Mississippi
Reeves, Presley clash in fiery debate ahead of Mississippi election
BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) – Wednesday night, Election Day is just one week away. Gov. Tate Reeves and his challenger Brandon Presley squared off on the debate stage for the first — and only — time.
The heated debate lasted exactly one hour, showing the differences between the candidates for governor as they answered questions sent in by voters. Presley accusing Reeves of involvement in the state’s welfare scandal created a fierce exchange.
Presley: “He is at the center of the state’s largest public corruption scandal. He knows that and we found out that his brother was texting Brett Favre about how to be a PR agent.”
Reeves: “It is fine for you to attack me, but you keep my family out of it.”
Presley: “Those are the text messages.”
Reeves: “You would have to believe in time travel to believe that I was involved in the DHS scandal. The fact of the matter is I was sworn in as governor in January 2020, it all happened before I was governor.”
On the issues Reeves and Presley both have plans to cut taxes, Reeves says he has a track record of tax cuts and plans to continue it.
Reeves: “Combined, we’ve cut taxes by $1.2 billion dollars for the people of the state, and I believe that eliminating the income tax is the best public policy for the state.”
Presley has a different vision for how to cut taxes.
Presley: “I would make sure we would get the sales tax off groceries, cut the car tag fees in half and save working Mississippians money.
A major talking point in the campaign has been expanding Medicaid — Presley is for it, Reeves is against it. They both explained their positions.
Presley: “As governor, I would take steps on day one to expand Medicaid by joining 40 other states that would take the billion dollars a year, save 34 rural hospitals, get insurance to 230,000 working Mississippians and create 16,000 good healthcare jobs.”
Reeves: “If you were to add 300,000 people to the Medicaid roles, about 100,000 of those individuals would actually be currently on private insurance. That’s taking 100,000 people that are on private insurance and put them on the government roles. That doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”
The candidates also debated education, and both Presley and Reeves raised concerns over the other’s campaign contributions.
Voters hit the polls on Tuesday to choose who will be Mississippi’s Governor for the next four years.
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