Trump stumps for Republican candidate in Mississippi

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Mississippi in an effort to shore up the state's Republican candidate for governor.

Trump is stumping for support for Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves, who is locked in a tight race to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Phil Bryant in next week's off-year election. The race between Reeves and Democrat Jim Hood for the open seat is considered the state's toughest governor's race in nearly a generation.

Speaking at a rally in the northern Mississippi city of Tupelo on Friday evening, Trump endorsed Reeves, calling him a "great guy."

Even though the state's Democratic nominee for governor lost by 34 percentage points four years ago, Democrats in this conservative Deep South state think they have a shot this time with Attorney General Hood as their nominee. Hood, 57, who is serving his fourth term, has been elected by wide margins in his previous races and is currently the only Democrat to hold statewide office.

The rally is one of a handful of events Trump and Vice President Mike Pence will be holding in the coming days to try to bolster Republican candidates running in gubernatorial elections.

Trump is scheduled to travel to Kentucky Monday to campaign for incumbent GOP Gov. Matt Bevin. He is heading to Louisiana on Wednesday to campaign for Republican gubernatorial candidate Eddie Rispone, who is trying to unseat incumbent Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards.

Pence was in Kentucky Friday campaigning for Bevin and will travel to the Mississippi Gulf Coast Monday to campaign for Reeves, among other stops.

"It's always good for the president to help out Republicans up and down the ticket," said Rick Gorka, a spokesman for Trump's campaign and the Republican national party. "He needs reliable partnerships and strong leaders in the states in order to continue to enact his policies, so this is a way to lend his support to Tate Reeves to close out this election strong."

Among the issues Trump was expected to address in his remarks were energy production and the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement that his administration has been pushing Congress to ratify. And he continued to rail against the House's impeachment inquiry, a day after the House voted to formalize the proceedings.

The events with Trump and Pence will be the largest campaign rallies for either gubernatorial candidate in the state of Mississippi. Reeves and Hood have instead focused on speaking to small groups at fish fries, local festivals and volunteer fire departments.

Reeves has sought to tie Hood as closely as possible to national Democrats, such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who are deeply unpopular in a state that voted heavily for Trump in the last presidential election.

Reeves says under Republican control in Mississippi, students are seeing academic gains and lawmakers are building up the state's financial reserves.

"Mississippi is moving in the right direction," Reeves says in one of his campaign commercials. "We need a governor strong enough to take us to our full potential. Jim Hood won't, but I will."

Hood says Reeves and other Republicans have underfunded schools and ignored the financial plight of rural hospitals while giving tax breaks to big businesses.

Hood has not invited national Democratic figures to Mississippi. He's running campaign commercials that show him with his family, his pickup truck and his hunting dog, Buck. In one, Hood unpacks a rifle and says that "Tate Reeves and his out-of-state corporate masters" are spending money on a "bunch of lies."

"You all know me. I've worked for you for years. I do my job and I'm a straight shooter," Hood says. The spot ends with Hood shooting the gun and shattering a bottle.

Hood is also running radio ads designed to appeal to African American voters - one with an endorsement from former U.S. Rep. Mike Espy, who ran a strong but ultimately unsuccessful race for U.S. Senate in Mississippi last year, and another that mentions Hood leading the successful 2005 prosecution of reputed Ku Klux Klan leader Edgar Ray Killen in the 1964 slaying of three civil rights workers.

The outreach reflects the importance of black voters to any possible Hood victory. African Americans make up 38% of the state's population, but some say they're irritated by Hood's emphasis on courting rural white voters.

Brad Franklin of Jackson, an African American entrepreneur and rapper, said he usually supports Democrats and will vote for Hood. But Franklin said he's put off by Hood using one type of message for black audiences and another for "rural Mississippians."

"Jim Hood should not, in 2019, have to act like he's a conservative to get voted in," Franklin said. "If you are conservative, say you are conservative."

Franklin said Hood and other Democrats need to try harder to earn young voters' support, and he believes some will stay home rather than turn out for Hood.

Reeves has faced some enthusiasm problems of his own in the Republican party. He was forced into a runoff with Bill Waller Jr., former chief justice of the Mississippi Supreme Court.

But Gorka said the party was confident heading into Election Day.

"We're looking at a strong possibility of winning in Mississippi, but also flipping seats in Louisiana and keeping the one in Kentucky," he said. "So the way we always approach any election is we invest to win, both with data and infrastructure, but also with the most precious resource, the president's time, to make sure that we're getting the most bang for our buck."

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