As Nov. 7, election day, draws near, incumbent Gov. Tate Reeves and Democratic challenger Brandon Presley battled for the votes of Mississippians in the first and only gubernatorial debate Wednesday night, Nov. 1. 

In a competitive race that has been characterized by negative advertising and targeted attacks from both candidates, the two finally met on stage to take on a number of issues ranging from Medicaid expansion to combating crime in Jackson. 

The debate, organized by WAPT News, comes after Presley has requested five times since Oct. 1 to debate Reeves. The two agreed to the debate, held only six days out from the election. 

In a pressing question regarding both candidates’ plans for Medicaid expansion, Reeves and Presley offered criticism of the other’s proposal, referencing other states who have implemented similar policies.

“At the end of the day, what we’ve determined is that it does not make sense for the people of Mississippi,” Reeves said. “If you were to add 300,000 people to the Medicaid rolls, about 100,000 of those individuals would actually be currently on private insurance.”

Presley, who seeks to turn the state’s highest office blue for the first time since 2004, thinks that Medicaid expansion would be a boon for Mississippians.

“Forty states in this country have expanded Medicaid, including Oklahoma where Donald Trump carried every county in the state, so this is not about politics; this is about people,” Presley said in response.  “It’s past time to do it, and as governor I would take steps on day one to expand Medicaid, joining the 40 other states, save 34 rural hospitals, get insurance to 230,000 working Mississippians and create 1,600 good healthcare jobs.”

Reeves responded by calling Presley a liar. 

“The governor doesn’t have authority to do anything on the first day in office,” Reeves said. “Like everything else he (Presley) proposes, he simply is lying to the people of Mississippi.”

Presley replied in kind.

“Medicaid is under the governor’s office, and the truth is if Tate Reeves wanted to expand Medicaid, it would have already been done,” Presley said. “The truth of the matter is, Tate, there’s a majority in the House and Senate of Democrats and Republicans right now that want to expand Medicaid, and you’re standing in the way of 230,000 working people that have jobs that you’re too good to do yourself that would stand to benefit if we expanded Medicaid.”

Presley’s performance on the issue of Medicaid expansion and healthcare reform won over some students. 

Calvin Wood, a sophomore public policy leadership major, gave his thoughts on the exchange over Medicaid between Presley and Reeves. 

“Reeves failed to defend his inaction on the rural hospital shutdown crisis, while Presley promised to expand Medicaid and support the medical industry on his first day in office,” Wood said.

Colton Jones, a senior accountancy major and president of Ole Miss College Republicans, viewed the exchange differently, offering that other states’ expansion of Medicaid has led to “unintended consequences.”

“The governor did a phenomenal job at explaining why Medicaid expansion is not the right policy for Mississippi, and how neighboring states such as Louisiana and Arkansas are now suffering unintended consequences due to expansion,” Jones said. 

While it is a major topic of concern for many Mississippians, the expansion of Medicaid is only one of many issues that citizens of the state face. Primary education in the state has long ranked near the bottom of national averages. Despite this, new statewide assessments from the Mississippi Department of Education show significantly increased proficiency levels in all four of the major areas – math, English, science, and U.S. history – since 2019. Governor Reeves touted these improvements in the debate. 

“We passed conservative reforms in 2012 and 2013 which laid the groundwork for the best educational levels in the history of Mississippi,” Reeves said. “Ten years ago our high school graduation rate in Mississippi was 72.5%. Last year it was 88.9% – 4,000 more kids graduated high school last year than would have just ten years ago.”

Presley answered by citing his recent endorsement from the Mississippi Association of Educators, the largest association of teachers in the state. 

“They looked at Tate Reeve’s record, they looked at my record and my platform and they chose to endorse me over him,” Presley said. “When it comes to school teachers, our competitors aren’t just Alabama and Tennessee. And we brag about getting to the Southeastern average; we need to get teacher pay to the national average to keep, retain and attract school teachers in Mississippi.” 

Moderators for the event Meagan West and Troy Johnson presented pre-recorded questions directly from Mississippi residents to the two candidates. One resident from Ridgeland asked how they would handle increased crime rates in Jackson.

“I was the champion in the Mississippi Legislature six or seven years ago when we created the Capitol Complex Improvement District,” Reeves said. “We’ve really prioritized our spending within the CCID on capitol police. We have moved capital police from an entity that just looked over state buildings to a real police force. We’ve hired over 150 police officers.”

The CCID was originally instituted to police the capitol building, but their jurisdiction now encompasses an 8.7 square mile zone in Jackson. The CCID works in tandem with the city-run Jackson Police Department, which has a total of 245 officers to monitor the city as of October 2023.  

