aggressive, opaque, and unaccountable, public trust collapses. The deaths of Renée Good and Alex Pretti underline the urgency of transparent standards, body-worn cameras, independent investigations of use-of-force incidents, and clear consequences when policies or actions violate constitutional rights. Accountability is not “anti-law enforcement”—it’s how you maintain legitimacy in a democracy.
What are your views on abortion, IVF, birth control and reproductive care?
On the campaign trail, I’m often asked a simple question: “Are you pro-life or pro-choice?” My answer is just as simple. I’m neither. I’m pro-woman. I’m for a pro-life woman making her pro-life decisions for her pro-life self, and I’m for a pro-choice woman making her pro-choice decision for her pro-choice self, without politicians interfering.
This isn’t abstract for Mississippi. Our state ranks among the worst in the nation for infant and maternal mortality, a tragic and urgent reminder that our health-care system is not working for too many families, especially women. No matter where you stand politically, we should all agree on this: every woman deserves access to high-quality, compassionate health care.
I believe strongly in a woman’s right to make personal decisions about her health and her future. That includes access to birth control, prenatal care, postpartum care, and IVF for families trying to have children. These are deeply personal decisions that should be made by women and families, guided by their doctors and, if they choose, their faith, not by politicians. I also oppose blanket abortion bans that ignore medical reality and personal circumstance. I support a federal baseline that protects privacy and patient safety so doctors can practice medicine without fear and women can get timely care when they need it.
As an Independent, I don’t take cues from party platforms. I take them from people: mothers, daughters, and families who are struggling with a system that too often denies them support, dignity, and options. Government should focus on empowering women, not controlling them.
That’s why I support protecting reproductive freedom while also tackling the root causes of Mississippi’s maternal health crisis. That means: We should be making it easier, not harder, for women to raise healthy families and pursue their futures with dignity. Policies that criminalize reproductive health care don’t just erode freedom. They deepen the health-care divide and put lives at risk.
This isn’t about ideology. It’s about trusting women, saving lives, and fixing a broken system. I will always stand with Mississippi’s women and fight for their right to access the care they need, when they need it.
What are your views on transgender issues and bans or restrictions on gender-affirming care, bathroom use, sports participation and military service?
Every Mississippian deserves dignity, privacy, and equal protection under the law. I oppose political scapegoating of any group. When it comes to kids, I trust parents to love their children and to make serious decisions in consultation with qualified medical professionals—not politicians chasing headlines. Health care should be evidence-based and guided by patients, families, and clinicians.
On sports and other settings where safety and fairness are legitimate concerns, I support thoughtful, standards-based approaches that reflect medical science and the specific context—rather than sweeping bans that create fear and invite discrimination.
On military service, I prioritize readiness and standards. Any, eligible, able-bodied American citizen who wants to serve should have the opportunity to serve, regardless of race or gender. When we start excluding people from the chance to serve based on politics instead of capability, we don’t strengthen our forces—we weaken military readiness. And service isn’t always about brute strength; it’s also about skill, discipline, teamwork, and mission focus across thousands of critical roles that keep our country safe. Decisions about who can serve should be driven by military leadership and readiness standards—not culture-war politics.
What are your policy views on improving health-care access?
I believe health care is a fundamental human right, not a privilege based on your job, your ZIP code, or your luck. That’s why I support the Medicare for All Act because it’s time we guarantee every American access to high-quality, affordable care, no matter where they live or what they earn.
This idea isn’t new. The first Medicare for All bill was introduced in Congress in 2003, and since then Congress has unsuccessfully considered it repeatedly, 17 times across the House and Senate over the past two decades. And the evidence keeps growing. Physicians for a National Health Program estimates Medicare for All could save more than $350 billion a year by cutting wasteful bureaucracy and insurance overhead. Studies have found that we could reduce total national health spending by roughly 13%, more than $450 billion a year, and save about 68,000 lives annually.
So, the problem isn’t that we don’t know what works. We do. The problem is politics. Too often, when one party puts forward a real fix, the other side blocks it, not because it’s wrong, but because they don’t want to give the other team a win. That’s exactly why I’m running as an Independent—to hold both parties accountable and ensure that the issues important to Mississippians and more broadly the American people don’t continue to take a back seat to partisan bickering.
I’m not beholden to either political party or the lobbyists who profit off a broken system. If we want real solutions, if we want a Congress that actually delivers, we need leaders who can’t be bullied by party leadership and won’t be bought by special interests.
