by Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today
October 20, 2024

Democrat Joe Biden won in the Mississippi Supreme Court central district by a comfortable margin of 220,405 votes to 193,785 votes against Republican Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

While losing the 2020 election nationwide, Trump won Mississippi by an also comfortable margin of 756,764 votes to 539,393 votes. But the central district was a different story.

In elections with big turnouts, especially presidential elections, the central district is often a Democratic stronghold.

This November, it is a safe assumption that Vice President Kamala Harris will lose the state of Mississippi but will do as well if not better than Biden did in the central district.

And if Harris does have a strong showing in the 22-county central district, that should bode well for Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens, who currently is campaigning for a third term on the state’s highest court representing the aforementioned district.

What may be Kitchens’ easiest path to win reelection is to convince the central district voters he is more aligned with Harris than is his primary and most well funded opponent, state Sen. Jenifer Branning, R-Philadelphia.

Also running for the central district seat are Ceola James, a former Mississippi Court of Appeals judge, and Hinds County private practice attorneys Byron Carter and Abby Gale Robinson.

If no candidate garners a majority vote on Nov. 5, a runoff will be held between the top two vote-getters. Kitchens’ best bet to win the seat is in the first election on Nov. 5, when all the Harris voters will be going to the polls. A runoff election for a Supreme Court race days before the Thanksgiving holiday is the definition of a low turnout race.

There are not expected to be many competitive races this election cycle in Mississippi, but the central district Supreme Court race stands out. It also is vitally important. Supreme Court justices have significant impact on many aspects of the state.

Kitchens, a former district attorney, and fellow central district Justice Leslie King, are not as conservative as the other seven Mississippi Supreme Court justices. Some might describe Kitchens as a middle-of-the-road jurist, while others might contend he is a liberal.

At any rate, it is less likely that a non-conservative moniker will hurt him in the central district than in other parts of the state.

The problem that Kitchens might face is getting his credentials and philosophy out to the voters.

Judicial races in Mississippi are nonpartisan, and candidates have more restraints on what they can say on the campaign trail. And quite frankly, voters often do not pay attention to judicial races.

While judicial races are nonpartisan, that does not mean that political parties cannot endorse candidates. Branning has the backing of the Mississippi Republican Party.

Branning, who was elected to the Senate in 2015, currently serves as chair of the Transportation Committee. She has been one of the more conservative members of the Senate, and she is touting her conservativism on the campaign trail.

In the Senate, Branning voted against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem from the design in 2020 and voted against expanding Medicaid to provide health insurance to the working poor earlier this year. In 2023, she voted against a measure that eventually became law to allow women to remain on Medicaid for 12 months after giving birth opposed to 60 days.

In television commercials, she bills herself as “a constitutional conservative.” Kitchens’ initial television commercial took the approach of Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann by making the advertisement a play on his name. His wife maintains in the commercial he needs to be on the high court to keep him out of her kitchen.

Whether a cute commercial and a district stacked to his advantage will ensure a third term on the state’s highest court for Jim Kitchens remains to be seen.

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