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Mississippi Republican U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo facing Tuesday primary fight amid ethics investigation
6 opponents hitting “No-Show Palazzo” over inattention to district, ethics problems
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor
GULFPORT (CFP) — Mississippi U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo — under investigation by the House Ethics Committee over allegations that he misused campaign funds and used his office to aid family members — will try to fight off a gaggle of challengers in Tuesday’s Republican primary.
U.S. Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Mississippi
Palazzo’s race, in the 4th District — which includes the state’s southeast panhandle, including the Gulf Coast and Hattiesburg – is the only House race that is expected to have a competitive primary, although all four of the state’s House members are facing primary challengers.
There is no U.S. Senate race this year, and statewide officials aren’t up until 2023.
Polls in the Magnolia State are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
Palazzo, running for his seventh term, is facing a field of Republican challengers that includes Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell; State Senator Brice Wiggins from Pascagoula; Clay Wagner, a banker from Bay St. Louis; and Carl Boyanton, a retried businessman from Diamondhead who challenged Palazzo in 2020.
If Palazzo doesn’t win a majority Tuesday, the top vote getter among his challengers will face him in a June 28 runoff.
Palazzo’s opponents are hammering him over a long-running ethics investigation and what they see as his inattention to the district, which has garnered him the nickname “No-Show Palazzo.”
Palazzo has run a low-profile campaign, skipping candidate forums with his opponents. He does have a significant trump card – the endorsement of Donald Trump himself.
A report from the Office of Congressional Ethics found that Palazzo had used campaign funds to pay himself and his now ex-wife $200,000, including the mortgage on a family home; used his office to help his brother; and used congressional staffers for errands and campaign work, which are not allowed under House rules.
The OCE turned the matter over to the House Ethics Committee, which has yet to resolve the case; Palazzo has denied any wrongdoing and claims the charges are politically motivated.
Mississippi Today also reported that Palazzo had used campaign funds to pay for meals at high-end restaurants, sporting events, golfing and gifts, which would also be a violation of House rules.
His campaign later said some of those expenditures were mistakenly paid for by the campaign and Palazzo had reimbursed at least some of the money.
The latest campaign disclosure reports show Palazzo’s challengers have collectively raised $1.5 million for their campaigns, with both Boyanton and Wagner making six-figure loans to stay competitive in the fundraising chase. Palazzo has raised $600,000.
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Joe Biden crushes Bernie Sanders in Mississippi
Magnolia State’s large African American population gives former vice president his biggest win of the campaign season
♦By Rich Shumate, ChickenFriedPolitics.com editor
JACKSON, Mississippi (CFP) — Former Vice President Joe Biden crushed Vermont U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in Mississippi’s Democratic presidential primary Tuesday, extending his string of victories across the South to nine.
Biden won 81 percent of the vote; Sanders came in at just under 15 percent, below the threshold needed to win statewide delegates.
Biden’s 66-point margin was the biggest winning margin so far for Biden in any state, eclipsing his 47-point victory in neighboring Alabama.
The former vice president has now gone nine-for-nine in Southern primaries, with Florida and Georgia on tap next.
Joe Biden addresses supporters after Mississippi win (From Fox News via YouTube)
As in the rest of the South, Biden’s win was due to a strong performance among African American voters, who made up two-thirds of the Democratic electorate in Mississippi.
Exit polls showed that Biden was the choice of 87 percent of black voters, compared to 10 percent for Sanders.
Speaking to his campaign staff in Philadelphia after a public rally in Ohio was canceled over concerns about coronavirus, Biden called the success of his campaign “a comeback for the soul of this nation.”
“Tonight, we are a step closer to restoring decency, dignity and honor to the White House,” Biden said.
He also praised Sanders and his supporters for bringing “energy” to the party and made a plea for unity.
“We share a common goal, and together, we’ll defeat Donald Trump,” Biden said.
Sanders’s defeat is the latest in a long string of Southern setbacks, stretching back to his 2016 run against Hillary Clinton. In 2016, he won in just two Southern states; this time around, he hasn’t won any.
Sanders did not make a public appearance after Tuesday’s results. His campaign also canceled a planned rally in Cleveland.
Florida, on tap next week, is the second biggest prize in the South after Texas, with 219 delegates up for grabs. Recent public polling shows Biden with a wide lead over Sanders in the Sunshine State, where his past comments about Israel and embrace of socialism have gone down less than well with Jewish and immigrant voters, both key voting blocks.
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