Mississippi politics can be summed up easily: it’s a bunch of politicians who seek to pass as few actual conservative pieces of legislation as possible, while continuing to call themselves conservatives, and hoping that voters won’t notice. All the while, they’ll kill true conservative legislation by some of our Legislature’s most conservative members and then call them “ineffective.”
Sure, politicians will campaign saying how conservative they are because they passed a handful of conservative bills but fail to mention that the American Conservative Union rates our Mississippi Legislature as a moderate PURPLE, with an average score of 56% (Mississippi | ACU Ratings (conservative.org)). The top three spots in the ACU ratings go to MS Freedom Caucus members Dana Criswell, Steve Hopkins, and Joel Bomgar, who all have a lifetime A-rating.
But we have a supermajority of Republicans in both the House and the Senate, so how could the American CONSERVATIVE Union rate our state legislature as a whole with a 56% conservative voting record? Because while your MS politicians will campaign on how conservative they are, the truth is, they pass just enough “red meat” conservative bills to have something to talk about on the campaign trail when they are running for reelection.
In the last 4 years, leadership in both the House and the Senate have failed to pass any substantial Educational Freedom bills, they’ve failed to pass a complete income tax elimination, they’ve failed to pass any substantial reforms to our certificate of need laws (anti-free market laws in our healthcare field). They haven’t passed any substantial election integrity bills or bills to stop government investments in ESGs. They failed to pass the Parents’ Bill of Rights this year. They failed to pass a medical freedom bill.
They also won’t mention all the liberal bills they’ve passed. They’ve passed anti-free market protectionist bills. They passed over 60 tax increases through local and private bills in the last 4 years. They passed a partial Medicaid expansion bill. They passed a 250-million-dollar corporate welfare package, hurting small local businesses, for an out-of-state woke company. And every year they pass an earmark bill for politicians’ pet projects, historically around $500 Million to $600 Million. This year the “member” projects bill was over $700 Million.
Don’t let your Mississippi politicians, especially those in leadership positions, tell you how conservative they are without looking at their true record. The record of the overwhelming majority of incumbent politicians in MS tells a much different story. There are only a few true conservatives running for office this year, and we hope you’ll support them.
