If everything goes their way in November’s general election, Republicans may even be able to increase the three-fifths majority they have in the House or Senate. There are 24 seats in the 52-member Senate where Democrats aren’t running for office. There are 14 seats in which Republicans are not running for office, and there are 24 seats that are held by Democrats. There are 42 seats in the 122-member House where Republicans do not have a candidate for the Democrat, and 54 where Democrats don’t want to put up a candidate. Unfortunately, the final day of qualifying had some disappointing news for Democrats. Just hours before the qualifying deadline, Rep. Nick Bain from Corinth changed to the Republican Party. Two Democrats, Steve Holland of Plantersville & Angela Cockerham from Magnolia, announced that they would be running for re-election in independent elections. To avoid difficult party primaries, both opted to run independently. Holland is a reliable vote for Democrats on most issues. He would most likely continue to be an independent. Cockerham, who voted for the Republican leadership on many matters, has been less reliable. David Baria, the Democratic leader from Bay St. Louis, announced that he will not run for re-election. Vicki Slater, Madison County attorney, will challenge Speaker Philip Gunn. In 2015, she ran unsuccessfully for the office of governor. She lost in the Democratic primary. The current House composition is now 75 Republicans, 41 Democrats and two independents, with four vacancies. Since the 2000-04 term, Mississippi had not seen an independent legislator since that time. Holland and Cockerham became independent last week. Democrats have entered candidates for 68 of the 120 House districts. Only five of these candidates are eligible to lose in order to capture the majority. There are candidates for the Republicans in 80 House districts. The task of the Senate is even more difficult for Democrats, considering that they have candidates in 28 out 52 seats. They cannot win a majority if they lose more than one candidate. The Republicans had 38 Senate candidates. Bobby Moak, the chair of the state Democratic Party, stated that he would have liked to see more candidates for the Senate and House. According to him, the majority of elected positions in the state, even those at the local level will remain Democratic after the November election. However, that won’t be true for legislative or statewide positions. The Democrats didn’t enter a candidate to challenge Republican Auditor ShadWhite, who was appointed this year by Gov. Phil Bryant. Moak said that they sent more than 400,000 text messages to all candidates in an effort to recruit for all positions. It is unclear if the Attorney General Jim Hood’s decision that the state law doesn’t prohibit public employees retiring from the Legislature, such as educators, had any impact on the recruitment of candidates. In February, the Public Employees Retirement System Board of Trustees held a special meeting where they voted to amend its regulations by January 1st to conform to the Hood opinion so long as it did not adversely affect the federal tax-exempt status of this system. Because the PERS Board was uncertain about the future of the regulation, some retired educators chose not to run. Nancy Loome, executive director for the pro-public education Parents Campaign called the opinion of the attorney general “a game changer”, stating that it could result in more supporters of public education serving as legislators. Loome stated that she expects the number of retired people running for office to rise in the coming years. “I am very happy.” This year, there were some qualified retirees to run. Lee County’s Cathy Grace, co-director of the University of Mississippi graduate center for early learning and a long-standing educator, has decided to retire in order to challenge Republican Rep. Shane Aguirre of Tupelo. In Senate District 5, the retired Prentiss County Tax Assessor Steve Eaton will run as a Democrat in order to replace outgoing Senator J.P. Wilemon (D-Belmont).