Mississippi
In Mississippi, most voters will have no choice about who represents them in the Legislature
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — After being in office for over a decade, Mississippi state Sen. Dean Kirby got challenged in the Republican primary. He won with 70% of the vote.
That was in 2003 — and it remains the last time Kirby faced an opponent. The longtime Jackson-area senator is on the ballot again this year without either a Democratic or Republican challenger.
While the length of Kirby’s uncontested streak is unusual, his situation is not. More than four-fifths of Mississippi’s legislative candidates will have no major-party opposition in the Nov. 7 general election. And more than half of this year’s winners will have faced no other Republicans or Democrats in either the primary or the general election.
“I think people are happy with the state and the way things are going,” Kirby, Mississippi’s Senate president pro tem, said in explaining the lack of challengers.
Though Mississippi represents an extreme example, it highlights a national decline in competition for state legislative seats. New research suggests the reasons are more complex than mere voter satisfaction with incumbents. It also raises questions about the ability of American voters to hold their elected representatives accountable.
In some states, “there’s so many uncontested seats that one party wins the chamber before an election takes place,” said Steven Rogers, a political scientist at Saint Louis University who focuses on state legislatures.
A democracy “relies on this notion that the people will have some sort of choice,” Rogers added. But “without someone running for office, there isn’t really a choice.”
In Mississippi, the percentage of legislative seats with no major-party opposition in the general election has risen steadily from 63% in 2011 to 85% this year. The percentage with no Republican or Democratic challengers in either the primary or the general election has grown from 45% to 57% over that same time, according to data compiled for The Associated Press by Ballotpedia, a nonprofit organization that tracks elections.
Rogers’ research found that legislative competition around the U.S. has been dwindling for decades. Though contested elections were common in the 1960s and 1970s, about 35% of incumbent state lawmakers did not face either a primary or general election challenger from 1991 to 2020, according to Rogers’ new book, “Accountability in State Legislatures.”
One reason is political gerrymandering — a process by which those in power draw voting districts to give their party’s candidates an advantage.
Lawmakers are less likely to face challenges when one political party holds an overwhelming majority in the legislature and when district boundaries are drawn to include voters predominately favoring one party, Rogers found. Competition also is lower when lawmakers’ salaries are lower. And fewer challengers are likely to step forward when they are of the same party as an unpopular president.
All those factors are in play this year in Mississippi. Republicans currently hold lopsided legislative majorities. The vast majority of districts are packed with voters favoring one party. The legislative salary is $23,500, plus a daily expense allowance when lawmakers are at work. And President Joe Biden is underwater in public opinion polls, adding to the challenge for fellow Democrats in Mississippi.
“Candidates don’t want to run races they think they’re going to lose,” said Abhi Rahman, communications director for the national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee.
The DLCC is spending a few thousand dollars this year on several legislative races in the largely uncompetitive Republican-leaning states of Mississippi and Louisiana. It said it has spent $50,000 in Democratic-controlled New Jersey, one of just four states with legislative elections this year. But it has spent $2.2 million so far on legislative races in Virginia.
Other Democratic- and Republican-aligned groups also are pouring millions of dollars into Virginia’s legislative races.
The stakes are high in Virginia because Democrats currently hold a narrow majority in the Senate while Republicans hold a slim majority in the House of Delegates and control the governor’s office. Both parties see a pathway to a legislative majority. The races also are being watched as a test of the two major parties’ messaging ahead of the national 2024 elections.
In contrast to Mississippi, the percentage of Republican or Democratic candidates in Virginia facing no major-party opposition in either the primary or general election has declined from 61% in 2011 to 28% this year, according to Ballotpedia data. The districts in place for this year’s election were crafted by court-appointed experts after a bipartisan commission responsible for redrawing boundaries based on 2020 census data failed to reach a consensus.
“In Virginia, there’s a sense that no matter what the district is, you at least have a puncher’s chance,” Rahman said. “Whereas in states like Mississippi and Louisiana, a lot of people feel like they’re just running to get creamed.”
Though Democrats are a minority in Mississippi, many of the districts they do win are packed with a large proportion of their voters.
Three Democratic lawmakers will be succeeded by their sons running in uncontested races this year. Sen. Barbara Blackmon and Rep. Ed Blackmon, who are married to each other, both initially qualified for reelection with one of their sons in the Senate race and one in the House race. After nobody else signed up to run, the incumbents dropped out and cleared the way for Bradford Blackmon to be elected to the Senate and Lawrence Blackmon to the House. Sen. Robert Jackson’s son, Reginald Jackson, is unopposed for his father’s seat.