For me, this is personal. Growing up in the Mississippi Delta, I saw what happened when families couldn’t afford care. Years later, my father, once healthy and active, lost both legs and most of his vision to untreated diabetes. He had to stop working, we lost our vehicle, and we nearly lost the only home we had. That kind of devastation happens every day in Mississippi, and it’s preventable.
And it’s not just chronic disease. Mississippi’s infant and maternal mortality rates are among the worst in the country, which is unacceptable in the United States of America. Improving access to prenatal care, protecting rural hospitals and labor-and-delivery units, expanding postpartum coverage, and making sure moms can get timely, affordable care should be a national priority, and it should be a Mississippi priority.
We already pay more than any country on Earth for health care. We spend over 14% of our GDP and still lag far behind dozens of nations in outcomes. That’s not just unfair. It’s bad business.
What are your views on artificial intelligence and AI regulation?
Artificial intelligence has real upside and real risk. On the one hand, AI can boost productivity, improve medical diagnostics, expand access to education, strengthen disaster response, and help small businesses compete. On the other hand, it can accelerate fraud and deepfakes, erode privacy, amplify bias, spread misinformation, and displace jobs that everyday Americans count on.
That’s why I support innovation, but only with strong guardrails. Congress needs to pass legislation that protects the public, especially our kids, and sets clear rules for companies deploying powerful AI systems. That includes transparency requirements for high-risk AI, independent auditing for bias and safety, strong data privacy protections, and enforceable rules for AI-generated deepfakes, particularly in elections. We also need clear liability when companies deploy systems that cause predictable harm.
And we can’t ignore the economic impact. Congress should pair AI rules with a serious worker-first agenda: job transition support, training and apprenticeships, and standards that prevent AI from becoming a tool to undercut wages or replace workers without accountability. The goal is simple: encourage the benefits of AI while protecting children, defending democracy, and making sure working people aren’t left behind.
What are your views on climate change and the role the government should play?
Climate change is real, and Mississippi is already feeling it through stronger storms, higher flooding risk, extreme heat, and the strain those events put on roads, bridges, drinking water systems, and the electric grid. In a state that’s been hit hard by tornadoes, floods, and hurricane impacts, this isn’t a theoretical debate. It’s about protecting lives, property, and livelihoods.
That’s why government should invest in practical resilience: stronger levees and flood control, modern drainage, grid hardening, better warning systems, and smarter disaster preparedness and recovery so rural communities aren’t last in line when catastrophe hits.
Just as important, we must protect Mississippi’s agricultural economy. Family-owned farms and farmworkers are on the front lines of climate volatility, whether it’s unpredictable rainfall, drought conditions, pests, crop disease, or sudden flooding that wipes out a season’s work. Supporting agriculture means making sure farmers have the tools to adapt and stay profitable through conservation and soil-health programs that improve yields and water retention, incentives for practices like cover crops and precision agriculture, stronger technical assistance, and crop insurance and disaster aid that actually reaches small and mid-sized producers.
We should also keep more of the agricultural value chain in Mississippi by investing in rural infrastructure and broadband, and by supporting local processing so farmers aren’t squeezed by transportation bottlenecks and out-of-state middlemen.
Finally, we can reduce pollution while growing our economy. Mississippi can benefit from clean-energy jobs and advanced manufacturing that fit our strengths, while ensuring projects respect farmland, property rights, and local communities. If we prioritize domestic manufacturing and workforce development, we can create jobs, lower energy costs over time, and build a more resilient Mississippi without sacrificing our farming heritage.
What are your views on foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel?
I support helping allies defend themselves when it advances U.S. security and global stability, but aid must be transparent, accountable, and aligned with clear objectives. On Europe, we need to keep strengthening NATO and our collective deterrence. Russia’s invasion is aggression that threatens the post–World War II security order, and the United States should continue assisting Ukraine and supporting our European allies as they push back against Russian aggression, with strict oversight and a strategy aimed at a durable end to the war on terms that respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On Israel and the broader region, my view is tougher and clearer. Civilian protection and international humanitarian law must be the standard, not a talking point. I stand with the basic human rights and dignity of the Palestinian people, and I believe the most recent war in Gaza has amounted to a genocide. The United States has provided far too much money and military support while Gaza has been destroyed, and Palestinian civilians have been killed at a catastrophic scale. For that reason, the U.S. should immediately discontinue sending American taxpayer dollars to Israel.
