Gipson considering run for governor, state leaders talk elections during Neshoba County Fair

PHILADELPHIA, Mississippi — At least one more political speaker at Thursday's Neshoba County Fair announced he is considering running for governor in 2027, while several others threw support behind Donald Trump in his race for the nation's highest office.

Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Andy Gipson on Thursday became the third political speaker this week at the Neshoba County Fair to say he is considering a campaign for the state governor's office in 2027. State Auditor Shad White and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann also made nods to a potential run in 2027 on Wednesday.

In an interview with reporters regarding a speech Gipson gave at the fair Thursday morning, Gipson said he is considering whether to run for the state's highest office, but he is mostly focusing on his role as Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner.

"I'm praying about that," Gipson said. "I'm carefully considering it, and I've not made a decision, but I will keep praying. I want to be the best Agriculture Commissioner. That's my goal."

Gipson said he has recently had a few fundraisers and spoke to his staff about campaign financing.

"I have started looking into that," Gipson said.

Other speakers at the fair, such as House Speaker Jason White, R-West, told fairgoers he isn't done with conversations to explore Medicaid expansion in Mississippi, major tax cuts and conservative education reforms such as school choice, to name a few.

Gipson, White, as well as other state officials such as State Treasurer David McRae and Republican Gov. Tate Reeves, all voiced support for presidential candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming Nov. 5 election.

"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have steered the national economy into the ditch, and we've had to fight every day," Reeves said.

Secretary of State Michael Watson, as well as several state judicial candidates, such as Byron Carter, Sen. Jenifer Branning, R-Philadelphia, Ceola James and Jim Kitchens also spoke at the fair Thursday.

Below is some of what some of the speakers said Thursday at the Neshoba County Fair.

Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Andy Gipson

Other than telling reporters he might run for governor in 2027, Gipson advocated for further tax cuts on Mississippians, especially the personal income tax.

"There's one direction taxes need to go in Mississippi, and that's down, down, decrease the taxes," GIpson said. "We pay enough taxes. For every dollar that you earn, it gets taxed multiple times different ways. Income tax, federal and state, you got sales tax, and then when you die, there's estate tax and every tax in between and your car tag tax, land taxes, (it's) tax to death."

Gipson told eventgoers that conservative leadership on both the state and federal level is the only clear path forward for the nation, and that people need to support Donald Trump against the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Kamala Harris.

Gipson also took shots at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which he alleged was sending labor union workers onto farming properties to "recruit" farmers and prevent them from doing their jobs.

OSHA visits businesses in the construction industry as well as the agriculture sector to inspect working conditions and make sure businesses remain in federal compliance, among other things.

"I see more regulations coming out of Washington, D.C., today than ever before, and it has got to end," he said. "OSHA, they want to send somebody out to every farm in Mississippi and tell you how to run your farm, tell you how to run your business and get a union labor out there to do it for him."

In his closing, Gipson spoke out against foreign agricultural land ownership in Mississippi. According to a report from the United States Department of Agriculture released in November, 942,435 acres in Mississippi are in foreign hands as of December 2022. Foreign land ownership makes up 3.1% of all acreage in the state and 3.8% of all the privately held property.

Secretary of State Michael Watson

Watson in his speech said his office plans to challenge the Biden administration in court regarding executive order 14019, which designates federal agencies to expand voter registration access through partnerships with state agencies and partners as well as through federal initiatives.

Watson said he reached out to the White House to gain more information about how that effort would work in Mississippi, but he was rebuffed.

"It basically turns all federal agencies into voter registration orders and get out to vote arms of the current party in power," Watson said. "I'm not attacking DC here, but that's unamerican, it's unconstitutional."

During his speech, Watson also thanked the Mississippi Legislature for working on legislation to restrict people from collecting mail-in ballots from those who have difficulties delivering them and then take them to a polling location. The act is known as ballot harvesting or ballot collecting.

Watson also addressed campaign finance fraud and reiterated his desire to move its enforcement from the attorney general's office to his. He noted he has seen many cases be sent to Attorney General Lynn Fitch's office but nothing was ever done.

"I'm not here to attack, but I am here to ask you to do the jobs," Watson said. "One of the things that Florida did, they assigned an Assistant Attorney General for the Secretary of State's office to make sure these crimes are being prosecuted. Perhaps we do that."

Mississippi House Speaker Jason White

White first and foremost took no time at all to say that unlike other speakers during the political speaking portion of the fair, he is not announcing that he will run for governor in 2027.

White said he is still fiercely pursuing legislation to give parents the option to send their child to a private school by using their state appropriated portion from the Mississippi Student Funding Formula.

White specifically said this upcoming session he plans to work on legislation that will allow students to move from any public school to another, and to give parents more financial flexibility with those state funds.

When asked if it is even feasible for some students to move to any school in the state because of transportation needs, White said his team is working on several solutions, including corporate and local transportation partnerships and possibly even a tax credit.

"That's a hurdle," White said. "Now we have had some meaningful talks with communities who are willing to get corporate America and even Mississippi communities to get involved in the transportation aspect. We are thinking outside the box to what could be different."

As for Medicaid expansion, which failed to become law this past session, White said he may also consider another round of debate on Medicaid expansion.

"The direction we go with policy next session, to a large extent will depend on the presidential election, who's sitting in the White House and who's running CMS as we move forward in Medicaid, and how we're going to cover working, low-income Mississippians," White said.

White also said he is continuing to work with his team at a robust reform of the state's tax code with the goal of eliminating the personal income tax.

Gov. Tate Reeves

Reeves, who is in his second and final term as governor, touted his administration's successes in economic development, as well as his support for Trump and he continues what he calls the Mississippi Momentum.

He also spoke about the importance of the fair and its significant setting for state leaders to openly engage with the public on policy issues.

"What we've tried to do in each of our speeches, while certainly having fun, but is being serious and talking about policy ideas, and a lot of really good policy ideas that have led to the greatest economy in Mississippi's history started right here from this fair," Reeves said. "Whether it was cutting taxes, or the Mississippi miracle, or our efforts to improve workforce development, workforce training, they started with ideas right here. It's a way to get those ideas out to the public."

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Gipson considering run for governor, state leaders talk elections during Neshoba County Fair