US House race in Mississippi's District 1 goes for Trent Kelly

Gina Butkovich, Memphis Commercial Appeal
·2 min read

Republican incumbent Trent Kelly won reelection Tuesday night in District 1 US House of Representatives race.

With 95% of the votes in around Wednesday afternoon, Kelly was leading with 72.4% of the vote to Democratic challenger Dianne Dodson Black's 27.6%. The AP called the race Tuesday night.

“I want to thank the voters of #MS-01 for their overwhelming support," Kelly posted on Twitter. "I will continue to fight for conservative Mississippi values with a focus on our ag community, beating back inflation, supporting our armed forces and defending this great nation.”

Black is a small business owner in Olive Branch and the first Black woman to run for Congress in Mississippi’s 1st Congressional District.

The District includes DeSoto as well as Alcorn, Benton, Calhoun, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Clay, Itawamba, Lafayette, Lee, Lowndes, Marshall, Monroe, Pontotoc, Prentiss, Tate, Tippah, Tishomingo, Union, Webster and a portion of Oktibbeha County. Kelly was first elected in a 2015 special election, before being reelected in 2016.

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Kelly has opposed much of President Joe Biden’s domestic agenda, voting against his infrastructure package and has said the Inflation Reduction Act is "fueling more inflation."

“The President’s student loan forgiveness, helping out his rich buddies, and all those who went to these Ivy League schools, while our hard-working class people in Mississippi are not getting anything is just tone deaf across the board,” Kelly said in a interview on the MidDays radio show with host Gerard Gibert. “They’re hiring 87,000 more IRS agents to make sure that folks are paying their taxes. I have no doubt that they will target hard-working small businesses and Republican voters.”

Polls have repeatedly shown that inflation, an issue across the globe, is the number one concern for voters this election. An October USA TODAY/Suffolk University poll found that two-thirds of those surveyed, 66%, say the nation is already in a recession or a depression.

All results are unofficial until certified by the Mississippi Secretary of State, a process that can take up to two weeks.

Gina Butkovich covers DeSoto County, storytelling and general news. She can be reached at 901-232-6714 or on Twitter @gigibutko.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: US House race in Mississippi's District 1 goes for Trent Kelly