Dear Jack,
 

In recent years, left-wing ideologues have been elected to office in states like California, Oregon, New York and Illinois. They have raised taxes, imposed radical curriculums in the classroom and in some cases even attempted to defund the police. The results have been a disaster.

While some parts of the US have lurched left, state leaders across much of the South have gone in the opposite direction. The South is starting to thrive as a result.

Already, the southern United States is the most populous region of America. In the past couple of years, this growth has accelerated as hundreds of thousands of Americans leave the left-wing la la land states, and move to places like Texas, Georgia, Tennessee and Florida.

If this trend continues, the South may soon become the center of economic, demographic and perhaps even political gravity in America.

There is one state slap bang in the middle of the South that has not benefited, until now, as much from this growth opportunity - our own state, Mississippi.

Mississippi needs to emulate what other southern states, like Tennessee, Texas and Florida, have already done. While we have cut Mississippi’s income tax, Tennessee, Texas and Florida have eliminated theirs. We need to do the same.

While Mississippi deregulates, we have done so by drawing on what we have seen work in neighboring states. It is time to be even bolder and make Mississippi properly competitive.

I am confident that Mississippi is going to grow and prosper just like some of our southern neighbors.

We must ensure that Mississippi never makes the kind of mistakes that the west coast and parts of the northeast have made. And to do that, we need to ensure that the next generation of Mississippians understands the importance of free markets, liberty and limited government.

To help us achieve this, we recently launched the Mississippi Leadership Academy – and I am delighted to tell you that it has been a tremendous success.

One Saturday a month, a cohort of about 20 young Mississippians gathers to discuss the challenges our state faces. They have the chance to listen to some of our state leaders and discuss some of the policy solutions we need.

Here are just some of the photos from our most recent Leadership Academy event last week.

The more I work with young Mississippians, the more confident I am about the future of our state. The battle of ideas can be won, and despite all we hear about ‘woke’ millennials, with the right approach, the next generation of conservative leaders will emerge.

I hope you had a wonderful and uplifting Thanksgiving!