Letitia Johnson and Kamesha Mumford, both running in a nonpartisan race to fill the vacant state Senate District 26 seat, will go head-to-head in a runoff on Tuesday, Dec. 2.
The district encompasses portions of Hinds and Madison counties and includes parts of Jackson, Ridgeland, Edwards, Bolton, and other rural areas. Its Senate seat was left vacant by Democrat John Horhn, who is now mayor of the capital city after winning during his fourth try over the summer. While Horhn has not endorsed either candidate to take his old desk plaque, both candidates have extensive resumes.
Johnson, who did not respond to interview requests from SuperTalk Mississippi News, is the managing partner at the Singleton Schreiber law firm and former president of the Jackson Public Schools Board of Trustees. Her platform, according to her campaign website, includes teacher pay raises, crime prevention, and fully eliminating the state’s tax on groceries.
She is the wife of Derrick Johnson, the president and chief executive officer of the NAACP.
Mumford is an attorney, as well, founding the Mumford & Mumford firm alongside her husband Gerald in 2019. But she’s also a municipal court judge in Canton, holding the position since 2013, and was elected by her colleagues to president of the Mississippi Municipal Judges Association in 2017.
“I think I’m uniquely qualified to be a state senator just because of not only all the professional work that I’ve done but also the work I’ve done in the community,” Mumford said, adding that she teaches Vacation Bible School, is a volunteer reader as part of Read Across America, and mentors high schoolers who are interested in becoming attorneys.
LIST: Runoff elections happening in Mississippi on Tuesday, Dec. 2
As for her platform, Mumford spoke on an array of legislative goals that she believes will “create a better quality of life for everyone.” She even offers it in the form of an acronym, P.R.E.S.S., which stands for protecting the state’s retirement system, restoring infrastructure while creating economic opportunities, eliminating blight, strengthening the public education system, and securing neighborhoods through additional public safety efforts.
“P.R.E.S.S. actually comes from one of my favorite scriptures,” she said, reciting Philippians 3:14 from memory. “I took that to really develop a platform for Senate District 26 and things that are important to our community. I’ve been in this community for many, many years, so I understand the challenges, but I’m just so invested in its future because of the work I’ve been doing all of these years.”
Breaking her platform down, Mumford wants Mississippi to maintain a historically enticing retirement system for public employees, rather than making more changes that some deem weaken a system currently facing a multi-billion-dollar unfunded liability. She said the system must maintain a defined, stable income for retirees if the state wants to rectify its population-loss problem.
“We need to have a system that we can use a recruitment tool,” she said. “Right now, we are losing teachers and public service workers in general because of the rate of pay and we’ve watered down the retirement system. We need to take care of those folks who have been taking care of us for all of these years and keep some of our best and brightest students at home.”
On a similar note, Mumford is eyeing more pay raises for teachers. Lawmakers did pass the state’s largest-ever pay increase for educators in 2022, but studies show teachers in Mississippi are still earning the lowest average salary in the U.S.
Republican Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, whom Mumford vowed to work closely with if elected, is expected to promote a teacher pay-raise plan when the new session begins in January.
Another hot education topic is the expansion of school choice. Some Republicans at the capitol, with a stronger appetite being found in the House, would like to see an open transfer process between public schools and maybe even a waiver system for public school students and their families who need a monetary boost to enroll in private schools. Mumford said the latter is not the correct option; rather, additional funding and support for public schools – like teacher pay raises – is.
“That has been all over the news lately with the private school [waivers] and the transfer of public-school dollars to private schools,” she said. “That’s not something I support, because I think we create strong public schools.”
Mumford pointed out that many people she’s interacted with on the campaign trail, both in the urban and rural areas of the district, are concerned about crumbling infrastructure. To her, fixing roads and bridges is an easy way to give people jobs and open the door to more economic development.
“I have a bridge out near my house right now,” she said. “It’s really important we think about these infrastructure needs in terms of it being a gateway to economic development. If we were to train our own folks here to take care of some of those needs, we’d kill two birds with one stone. We’d create economic development, we’d cure some of our infrastructure problems, and we’d have more workforce development.”
As for blight, deteriorating buildings and homes is not a unique issue to Senate District 26. It’s a statewide problem, and after a bill passed last year to award some grants to municipalities and offer tax rebates to developers, Mumford believes her work as a tax and blight attorney is “the key” to more incentives being available to breathe new life into properties past saving.
“That’s something I know that I could immediately get done,” she said.
Wrapping up the acronym, Mumford said there are some relatively easy ways to improve public safety, including investing in better lighting and offering a rebate for those who have doorbell cameras and want to offer footage to deter and solve crimes. She also wants to see the state further invest in after-school programs to keep young people from committing crimes in their free time and establish a mental health court.
Policy points outside of P.R.E.S.S. include expanding broadband access and more funding for volunteer fire departments.