Trump wins Mississippi, earns six electoral votes
Published 7:28 pm Tuesday, November 3, 2020
President Donald Trump has won in Mississippi, with its six electoral votes.
The state’s red voting history meant neither Trump nor former Vice President Joe Biden campaigned heavily in person in Mississippi, which went strongly for Trump in 2016. During that election, Republican Trump won 58% of the vote compared to Democrat Hillary Clinton’s 40%.
President Trump visited Tupelo in November 2019 to help campaign for Tate Reeves’ gubernatorial race. Vice President Mike Pence and Trump’s son, Donald Trump Jr., also appeared in the state last fall to support Reeves. Before that, Trump last visited Mississippi in 2018 in the run-up to the U.S. Senate election to support Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith.
Biden visited Jackson ahead of the Mississippi presidential primary in March of this year, speaking at a predominantly African American church and a Tougaloo College, which is historically Black. U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s only African American and Democratic statewide officeholder, introduced Biden at both events.
Mississippi has voted Republican in every presidential race since 1980. Every major official in the state is Republican except for Congressman Thompson. Thompson represents the state’s only majority-Black district. Both houses of the Mississippi Legislature are controlled by Republicans.