Y'all Ain't Right: A Podcast About Mississippi Politics

Midterm elections are one week away. If you haven't already voted absentee, make a plan to vote on Tuesday, November 3. Polls are open across Mississippi from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

In the studio this week is Jackson Mayor John Horhn. He covers a lot of ground: paving streets that haven’t been touched in decades, JXN Water billing, working with folks at the state and county level, the Magnolia Mother’s Trust, and his plans to bring West Jackson back. This conversation is a snapshot of what it can look like when change starts to take hold.

Robert and Brandon also discuss Donald Trump’s 11th hour visit to Corinth to bail out Cindy Hyde-Smith and why the Senate Majority PAC believes Scott Colom is about to pull off a surprise victory. 

The guys also talk about the DOJ’s bizarre lawsuit in the Alaska Senate race and Lynn Fitch’s latest move against the Colom campaign before making predictions about how the elections will shake out for the House and Senate. 

• Catch Robert’s daughter, Nona Parker Johnson, this Thursday on the new season of Dexter: Resurrection, premiering October 30
• Jackson Mayor John Horhn presents his State of the City address
• Marshall Ramsey cartoon on the Horhn inauguration
• Jackson leader makes the cover of Time magazine for her work to get families out of poverty
• Springboard to Opportunities: Magnolia Mother’s Trust
• 'Jackson Rising' initiative launched to rebuild the city's future
• Donald Trump’s Truth Social post on early voting in Mississippi
• LISTEN: MPB’s @ISSUE interview with Secretary of State Michael Watson
• Trump administration sues to block Alaska Senate certification if Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan loses in November
• AG warns Colom to pull A.I. ads or face injunction, and he agrees to do so

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Election Day is November 3rd. Robert and Brandon discuss the absentee voting process in Mississippi and go over the races you will find at the bottom of your ballot. They also talk about the latest campaign finance numbers.

The guys watch the funny new ad from the Colom campaign and discuss whether it is helpful to have national Democrats on the campaign trail.

They also talk about the poll published by Speaker Jason White and Jackson Mayor John Horhn’s State of the City speech.

SHOW NOTES: 

• Mississippi absentee voting info
• Election Protection Hotline: 1-866-OUR-VOTE 
• Madison Co. Schools calls data centers ‘transformational' 
• Colom out-raises Hyde-Smith, but incumbent has more cash on hand
• Scott Colom’s “pick another senator” ad
• Former President Barack Obama Endorses Mississippi Democrat Scott Colom for U.S. Senate
• Cook Political Report: There Is No ‘Blue Wave,’ but There Is a ‘Red Undertow’ 
• Speaker Jason White’s poll shows voters oppose data centers and back restoring the ballot initiative
• 2021 Poll from Chism Strategies and Millsaps: Mississippi Voters Favor Medicinal and Recreational Marijuana Legalization, Medicaid Expansion
• Jackson is 'rolling,' Mayor Horhn says in 2026 State of the City address

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Curtis Flowers, whose six trials became a national symbol of racial bias in jury selection, died this week in Winona at 56. Robert and Brandon reflect on his life and why district attorney and judicial elections matter.

Also in this episode: A federal judge orders the Trump administration to stop airing its propaganda ads, Elon Musk doles out $276 million to save Republican majorities in Congress, corporate welfare in Mississippi, and Marjorie Taylor Greene slams President Trump as “America Last.”

SHOW NOTES:

• New York Times obituary: Curtis Flowers, whose six trials became a symbol of racial bias in jury selection, dies at 56
• Mississippi Center for Justice statement on the passing of Curtis Flowers
• Judge orders Trump administration to immediately stop taxpayer-funded TV ads
• Elon Musk becomes the biggest known donor of the midterm elections
• Marjorie Taylor Greene responds to Trump’s “did I do something wrong?” email

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College students packed the final redistricting hearing at the Capitol. Robert and Brandon discuss what happened during the hearing, what Robert learned from the students who showed up, and whether lawmakers will still call a special session.

Also in this episode: New NYTimes/Siena U.S. Senate polls show Democrats making substantial gains in places like Kansas. Robert and Brandon discuss what this could mean for the balance of power and take a look at two of the crazier Republican ads released in the past week.

They also discuss how tomato tariffs could cause restaurants to abandon free chips and salsa, a special election in the Pine Belt and a free film screening in Ridgeland next Monday night. 

SHOWNOTES:

• You can still send written testimony to the committee by writing Staff Counsel Ted Booth at [email protected]
• NYTimes/Siena Poll of Likely Voters – Senate Races
• Texas PAC is up with a new ad featuring Angela Paxton, Ken Paxton's estranged wife
• Cindy Hyde-Smith ad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nDrPFl6fZM
• Trump tomato tariffs could spell the end of free chips and salsa at restaurants
• Join Robert and Brandon at a free community screening of the film "Citizens Revival" at the MALCO Renaissance Cinema Grill in Ridgeland at 7 P.M.

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Robert is on injured reserve this week, so Brandon sits down with his friend Cliff Johnson, Democratic candidate for Mississippi's first congressional district, to discuss growing up in a Tylertown family of dairy and cotton farmers, his time at Mississippi College, building a campaign with baling wire and chewing gum when nobody hands you the manual, and why running has made him more hopeful.