Israel should also stop building new settlements, because settlements make peace harder and undermine a just resolution. Any future U.S. financial support should be contingent on verifiable compliance with international law, an immediate and sustained ceasefire, and a serious, credible push toward a two-state solution that guarantees Palestinian self-determination and Israeli security, with equal rights and equal dignity. And we have to say the obvious: a country cannot credibly argue its own existence is at risk while simultaneously destroying another people’s existence. The U.S. should expand humanitarian relief, insist on accountability, and pursue a long-term political settlement that ends occupation and ensures Palestinians have freedom, safety, and a viable future.
What are your views on President Trump’s military actions in Venezuela?
I earned my LL.M. (Master of Laws) in National Security Law from Georgetown University Law Center, and I take war powers and the rule of law personally. I’ve worn the uniform, I’ve served in combat, and I understand what happens when leaders treat force like a shortcut. Here is my vow: as a United States Senator, I will not support, excuse, or normalize any President using military force outside the Constitution. I will demand legal clarity, congressional authorization where required, and real accountability every single time.
Any significant military action must have clear legal justification, a defined objective, and transparency with Congress and the American people. Even when confronting narco-trafficking and authoritarian abuses, we should not normalize executive-driven military action without rigorous oversight, because it sets precedents that outlive any one president.
And I want to be plain about the stakes. If a President orders lethal strikes that kill innocent people on alleged “fishing boats,” without congressional oversight or authorization, that is the kind of abuse of power that should be treated as an impeachable offense. Likewise, kidnapping the President of another country without clear legal authority and congressional oversight would be an impeachable offense because it drags the United States into lawlessness, invites retaliation, and destabilizes an entire region.
This is also why I’m concerned about the broader pattern of reckless conduct and rhetoric, including talk about “seizing” Greenland. That doesn’t make America stronger. It creates a national security risk by fraying trust with allies, undermining our credibility, and handing our adversaries propaganda that the U.S. doesn’t respect sovereignty or the rule of law.
Are there any other domestic or foreign policy views you’d like to highlight?
Yes. The biggest thing I want to highlight is this: we must strengthen the guardrails of our democracy by restoring Congress to its constitutional role as a coequal branch of government. For too long, Congress has outsourced its responsibilities to party leadership, to lobbyists, and to whichever President is in office. That weakens accountability, concentrates power, and leaves everyday people with government that reacts to crises instead of solving problems.
And the reason I’m running as an Independent is simple. Both political parties have failed us. The Republican Party has failed us, and the Democratic Party has failed us. We don’t have to guess or argue about it. The record is right there.
Since 1977, six administrations spanning both political parties—Carter, Clinton, George W. Bush, Obama, Biden, and now Trump—have each controlled the presidency, the House, and the Senate at some point. That means over the past 48 years, nearly half a century, the two major parties have repeatedly held all the levers of power. And twice, Democrats even had a filibuster-proof Senate supermajority, 60 or more votes, enough to pass major legislation without a single Republican vote.
If lasting change was ever possible, those were the moments. They could have fixed immigration. They could have reformed health care. They could have raised wages. They could have addressed the debt. But they didn’t. Both parties squandered their chances and then blamed the other side while families in Mississippi paid the price.
That’s why I’m focused on structural accountability. Congress should reassert its authority over war powers, emergency authorities, oversight of the executive branch, and the federal budget. It should hold real hearings, demand real transparency, and pass laws that are clear enough to enforce and strong enough to last. We also need common-sense reforms that rebuild trust, including banning members of Congress from buying, selling, and trading individual stocks, implementing term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court, establishing independent redistricting commissions to end partisan gerrymandering, and passing election reforms that protect every eligible American’s right to vote in secure and fair elections.
Until we send Independents to Washington to hold both parties accountable, we will keep getting the same disappointing results from the same two parties that got us where we are now. And the country is already moving that way: Gallup’s most recent party-ID tracking found 45% of Americans identify as Independents, while Democrats and Republicans are tied at 27% each.
I’m also not alone in this approach. Just like I’m doing here in Mississippi, other veterans are running as Independents in rural states like Idaho, South Dakota, and Nebraska because we’re tired of the two-party blame game and the lack of results. Our goal is straightforward: when we win, we will caucus with neither party, deny both parties an automatic majority, and force them to come to the table and pass legislation that delivers tangible results for working families, rural communities, and the people who have been ignored for far too long.