Reeves turns to the future after winning second term in Mississippi

Now that it is official that Gov. Tate Reeves will have four more years as governor of Mississippi, there is the issue of governing and not just giving speeches in a campaign.

While the final numbers have not been tallied, when all is said and done, Reeves, the incumbent, will have beaten the incumbent challenger Brandon Presley by around 4%.

However, election participation was down in this cycle as 112,000 fewer people voted than did in the 2019 gubernatorial election when Reeves defeated longtime Attorney General, Democrat Jim Hood.

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Republicans have won the governor's seat in all six elections so far this century, but Reeves' current total of 408,599 votes is the least of any GOP candidate during that same time frame. The least before this year was Haley Barbour's 430,000 in 2007.

In fact, Hood's total of 414,000 in 2019 would have won this year's election.

Immediately after claiming victory in Tuesday's election, Reeves took another swipe at the national Democratic Party for helping the funding of Presley, the former state utility regulator and second cousin of rock icon Elvis Presley.

Presley raised $11.3 million for his campaign this year, compared with Reeves' $6.3 million, according to the latest finance reports filed. But Reeves started the year with more money.

After that, he turned to the economy, which he spent much of his campaign focusing on.

In the last four years, Mississippi's unemployment rates have followed the national trend downward as the Magnolia State's unemployment rates have been historically low.

There have also been many economic development projects the last four years that Reeves has hung his hat on.

The Golden Triangle Steel Dynamics project in 2022, which could add 1,000 jobs, includes a flat-rolled aluminum production facility, biocarbon production facilities, and certain other industrial facilities. It will also include infrastructure improvement projects. The facilities will be located in the GTR Park. Construction is underway and will take years to complete.

The average salary for those jobs has been announced to be $93,000, roughly twice the state's median household income. According to 2020 census data, the median household income in Mississippi was $46,511 while per capita income was $25,444.

Reeves often touts job creation in Madison County that includes continued expansion of Nissan as well as bringing on nine new projects last year. The total investment committed in 2022 in Madison County was $585 billion. Of the projects that were brought in last year, they created 413 jobs and the average wage for those jobs was $62,500 per year. In perspective, the average wage for Madison County as a whole is about $47,000.

With the election behind him, Reeves now turns his attention back to jobs and the economy.

"Here is what I really want to focus on, job creation," Reeves said. "We want to bring better and higher paying jobs to our state. I am hopeful that we will be able to make some announcements in the next three to six months that are game changing."

Reeves said his victory is an impetus for more economic development throughout the state.

"The fact is that companies all across the country and all across the globe are looking at Mississippi now," Reeves said. "So, I am going to work with our legislative leaders to continue to invest in our people for job creation and continue to invest in workforce development and workforce training. That's really what we are going to focus on in the next four years."

Maybe the most talked about issue during the campaign was Medicaid expansion as Presley hammered on that point again and again.

"We have 34 hospitals that are at risk of closure and five have closed in-patient care. … If not for the partisanship and the cheapness of politics, we would expand Medicaid right now," Presley said.

Presley talked about other states controlled by Republican majorities, including Oklahoma and South Dakota, that have turned to Medicaid expansion, which originally comes from the The Affordable Care Act, passed in 2010 by the Obama administration for comprehensive health care reform.

However, Reeves has been steadfast in pushing back against Medicaid Expansion. Regardless, he will have to address the hospital crisis in the state.

In September, the governor announced a series of Medicaid reimbursement reforms in Mississippi, which are estimated to generate revenue for some of the state's financially struggling hospitals.

That action includes two hospital payment initiatives that are estimated to generate almost $700 million annually in additional Medicaid funds for Mississippi hospitals, according to Reeves.

In addition to that, Reeves has talked about eliminating the personal income tax in Mississippi. Last year, with the help of the Legislature, he was able to reduce income taxes.

He has previously said that Mississippi's population would increase if he can push his plan through to eliminate the income tax, much like Texas, Tennessee and Florida.

"People from California want to escape the high costs and liberal agenda, and they are moving to places like Texas," Reeves said Tuesday night. "Those people will move here if we can eliminate the income tax ... we are going to focus on lowering the taxes of the people of Mississippi over and over and over."

Presley argued during the campaign that Mississippi should concentrate on lowering the grocery taxes, but Reeves has been steadfast in pushing elimination of the income tax as a better way of facilitating economic development.

Reeves, term limited, will now have his way for four years in pushing his agenda for a second term without the distractions of another campaign in two and half years.

Ross Reily can be reached by email at rreily@gannett.com or at 601-573-2952. You can follow him on Twitter @GreenOkra1.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: Reeves looks forward after Mississippi election for governor