“I plan to be the most pro-law enforcement governor this state has ever seen,” Presley said. “Jackson’s got a crime problem; Jackson’s not the only city that has a crime problem. As governor, I would plan to make sure we have 24-hour patrol in all counties, a minimum of two deputies in all counties and create a program where we put more cops on the street. It is important that we have strong law enforcement and that we combat crime.”

While policy discussion was a highlight of the debate, it was often overshadowed by insults, interruptions and claims of corruption from both candidates. 

Reeves made reference to his opponent’s alleged illegal acceptance of thousands of dollars in campaign funds from solar power company Silicon Ranch. The allegations were first brought forward in an ad by the Reeves campaign on Oct. 6. Silicon Ranch has since sent the Reeves campaign a cease and desist letter. 

“Three public service commissioners in Mississippi have gone to jail for what he did,” Reeves said. 

Presley responded, pointing out that the Reeves campaign had since changed the messaging of the campaign advertisement.

“Tate Reeves knows that is a complete, bald-faced lie,” Presley said. “The minute that the company involved threatened him for defamation, guess what he did? He changed the ad. These solar companies are not public utilities.”

Presley then turned the question of corruption back on Reeves, who has faced corruption allegations due to his purported involvement in the misappropriation of $77 million of state welfare funds. The funds, which were discovered to have been peddled to wealthy, politically-connected individuals in the state and even former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre, were a topic of intense debate. 

“If he’d quit lying on me, I’d quit telling the truth on him,” Presley said. “This governor has been ensnared in the largest public corruption scandal in Mississippi history.”

“You’d have to believe in time travel to believe I was involved in the DHS scandal,” Reeves responded. “The truth of the matter is I was sworn in January of 2020, and that all happened before I was governor. Even the liberal media in Jackson has called Brandon’s accusations ‘false,’ ‘dishonest’ and ‘half-baked.’”

Presley hit back harder at Reeves.

“You fired him when he got a little too close to your buddies–too close to your inner circle,” Presley said. “The truth is, you are a bought and paid-for politician, and you know it and the people of Mississippi know it. They know good and well that you’ve had the guts and the backbone to do nothing to end corruption in Mississippi because you’ve been the chief cheerleader with pom-poms in your hands for corruption.”

The fiery exchange between the two men elicited strong reactions from students of both political perspectives. 

“Reeves repeatedly peddled an incoherent story about Presley accepting donations from a solar panel company as public service commissioner, an accusation that has not only been debunked already and pulled from the incumbent’s advertisements, but displayed Reeves’ hypocrisy and projection,” Wood said.

Jones said that allegations against Reeves during the debate were simply unfounded and cited that Reeves was not governor at the time of the scandal. 

“Anyone who can do simple math can see that Reeves was not yet governor when the public welfare scandal took place,” Jones said. “Mississippi is in the best financial shape of its history. Weekly, we see major investments by major companies.”

When asked by moderators what each candidate would do to recover the revenue lost from the scandal, both men on stage expressed with certainty that such an event should never happen again. 

“I proposed a bold ethics plan that not only stops the TANF scandal from happening again, but that would allow the ethics commission to hire a private investigator that could not be fired by the governor or the legislature,” Presley said. 

Reeves brought up how the state has worked to sue those who allegedly received stolen funds.

“During my administration, we’ve sued to recover every last penny that is owed the taxpayers of Mississippi,” Reeves said. “We hired a law firm with more people and more experience. They have sued every single individual who is alleged to have received funds illegally. I’m the only person on this stage who has fought to recover those dollars. That’s a fact.”

Another college republican, William Pentecost, is a sophomore public policy leadership major. He cited Reeves’s debate performance as an indicator of sound leadership.

“After watching last night’s debate, I believe that it became apparent that Tate is the right man for the job as governor of Mississippi,” Pentecost said. “To me, Tate won the debate because of the way he was able to articulate himself in terms of clear-cut goals that he intended to accomplish if re-elected, whereas Presley focused on attacking Tate and appeared to bounce around a lot without giving clear answers on things like how he would cut taxes, how he would reduce crime in Jackson, etc.”

Wood cites Presley’s bold vision for Mississippi as the reason why he won the only debate of the election season. 

“Commissioner Brandon Presley was without a doubt the clear winner,” Wood said. “He was passionate, informed and sharp, while the incumbent appeared entitled and unprepared. Presley’s message of fighting corruption and supporting working class Mississippians through Medicaid and tax reduction was clear throughout, while the incumbent only flung unfounded accusations against Presley.”

Wood lamented that much of the debate was spent hashing out corruption allegations instead of debating policy.

 “Though corruption is important, these adamant personal attacks were disheartening, as they were a distraction from the real policy issues on the ballot,” said Wood.