Though he lacks such family ties, first-time Republican candidate Andy Berry also is getting an uncontested path to the state Senate after a two-term Republican incumbent chose not to seek reelection in a reconfigured district south of Jackson. Berry, who has worked the past nine years for the Mississippi Cattlemen’s Association and the affiliated Mississippi Beef Council, has connections to three of the four counties in the district. He grew up in one, lives in another and has a cattle farm in a third.
Though Berry said he’s “very blessed” to be guaranteed a victory, he is still asking people for their vote by reminding them that casting a ballot is their chance to have a voice in government. But it’s hard to spur interest without an opponent.
“Turnout is a struggle in all these elections,” Berry said.
___
Lieb reported from Jefferson City, Missouri.
What to expect from Buc-ee’s before the first one opens in Mississippi
The Robertsdale, Ala., Buc-ee’s keeps people coming back. The stores have lots of food options and are known for clean bathrooms and friendly service.
PASS CHRISTIAN, Miss. — Amanda Yarborough, a schoolteacher from Long Beach, was one of the first to arrive at Buc-ee’s Travel Center on Monday, hours before the store’s 6 a.m. grand opening.
She brought her Buc-ee’s chair and sported a Buc-ee’s T-shirt and cap.
“What was I thinking?” she said, holding up a purple stainless-steel mug. “I didn’t bring a Buc-ee’s cup.”
Yarborough was one of nearly 1,000 Buc-ee’s fans who turned up for the first Buc-ee’s to open in Mississippi.
Like many other Buc-ee’s fans, she likes everything.
“It’s like the Amazon of gas stations,” she said.
At 6 a.m., hundreds stampeded the store’s opening.
The Ward family, who came from Alabama, discovered Buc-ee’s when the Leeds, Alabama, location opened.
Since 2023, the family has been to 45 stores before the Mississippi one and have the refrigerator magnets to prove it.
“We’re celebrating our 50th anniversary in two weeks, so this is kind of our pre-anniversary celebration,” Darlene Ward said, pointing to her husband, Charlie.”
The couple came from Boaz, Alabama, with their daughter Angela, who lives in Livingston, Alabama.
The family plans to visit the Robertsdale, Alabama, store on the way home.
“That will make 47 Buc-ee’s,” Angela Ward said.
Fifteen-year-old Scott Brown of Gautier dressed up in a Buc-ee’s onesie to celebrate the store’s opening.
“I thought it was kind of appropriate for today,” he said.
Brown said he likes the food and drinks at Buc-ee’s. One of the first things Brown and his friends did when the store opened was grab a few sandwiches. He couldnt wait. He scarfed one down before making it to the checkout counter.
Brown has been to several Buc-ee’s in Texas and Florida. Now there’s one closer to home.
“We go on cruises and we stop at every one of them,” he said.
The Mississippi location off Interstate 10 in Pass Christian is roughly 74,000 square feet — 20,000 square feet bigger than the neighboring location in Alabama. And it has 120 gas pumps, all of which were full as the store opened on Monday.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Mississippi
Langdon and Maude Schuyler Clay capture the culture of Mississippi through the lens of a camera
- The two have spent a lifetime documenting the world around them.
Watching documentaries and reading memoirs and other works of creative nonfiction has become almost an obsession with me. My fascination is probably due to the fact that the stories being told are real and true. Learning how people overcome obstacles or create a life for themselves that is vastly different from the expected trajectory ignites my own imagination. That is especially true of creative endeavors or lives that are rooted in the pursuit of creative storytelling in one way or another.
In Mississippi, a couple living in Sumner, Mississippi, has created a life that is full, and rich, and filled with stories they’ve collected in their forty-plus years of marriage. Langdon and Maude Schuyler Clay are professional photographers who have spent a lifetime documenting the world around them, whether in an ancient cemetery in the middle of Paris or a dog on a log in a cypress swamp deep in the Mississippi Delta.
Thanks to mindless scrolling on Facebook recently, I came across a post by Maude where she mentioned that several people had asked her where they could watch Thad Lee’s documentary about them called “Two Lives in Photography.” It seems Thad is set to get a special award from the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters for the film on June 14. Maude also included a link to the documentary, which can be viewed on YouTube.
