Attacks from Hosemann and McDaniel take center stage at Neshoba County Fair on Wednesday

PHILADELPHIA, Miss. — The political mudslinging match between Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann and state Sen. Chris McDaniel, the two leading Republican candidates for lieutenant governor, made a much-anticipated stop amidst the red clay, woodchips and eccentric cabins of the Neshoba County Fair on Wednesday.

The legendary weeklong event kicked off its political speeches Tuesday with local races, before turning to the upcoming statewide elections Wednesday and Thursday.

McDaniel and Hosemann's speeches closed the Wednesday slate, which also featured candidates for attorney general and agriculture commissioner, among others.

McDaniel made clear the dire straits he believes the nation is facing, saying Democrats are the enemy and moderate Republicans willing to work with them are putting its future at risk.

"This is not the party of Roosevelt. This is not the party of Kennedy. It's the party of radicals. We have to stand in the gap against those people. They are the problem with America," McDaniel said. "Democrats are the problem. Now, we know that they are the problem, and we know that they seek the end of this country as we know it. Why would you ever reach across the aisle with them? Why would you ever compromise with those people?"

McDaniel also made clear that he believes Hosemann is too moderate. McDaniel has referred to Hosemann, a lifelong Republican, as "Delbert the Democrat" throughout the campaign. The firebrand state senator is used to painting his opponents that way, after having made similar claims against longtime Republican U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran in a 2014 primary.

"Delbert Hosemann has more in common with Mitt Romney than Ronald Reagan, and that is a problem," McDaniel said.

Hosemann, lamenting the negative turn the campaign has taken in recent days and weeks, said after his speech that McDaniel has to be negative because he has no accomplishments from his more than 15 years in the state senate.

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"There is no discussion about the issues, the real issues. Did we do a big enough tax cut? Did we spend enough on education? What about our roads? I mean, those are things to discuss in the public domain, but instead he's 100% negative because he has nothing to stand on and he has no accomplishments," Hosemann.

Hosemann grew particularly animated when asked about a statement McDaniel made during his speech.

"I do not dislike Delbert Hosemann. I have respect for Delbert Hosemann. This should never be personal," McDaniel said.

"If he respected me, he'd pull his ads today. He knows they're lies. I just said that. He knows they're wrong. People have been looking at this stuff for 25 years," Hosemann said. "So, he ought to pull his ads and he ought to run one on what he's going to do."

During his speech, Hosemann went on the attack as well. The incumbent lieutenant governor directly challenged the idea that he is not a true conservative, claiming that McDaniel voted in a Democratic primary for governor as recently as 2003. Hosemann first ran for political office as a Republican in 1981.

"My opponent was nine years old when I started running as a Republican," Hosemann said.

While Wednesday's speeches saw crowds repeatedly boo and yell at the candidate they opposed throughout the speeches, one of the most contentious moments came when McDaniel repeated a claim that Hosemann once worked for a women's health clinic that provided abortions.

Hosemann, a Catholic and University of Notre Dame graduate who has been repeatedly endorsed by Mississippi Right to Life over the last 25 years, has said he provided legal services to the clinic in the 1970s and early 80s, before it ever began providing abortions. Hosemann said he was mistakenly included on some of the clinic's paperwork after he stopped his work with it, a claim that is backed up by a 1998 memo written by the clinic's president and obtained by the Associated Press.

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"In 1981 I quit representing them," Hosemann said. "The guy ran the clinic said I didn't have anything to do with them after 1981. I checked my own files at my law firm ... So it's just false. It's just totally false."

Yet, McDaniel continues to claim otherwise in speeches.

"I'm going to be real clear about this, really clear, its objective and a verifiable fact, you can yell, you can scream, you can use your friends in the media to cover up for you, it's a verifiable fact that from 1976 to 1990 he was the vice president of an abortion clinic," McDaniel said, to both cheers and yells of "liar" from different segments of the crowd.

After the speeches, Hosemann said the claim has been investigated and his version of events has been vindicated.

"Mississippi Right to Life, they've been endorsing me for 25 years, and they've looked at all of that stuff," Hosemann said, telling media he'd like to return to the issues of what he's accomplished over the last four years and what he would do over the next four.

Attorney General race

Of the other speeches Wednesday, only one approached the level of intensity of those by Hosemann and McDaniel. Greta Kemp Martin, a Democrat running for attorney general, said incumbent Republican Lynn Fitch has been ineffective and uninterested in being "the people's lawyer." When she decided to run, Kemp Martin said she first began to research the work Fitch had been doing.

"Unfortunately, it was a short research project," Kemp Martin said.

Kemp Martin particularly pointed to the attorney general's lack of annual reports since taking office, and to her lack of public action on the state's welfare scandal. Kemp Martin also pointed to a number of actions Fitch has taken challenging the Biden administration or actions in other states, compared to what the challenger sees as inaction here in Mississippi.

"Lynn Fitch had a choice when you elected her in 2019. She could have been the peoples' lawyer or a politician, and she made her choice," Kemp Martin said.

As for Fitch, the incumbent did not directly mention her opponent in her speech. Fitch said after the speeches that her office has been "very active" in investigating the welfare fraud scheme and seeking repayment of funds. Fitch also said her office is accessible, adding that it has an "open door" to the public.

Fitch also declined to say whether her office is actively investigating McDaniel for alleged campaign finance violations, after a complaint was filed by the Hosemann campaign. Fitch said her office takes all complaints seriously and enforces the law but would not go further on the details of any specific investigation.

Other speeches Wednesday, from candidates running for public service commissioner, agriculture commissioner and insurance commissioner saw far fewer, if any, personal attacks. The fireworks may well return Thursday, though, as the top candidates for governor headline the list of speakers.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Mississippi Lt. Gov. race gets dirty as candidates face off at fair