The Neshoba County Fair is notorious for horse racing, with ESPN making a special trip to Mississippi last year to highlight the festivities. This year, the jockeying transcended horse racing, maneuvering into the world of politics, where two elected officials used one of the state’s most prominent political stumps to vouch for higher office.
With statewide elections scheduled for 2027, Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson and Secretary of State Michael Watson — Republican officials with guaranteed speaking slots at the annual fair due to their representation of the entire state — looked to get ahead of the game.
Gipson is running for governor, and Watson is running for lieutenant governor. Both gave the audience a taste of what Mississippi would look like if they were promoted to higher offices than the ones they currently hold.
Gipson eyes governor’s mansion
Gipson has been Mississippi’s agriculture commissioner since 2018 when he was appointed to fill the vacant seat previously held by now-U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. He was most recently reelected in 2023, garnering roughly 58% of the vote in a race against Democratic challenger Robert Bradford. Before that, he was in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He has a background in securities law and farming.
With Gov. Tate Reeves being term-limited, Gipson sees an opportunity to gallop to the governor’s mansion. He believes his faith-based roots, legal and legislative background, and his time overseeing the state’s largest industry have primed him to lead from the top level of state politics.
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No stranger to openly discussing his religious views, Gipson held up a Bible during his Neshoba County Fair speech, stating that Mississippi and the U.S. alike would greatly benefit from turning to Christianity. And Gipson made it clear that, as governor, he would lean on his Christian faith to make tough decisions facing the state.
“We’ve got to get back to God in this country. We need to remember the God who made us. He gave us an owner’s manual,” Gipson said. “And when we want to look for the answers to life, how to live, and how to find happiness, we don’t have to Google it or go to AI; we can go to the Word of God.”
If elected governor, Gipson said he would use his ag experience to prioritize economic growth by boosting domestic food production and consumption, weaning the state off foreign food products, expanding farmers markets to all 82 counties, building regional food hubs across the state, promoting legislation backing local farmers, and preventing data centers from being built on farmlands.
“Agriculture is the backbone of Mississippi’s economy. It’s the No. 1 part of Mississippi’s economy. It doesn’t matter how much economic development we have if we don’t have anything to eat,” Gipson said. “We can have both. We can have economic growth and economic development, but I’ve been around the world, where people have world-class technology and lots of money, but nothing to eat. I want to make sure Mississippi has both.”
One of Gipson’s unique responsibilities as ag commissioner is governing the state fairgrounds in Jackson. Gipson, a self-proclaimed friend of Mississippi’s law enforcement, developed an even tougher-on-crime stance following a mass shooting at the 2022 Mudbug Festival that left one dead and five injured. Since then, he has flooded the fairgrounds with police during major events, like the Mississippi State Fair and Dixie National Rodeo, and pledges to be tough on crime as governor.
Citing the recent shooting death of an elderly couple in Mendenhall, followed by the shooting of Covington County sheriff’s deputy Yates Rodney, both crimes allegedly committed by three brothers between the ages of 17-19, Gipson said crimes committed by juveniles are where he would start his crackdown. And his top solution is incarceration.
“This juvenile crime issue has come to a crisis level, and we’ve got to get a handle on it, and hold them accountable,” Gipson said. “It does us no good to have a juvenile justice system that lets children run wild and kill innocent people. It’s not because we don’t have good laws. We have good laws. We just need some place to put them.”
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Currently, Gipson’s only opponent is former Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn, but the field is expected to busy in the near future. Notable names being floated as prospective GOP hopefuls include Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann, Attorney General Lynn Fitch, State Auditor Shad White, and billionaire business tycoon Tommy Duff.
Watson pursues legislative leadership
Watson, also a former state lawmaker, is rounding out his second term as secretary of state, an office he believes he is leaving better than he found it. His sights are now set on the lieutenant governor’s seat, with Hosemann serving his final term as the state’s second-in-command.
In his time in his current post, Watson boasts that he strengthened Mississippi’s elections, effectively made it easier to open up shop in the state through deregulation, and combated human trafficking through a business initiative, among other accomplishments. While Watson is proud to be able to tout those achievements, he said his greatest win as a statewide official is creating a respected culture within his office and making himself accessible to constituents through his employees.
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“I think that the culture that we’ve built in our office has had this sort of spillover, and I think that’s one of the most important things you can do as an elected official is build a culture that spills out of your office into the public,” Watson said. “What it’s done is built a culture of professionalism and service. Now, it’s an expectation for Mississippians.”
Watson announced his bid for lieutenant governor in April, saying he decided after spending time in prayer and talking with his family. If elected, he would wield a lot of power, mainly in the state capitol as the presiding officer of the Senate. Watson promised Mississippians that he would continue to be available to them, especially as one of their top legislative arms.
“It’s not about me. It’s about our team and the culture of expectation from the state of Mississippi. When people think, ‘You know, when I call the secretary of state’s office, I’m going to get help,’ that’s the culture that should be in every office and every elected official in this state,” Watson said. “It’s about listening to Mississippians and serving them well.”
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On policy, Watson said his focus would be to advance business-friendly legislation aimed at growing the state’s economy and workforce. He would also work with lawmakers to prioritize deregulation to make Mississippi more attractive for businesses, while also pushing for policies that incentivize families to establish their roots in the state.
“It’s about cutting regulations, tackling the tape, making sure that businesses can stay focused on growing, doing good things, and staying away from the government and red tape. They shouldn’t be spending their money and time with bureaucracy; they should spend their money and time on growing their business and being successful,” Watson said. “We’ve been building a lot of jobs, and that’s a lot of fun. But at the end of the day, it’s about communities and focusing on our families. And a family moving here and planting its roots in Mississippi is so important.”
Watson is currently the only candidate in the running for lieutenant governor. As for who will replace him as secretary of state, Republican Shuwaski Young has already announced his intention to run for the office. At this time, he is the only candidate who has officially declared a bid for the gig.