MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WREG) — Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves is talking about job creation and better schools in the Magnolia state as he runs for a second term in the governor’s mansion.
Less than a week after filing for reelection, Gov. Reeves is making his case on why he believes he deserves four more years in office. WREG spoke with Gov. Reeves about his accomplishments and challenges during the past four years.
“I ran for Governor because I wanted to work hard to make Mississippi an even better place to invest capital and want it an even better place to create jobs and an even better place to raise a family and made a lot of progress,” he said.
Reeves, a conservative Republican, said since becoming governor progress was made on limiting abortion rights, cutting the state’s income tax, and increasing workforce development.
“As people move into DeSoto County, Marshall County, and Tate County and other counties in the surrounding area, largely because of the fact that there’s a wide availability of jobs and most of those jobs significantly higher than the state average,” he said.
In Mississippi classrooms, Reeves is touting higher salaries for teachers and students who are performing better in math and reading.
“We have the highest high school graduation rate in our state’s history. We have the lowest dropout rate in our state’s history. Our fourth-grade reading and math results are better than any time in our state’s history,” he said.
The Governor admits there have been challenges.
“We inherited some real challenges and then with the natural disasters which occurred in the early part of my tenure, it certainly led us to have to deal with COVID and other things,” Gov. Reeves said.
Other things include the water crisis in Jackson, the state’s capital city, where some Democratic leaders criticized the state’s response.
“On August 24th it got to a point it was so bad that we felt like we had to step up and take away the control from the city leadership and city leaders. We did that on August 29 and within two days we were able to return water pressure to the city and within two weeks, we were able to return clean water,” Gov. Reeves said.
Reeves said in running for reelection, his mission remains the same as when he first ran for governor.
“I didn’t get elected to hide our problems. I didn’t get elected to hide our challenges, I got elected to fix them and that’s what we’re working towards,” he said.
Tate Reeves is expected to face a tough re-election challenge from several GOP candidates who’ve battled him on several political stages during his first term in office.
