Republican Gov. Tate Reeves will win a second term as governor of Mississippi, CNN projects, winning a majority of the vote to avoid a runoff.
Reeves will defeat Democrat Brandon Presley, a member of the state Public Service Commission and a second cousin of Elvis Presley, who conceded the race in the deep-red state Tuesday night.
The Republican governor is a longtime fixture in Mississippi politics, serving in statewide office for nearly two decades. He was first elected state treasurer as a 29-year-old in 2003. After two terms as treasurer and another two as state lieutenant governor, he was elected to the state’s top executive office in 2019.
In television ads, Reeves linked Presley to President Joe Biden on issues such as gender-affirming care and immigration and attacked his opponent for receiving campaign contributions from out-of-state donors. A closing ad from the Reeves campaign featured former President Donald Trump touting his endorsement of the governor.
Reeves campaigned on Mississippi’s education improvement, as the so-called “Mississippi miracle” has seen the state rise more than any other on fourth grade reading and math scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress from 2011-2022, according to the state department of education.
Presley sought to make an economic appeal to working-class voters by pledging to cut taxes and expand Medicaid. While Reeves opposes expanding Medicaid, he proposed a nearly $700 million plan to support the state’s struggling hospitals.
Presley also tried to link Reeves to the state’s wide-ranging welfare fraud scandal, which took place when the Republican was lieutenant governor. While Reeves’ name is frequently mentioned in legal proceedings, he has never been officially accused of any wrongdoing and has denied any involvement.
This year’s governor’s race in Mississippi was determined by only the popular vote. Under the old system, candidates needed to win a majority of the popular vote and a majority of state House districts. And if no candidate managed to meet both requirements, the Mississippi House, which Republicans have controlled for more than a decade, would determine the winner.
In 2020, Mississippi voters amended their state constitution to change the way statewide officials, including governors, are elected. Under the new system, a runoff would take place if no one candidate receives a majority of the popular vote.
Voting rights groups had long argued that the old system diluted the Black vote in a state with the highest percentage of Black residents in the nation.
CNN’s Dianne Gallagher contributed to this report.