JACKSON, Miss. — Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant and Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves easily won Republican primaries Tuesday, each pushing aside one challenger.
Bryant on Tuesday defeated Mitch Young, a Navy veteran from Sumrall, while Reeves defeated Alisha Nelson McElhenney, a teacher from Moss Point.
Young and McElhenney ran low-budget campaigns against incumbents who have millions of dollars to spend.
Three candidates were competing in the Democratic primary for governor: attorney Vicki Slater of Madison; Dr. Valerie Adream Smartt Short, an obstetrician-gynecologist from Ridgeland; and truck driver Robert Gray of Jackson.
The Nov. 3 ballot for governor will also include the Reform Party’s Shawn O’Hara.
Former state Sen. Tim Johnson of Madison and Jelani Barr, a bookkeeper from Greenwood, were competing Tuesday in the Democratic primary for lieutenant governor.
Libertarian Ron Williams and the Reform Party’s Rosa B. Williams will also be on the general election ballot for lieutenant governor.
Temperatures topped 100 degrees in parts of Mississippi as voters cast ballots for governor, lieutenant governor and other state and local offices.
“It is our right to vote, and we always do,” Jean McLaurin, 66, said as she and her husband, James McLaurin, 77, left a precinct in the Jackson suburb of Madison.
“It’s a right and a responsibility,” James McLaurin added.
Circuit clerks reported heavy turnout in some counties, particularly in places with contested local races for sheriff and superintendent of education.
Others, however, reported sparse and “mediocre” turnout.
Both major parties were having primaries for governor and lieutenant governor, but in the statewide races for auditor, treasurer and insurance commissioner, only the Republicans were holding them.
Ballots also include some primaries for public service commissioner and transportation commissioner.
A long list of legislative primaries was being decided.
On the county level, voters were choosing party nominees for sheriff, supervisor, circuit clerk, chancery clerk and other offices.
If runoffs are needed, they will be held Aug. 25.
Democratic and Republican nominees will advance to the general election, when some third-party candidates also will be on the ballot.
In north Mississippi’s DeSoto County, where voters are choosing a new superintendent of education, the circuit clerk said poll workers reported lines at some precincts.
In heavily Republican Rankin, Forrest and Jackson counties, election officials reported relatively low turnout.
In Harrison County on the Gulf Coast, Clerk Gayle Park said poll workers reported steady voting.
A deputy circuit clerk in the Delta’s Coahoma County said the same.
Republican primaries for auditor and treasurer have grabbed attention in recent weeks.
The challenger in the auditor’s race, Madison Mayor Mary Hawkins Butler, has criticized two-term incumbent Stacey Pickering for using his campaign funds to pay for travel and other personal expenses.
Pickering says his spending is aboveboard.
The challenger in the treasurer’s race, David McRae, says one-term incumbent Lynn Fitch has mismanaged a state-sponsored college savings plan.
Fitch says she has gotten the plan back into good financial shape.
