A contest for local senate race will feature a repeat of a 2021 special election as more local lawmakers picked up challengers as the qualifying deadline for candidates to throw their hat into the ring for elections this year passed on Wednesday afternoon.
Sen. Kelvin Butler of McComb has shed his Democratic party label and opted to run as an independent candidate. He faces opposition from the Rev. Gary Brumfield, a Democrat who ran against Butler for the Senate District 38 seat in 2021.
Also joining the fray is Trischell Veal, who ran an unsuccessful write-in campaign for McComb mayor last year and is running for the Senate seat as a Libertarian; and Willye Powell of Liberty, who is running as an independent.
Butler served in the Senate from 2004-15 and reclaimed the office in the 2021 special election to fill the remainder of Tammy Witherspoon’s term after she resigned to become Magnolia mayor.
Witherspoon had endorsed Brumfield, the pastor of Rose Hill Free Will Baptist Church, Brumfield carried Pike County but a handful of votes from Adams County, where Butler had name recognition from his previous time in office, was enough to return him to Jackson.
The district includes parts of Pike, Amite and Adams counties and all of Wilkinson County.
Party primaries, which are irrelevant in this race, are Aug. 8. the general election is Nov. 7.
In local House races, Rep. Sam C. Mims V, R-McComb, faces a challenge from Democrat Benton Thompson for House District 97.
Mims secured about three-fourths of the vote when Thompson ran against him four years ago.
Freshman Rep. Daryl Porter Jr., D-Summit, faces a primary challenge from Lance Brown.
Reps. Vince Mangold, R-Brookhaven, Angela Cockerham, I-Magnolia and Bill Pigott, R-Tylertown, were unopposed.
Melanie Sojourner will no longer represent the area in the Senate after she essentially redistricted into a territory the Republican would be sure to lose, which she called political payback from members of her own party, particularly Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann. Brookhaven Republican Jason Barrett’s District 39 will take Sojourner’s former territory in northern Pike and Amite counties. He’s unopposed.
Redistricting moved Sen. Angela Burks Hill, R-Picayune, out of the eastern fringes of the county and replaced her with Joey Fillingane of Sumrall. He faces opposition from Robert Cole in the Republican primary.
