Missisippi

When Bubba O’Keefe announced he was running for mayor of Clarksdale this spring, there was a mixed response. This dirt-poor, crumbling Mississippi Delta city is more than 80 percent African American – and Bubba is white. But so poorly had the current mayor, who is African American, been performing that Bubba’s supporters thought he’d be a shoo-in, and that the residents would buy into the mantra that he was Clarksdale’s last hope, white or black. Locals describe Mississippi as the crime state. And Clarksdale is the worst city in Mississippi. There are 20 times more murders per capita in Clarksdale than in New York. As Bubba says: “We only have a population of 13,000 and there are 19 or 20 murders a year.

A distant cousin of Elvis Presley is running as a Democrat to be governor of Mississippi. And much like the King of Rock and Roll, Brandon Presley can’t help falling in love — at the most politically expedient times.  Just days before his campaign season wedding to Katelyn Mabus was scheduled, he scrambled to let invitees know that his show will not in fact go on. Presley, a lifelong bachelor, has been running for office since he was a young man. He was elected mayor of his North Mississippi town at twenty-four years old and has served as an elected energy regulator since.  In December 2022, just twenty-four days before announcing that he’d be challenging Governor Tate Reeves in an attempt to turn Mississippi blue, he had an even more special announcement.

Just before 11 p.m. on Tuesday June 1, 18-year-old Kennedy Hobbs of Jackson, Mississippi stopped at a gas station off of Medgar Evers Boulevard to gas up. She had graduated from Murrah High School in Jackson that same day and was on her way to a graduation party. While at the gas station, she made a phone call. While talking, she was shot multiple times by an unknown person and died on the scene. Details are murky and police are still investigating, but at this time it doesn’t appear that Hobbs knew the shooter. Like many other cities, Jackson, whose population is almost 82 percent black, has experienced a surge in violent crime over the past two years. Its murder rate is one of the highest in the country.