I have been a fan of Maude Schuyler Clay since I interviewed her years ago for an article I wrote on photographer William “Bill” Eggleston. I was somewhat familiar with Eggleston’s work. My editor gave me a list of contacts, and Maude was on that list. During our conversation, she realized I had no idea she and Eggleston were first cousins – their mothers were sisters. She explained their relationship and gave me wonderful insight for my article.
Curious, I clicked the link to the documentary and spent the next hour and a half transfixed. “Two Lives in Photography” showcases not only the work of Langdon and Maude but also the love of place that is reflected in their work as well as their love for each other.
Oxford Film Festival veteran Thad Lee directed the film, which focuses on a photography retrospective by the same name at the Mary Buie Museum on the campus of the University of Mississippi in Oxford. The exhibit was curated by Melanie Munns Antonelli. The pieces in the exhibit feature photographs taken by the couple over a span of decades, including some taken before they married.
In the film, Langdon says the couple met in 1976 at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
“We were at a show for Bill Eggleston – his first ever color photography show.”
Maude had spent time in New York interning for Eggleston.
Lee spent three years producing the film. It begins in 2020, with Landon and Maude walking through the gallery, each relaying the stories behind the photographs, as well as describing how they, as photographers, were able to capture the photos with their respective cameras.
“Somehow you see something and you snap it, and you know you’ve got the prize,” says Langdon. “Other times you’re on a hunt. It could be for months or even years. Then you’ll see a special thing.”
Langdon is a master at seeing the symbolism in seemingly ordinary things, and that adds an interesting dynamic to his work. Maude says she has always been a proponent of photography being very much connected to literature.
“All these photos are stories,” she says in the film. “I like the idea of marrying words and images.”
She had three prominent Mississippi writers write the foreword to her books. Lewis Nordan wrote the foreword to Delta Land, Brad Watson wrote the foreword to Delta Dogs, and for Maude’s portrait book called Mississippi History, the foreword was written by Richard Ford.
The film was artfully shot by cinematographer Gregory Gray, and the hauntingly beautiful score was by Delta native Jim “Fish” Michie, best known in these parts for being one of the founders of The Tangents.
At the end of the film, Maude says, “As freelance photographers and artists, we set out without any real guarantee that our work was ever going to be shown or any of it was ever gonna be published. I think one of the commonalities that Langdon and I have is that we believed that was what we were going to do, no matter what. It has paid off, because, you know, it’s kept us occupied for the past forty years.”
For a teaser to the film, take a moment to watch this trailer. If you’re a person who enjoys learning about the stories behind the artist and their work, you will probably enjoy “Two Lives in Photography” as much as I did.
Mississippi
Virginia outfielder Aidan Teel transferring to Mississippi State baseball, Brian O’Connor
Brian O’Connor introduced as new Mississippi State baseball coach
Watch Brian O’Connor’s first news conference as the Mississippi State baseball coach.
STARKVILLE — Another player from Virginia is transferring to Mississippi State baseball.
Aidan Teel, who was a Third Team All-ACC selection in 2025 as an outfielder, committed to the Bulldogs on June 7, according to his Instagram bio.
Teel, who’ll be a senior next season, started all 50 games in center field with a .317 batting average, seven home runs, 51 runs and 40 RBIs.
He’s following new MSU coach Brian O’Connor, who was hired on June 1 after 22 seasons at Virginia. O’Connor was formally introduced on June 5 at Dudy Noble Field.
Teel is the fourth Virginia player to transfer to Mississippi State, joining All-ACC Freshman Team pitcher Tomas Valincius, outfielder James Nunnallee and designated hitter Chone James. MSU also landed Illinois Second Team All-Big Ten outfielder Vytas Valincius in the transfer portal. All four of them committed on June 6.
Teel has played his entire career at Virginia. The Mahwah, New Jersey, native missed the 2023 season with an injury, but returned in 2024 as an outfielder and pitcher. He did not pitch during the 2025 season. MLB.com has Teel ranked as the No. 177 prospect in the 2025 MLB draft.
Teel’s older brother, Kyle, made his MLB debut on June 6 with the Chicago White Sox.
Twelve Mississippi State players have entered the transfer portal as of June 7, with freshman infielder Lukas Buckner the latest to do so.
Sam Sklar is the Mississippi State beat reporter for the Clarion Ledger. Email him at ssklar@gannett.com and follow him on X @sklarsam_.
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