Plus a taxpayer-funded Trump ad during NFL games, Mississippi's new education waiver, and Scott Colom calls for a temporary ban on data centers. 

SHOW NOTES: 

• Civil Rights attorney Cliff Johnson enters Congressional race as Democrats eye gains in Mississippi 
• Scott Colom and Cliff Johnson joint campaign rally highlights key campaign promises
• White House releases new taxpayer-funded ad describing ‘final battle’ 
• U.S. Department of Education Approves Mississippi’s Returning Education to the States Waiver
• Senate candidate Scott Colom calls for temporary ban on data centers in Mississippi
• Election Protection Hotline: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683) 

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Voting rights expert Amir Badat joins Robert and Brandon in the studio this week to discuss growing up in Meridian, the SHIELD Act, Mississippi's Secretary of State using Experian credit data to check voter rolls, new laws that make it easier to purge voters, and how midterm turnout could affect Mississippi redistricting.

Plus: Rep. Bennie Thompson is pushing national Democratic groups to spend more money in Scott Colom’s Senate bid, Sen. John Kennedy’s Foghorn Leghorn impersonation, campaign finance laws, and a recap of the Ole Miss vs. LSU game. 

SHOW NOTES: 

• Election Protection Hotline: 1-866-OUR-VOTE (1-866-687-8683)
• Inside the secretary of state’s $50,000 deal to use Experian’s unverified information that he said would ‘strengthen’ election integrity
• Report: Rep. Bennie Thompson demands national Dems get more involved in Colom Senate race \

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Robert attended the joint committee’s fourth redistricting hearing in Natchez. He explains what’s actually happening at these hearings and why Mississippi already did its worst to the maps a long time ago.

Plus: the president bribes every American adult with $5,000 if Republicans keep Congress, Lonnie Bunch retires from the Smithsonian, shrimp boats on the coast stay docked because of fuel costs, and finally, Lane Kiffin's outsized personality takes over another week.

SHOW NOTES:

• Robert Johnson quoted in the Mississippi Independent's story Black lawmaker says redistricting will exacerbate already bad system
• Walter Brown, former legislator, speaking at the Natchez hearing
• Trump promises $5,000 dividend in convention speech, but only if Republicans win
• Kathryn Watson for CBS News: Why you shouldn't bank on Trump's $5,000 dividends happening
• Clint Smith for The Atlantic: What Lonnie Bunch Told Me
• Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan for the NYT: Inside Trump’s Ideological Fight With the Smithsonian
• WLOX: Mississippi shrimp value above average for the year, MDMR says
• The Clarion-Ledger: What happened with LSU, Lane Kiffin at SEC meeting
• Nick Saban told coach to keep Lane Kiffin ‘away from the sorority girls,’ per book, as reported in AL.com

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Congressman Bennie Thompson spends his Labor Day with us in the studio to talk about his time as a student at Tougaloo, registering voters in Sunflower County with Fannie Lou Hamer, redistricting in Mississippi, the Donald Trump effect on members of Congress, data centers, Homeland Security, the January 6 Commission and more.

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Robert and Brandon discuss the president's executive order renaming Lake Ontario, Mississippi’s confounding anti-DEI law, and how relaxing the tariff on foreign beef is causing more problems for cattle farmers.

Plus the audit of the Hinds County DA’s office, special elections, Colom launches a “Where’s Cindy?” tour and more.

SHOW NOTES:

• Google Maps switches to "Lake America" as Canada compares change to "SNL" skit
• Mississippi Center for Justice heads to Federal Appeals Court to Defend Free Speech
• Mike McCormick's radio interview about how Mississippi cattle farmers angry with Trump over plan to import foreign beef
• Lax recordkeeping prompts state audit of Hinds District Attorney’s Office, the first on record since 2013
• Jonathan Martin for Politico: The Republican Party’s Midterm Nightmare Is Taking Shape
• Special elections set in two Mississippi state House districts to fill vacancies created by deaths
• Scott Colom calls on Cindy Hyde-Smith to participate in debate and town hall before election

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Robert and Brandon open by discussing big losses for Moms for Liberty in Florida school board races, then turn to Mississippi's first redistricting hearing in Tupelo and Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann's removal of Senate Democratic Leader Derrick Simmons from the joint redistricting committee. 

Also in this episode: the debate over whether the UK is poorer than Mississippi, new national reporting finally catching wind that Scott Colom is making the Mississippi Senate race competitive, and why the president of the Mississippi Farm Bureau is furious with President Trump over dropping tariffs on imported beef.

And finally, a rapid-fire sprint through the latest news: the field is set for the Hinds County DA special election, the end of a sixty-year desegregation order in Rankin County, two normie Republicans might be running for attorney general, and Hakeem Jeffries's meeting with nepo baby Jared Kushner.

SHOW NOTES:

• Joint Committee on Redistricting Live Stream — Hearing #1 at ICC, Tupelo on August 18th
• Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation and President Mike McCormick's statement in response to President Trump's Truth Social post Friday morning on foreign beef imports
• Moms for Liberty candidates falter in Florida school board elections
• Lt. Gov. Hosemann ousts top Senate Democrat from redistricting committee 
• Is Mississippi really wealthier than the UK? in the New Statesman
• Five candidates, not including appointee, running for Hinds County District Attorney

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