/Michael Guest, Whit Hughes poised to take the gloves off in House GOP runoff

Michael Guest, Whit Hughes poised to take the gloves off in House GOP runoff

On Tuesday, none of the six Republican candidates received 50 percent of the vote. This forced a runoff within three weeks. Guest, the district attorney in Rankin and Hinds, narrowly missed a rare feat. He beat five other candidates to win the GOP nomination. John Morgan Hughes, a political consultant and Whit Hughes’s son, said that Michael Guest was “arguably the most popular and effective local elected official in central Mississippi.” He is the best. Tonight’s vote total proved that. Whit and he spent nearly the same $400,000, and the costs per voter were drastically different.” Both candidates raised more money and spent more than any other candidate. Guest raised $336,000 and spent $336,000. Hughes, who spent years in hospital administration and economic development, raised $430,000. Guest was able to benefit from a large base in Rankin, Madison and other counties where he has been a district attorney since 2007. These two counties are home to about 40% of primary voters. Nathan Shrader (co-chairman of the Millsaps College’s political science department) said that “GOP voters from those counties have a history supporting him in past elections, building a relationship with Guest as a candidate.” “He was able awoken on the morning of election knowing that there was a large number of voters who had supported him in previous elections. This is not something that many of the other candidates were able do.” Guest and Hughes didn’t differ much on policy issues during campaign. Both spoke out in favor of working with President Donald Trump. Both spoke about the importance to small businesses as well as the need to attract large corporations to the state with a fiscally conservative tax policy. Both agreed that it was important to control government spending. Both supported pro-life and Christian values. The campaign has so far been positive and there has not been much mud-slinging from either side. As June 26 nears, pundits and operatives were already buzzing about a possible shift in campaign rhetoric. They predicted a more sexist tone from both parties. State Rep. Michael Evans will be the winner of the Guest Hughes runoff. Evans won Tuesday’s Democratic primary. Evans defeated Michael Aycox (the state’s first openly homosexual congressional candidate), convincingly. Evans, a Preston-based firefighter and poultry farmer, will present a conservative approach to voters, even though he is a Democrat. Evans is a strong supporter and pro-lifer of the Second Amendment. Evans posted on Facebook Tuesday night that he is pro-life and a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.