Mississippi GOP Rep. Steven Palazzo ousted in primary runoff

WASHINGTON — Embattled Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss., was defeated by Mike Ezell in a runoff within the state’s Gulf Coast-based 4th Congressional District on Tuesday, NBC Information initiatives.

Palazzo, a six-term incumbent who’s a member of the highly effective Appropriations Committee, faces a Home ethics investigation into potential misuse of marketing campaign funds.

Ezell, a longtime native sheriff and a county chair for Donald Trump’s 2016 marketing campaign, hounded Palazzo over the ethics probe and for being absent from each the district and the Home chamber.

A number of occasions through the present Congress, Palazzo wrote letters to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., designating colleagues to vote for him by proxy as a result of the Covid pandemic prevented him from collaborating in individual.

Within the first spherical of voting on June 7, Palazzo got here in first amongst seven candidates with 31.6 % of the vote — however didn’t hit the bulk threshold to keep away from a runoff. Ezell superior by coming in second with 25.1 % of the vote.

However as one Mississippi incumbent fell, one other one survived an electoral scare.

Republican Rep. Michael Visitor, who angered Trump supporters by voting in Could 2021 to determine an unbiased fee to research the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol, gained a runoff within the third District on Tuesday.

Visitor, a two-term incumbent, had are available in second to Michael Cassidy within the first spherical of voting on June 7.

However Cassidy was compelled to defend his onetime assist for a “Medicare for All”-style medical insurance program within the runoff. Though Cassidy distanced himself from the place, it was archived on his marketing campaign’s web site.

Visitor’s vote final yr was for a never-chartered unbiased fee, not the Home choose committee probing the Capitol assault, which held its sixth public listening to Tuesday.

If the awkward timing damage Visitor, it wasn’t sufficient to forestall him from profitable renomination. Within the closely Republican third and 4th districts, each GOP nominees are closely favored to win within the November common election.