Mississippi holding primary runoff for US Senate tomorrow

Published 9:58 am Monday, June 25, 2018

Mississippi voters will once again go to the polls on Tuesday to cast ballots in the Democratic primary for the US Senate race.

Polls are open 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, and voters are required to show photo identification.

In Mississippi, voters can find their local precinct by visiting http://www.sos.ms.gov/PollingPlace/Pages/default.aspx and entering their address.

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In Lafayette County, voters will choose between Democrats Howard Sherman and David Baria.

Baria, of Bay St. Louis, is serving his third term in the Mississippi Legislature and is currently the Democratic leader in the Republican-majority Mississippi House of Representatives.

Baria, 55, is an attorney who served his first term as an elected official in the Mississippi Senate. He has been endorsed in the runoff by the Mississippi Legislative Black Caucus.

Sherman, 63, is a venture capitalist and married to actress Sela Ward. Born in California, where he lived most of his life, Sherman moved to Ward’s hometown of Meridian.

Sherman has drawn criticism from other candidates for being registered to vote as a Republican while living in California. In several campaign appearances, Sherman has said that he believes Democrats in California were anti-business in a way that Mississippi Democrats are not.

In the first round of voting on June 5, Sherman received 32 percent of the vote while Baria received 31 percent.

The winner of the Democratic runoff will advance to the Nov. 6 general election to face incumbent U.S. Senator Roger Wicker, who easily won the Republican primary.

Also on the general election ballot for the U.S. Senate race are the Reform Party’s Shawn O’Hara of Hattiesburg and Libertarian Danny Bedwell of Columbus.

Mississippi’s third congressional district – which stretches across the central portion of the state – will also see a runoff between Republicans Michael Guest and Whit Hughes.

The two are campaigning for the seat vacated by Gregg Harper, who has held the post for the past decade.

In the June 5 election, Guest received about 45 percent of the vote, and Hughes received about 22 percent.

The counties of Madison and Rankin make up the biggest population base for the district, which encompasses all or part of 24 counties in Mississippi. The district makes a diagonal from the Mississippi River at Natchez, northeastward into the Jackson metro area and further up into Starkville.

The winner of the Republican primary runoff will advance to the general election to face Democratic state Rep. Michael Ted Evans of Preston and Reform Party candidate Michael Holland of Hattiesburg.

Emily Wagster Pettus of The Associated Press contributed to this report.