Tate Reeves’ GOP Problems Just Keep Getting Worse

Tate Reeves’ GOP Problems Just Keep Getting Worse

Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves spent another week doing damage control after seemingly endorsing the primary challenger to his sitting lieutenant governor — the latest unforced error for a deeply unpopular incumbent who just barely avoided a primary challenge from his 2019 opponent.

Asked about the lieutenant governor’s race at an event last weekend, Reeves pledged to not to make an endorsement, before praising the “conservative candidate running,” which his campaign manager later confirmed was a reference to state senator Chris McDaniel — not incumbent Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann.“

Tate Reeves had one job — to not make problems in his own party’s primary — and he couldn’t even get that right,” said DGA Deputy Communications Director Izzi Levy. “Reeves is vulnerable because he only cares about himself, and because the only thing he does well is enrich himself and his cronies. It’s no wonder even Republicans don’t like him.”

Reeves’ problems with his own party go back to 2019, when he failed to get the endorsement of not just his primary opponent Bill Waller, but also of then-nominee for Lieutenant Governor Hosemann. Nearly a third of Republicans have said they would support “someone else” as governor, and the latest reporting does not appear to promise a thaw in the “frosty relationship” that Reeves has struggled to overcome with Mississippi Republicans.

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