Headlines
Ladd: Clinton Takes Mississippi in 2016? Probably Against Trump, At Least …
Map from examiner.com.
A new polling analysis published by examiner.com indicates something about Mississippi that has been in the words for a while: Based on recent elections, our state is trending blue.
Based on polling data on a Hillary Clinton vs. Donald Trump showdown in 2016, Mississippi is one of the few Deep South states that would go for Clinton in that matchup.
This analysis might surprise many who think that Mississippi is the reddest state of the red (especially based on our statewide cavemen, er, elected officials). But several facts make it much more complicated than at first glance:
State Democrats have provided very few even-marginally-progressive options historically, giving younger and less-conservative choices to vote for, creating voter lethargy among those who might turn out and vote “blue” otherwise. That fact is actually changing this year, with several openly progressive (and female) Democrats getting at least some party support, instead of the pseudo-Republicans the party has tended to put up in the last 20 years.
More young people of all races are staying in Mississippi, and many of them are voting Democratic, and have since 2004.
Demographics, demographics, demographics. The irony of Mississippi being the state with the highest percentage of enslaved people in 1860 is that our state still has the highest percentage of African Americans and is more likely than much of Dixie to go blue first. Put simply, African Americans tend to vote Democratic, ever since the Republican Party embrace of Dixiecrats back in the late 1960s after national Dems supported civil-rights laws, and we have the highest percentage of black residents in the country.
And, let’s be honest, even many Republicans don’t want bat-shit-crazy Trump running this country.
Finally, to be honest again, a lot of white people like Clinton better than Obama (even if I’m not one of them).
So, there are no surprises here: Mississippi has been steadily trending blue for a while now. The question, as always, is: Will the people who can flip the state into the blue column turn out both this November (to save public-education funding and turn out a governor who makes us look like the most stuck-in-the-past state) and next November?
Time, and voter registration, will tell. Progressive (which is easy to be here by rejecting the radical right) Mississippians must find the will to stop giving up our power to sellouts to bigotry and backward ideas (and ideologues) to lift our state up. I’ve watched this will grow since we started this paper in 2002—and saw serious evidence of it when we turned back Personhood, shocking the nation—and I believe in upcoming elections we may well surprise the world once again. I’ve believed this was coming for nearly 15 years now.
Stay tuned and register to vote.
Donna Ladd is the editor-in-chief and co-owner of Jackson Free Press. She is the author of this blog post that originally posted on Jackson Free Press..
| Sat, Aug 31 |  | vs Furman | W, 76-0 |
| Sat, Sep 7 |  | vs Middle Tennessee | W, 52-3 |
| Sat, Sep 14 |  | @ Wake Forest | W, 40-6 |
| Sat, Sep 21 |  | vs Georgia Southern | W, 52-13 |
| Sat, Sep 28 |  | vs Kentucky | L, 20-17 |
| Sat, Oct 5 |  | @ South Carolina | W, 27-3 |
| Sat, Oct 12 |  | vs LSU | L, 29-26 (2 OT) |
| Sat, Oct 26 |  | vs Oklahoma | W, 26-14 |
| Sat, Nov 2 |  | @ Arkansas | W, 63-35 |
| Sat, Nov 16 |  | vs Georgia | 2:30 PM ABC |
| Sat, Nov 23 |  | @ Florida | 11:00 AM ABC or ESPN |
| Sat, Nov 30 |  | vs Mississippi State | 2:30 PM ESPN or ABC |
Lynne
July 20, 2015 at 7:32 pm
In the works, not “in the words”. Frightening that this was written by an editor-in-chief.
The Duhhh Factor
July 20, 2015 at 9:40 pm
The same poll also predicted it will snow in July in Biloxi and cream corn is going to replace Jesus as the most worshipped thing in the state in 2016. The attempt to predict the winner of the inevitable vote for “State Hat” was inconclusive, but showed a close race between “Birthday Sombrero” and “No hat. No hat at all.”
Karen
July 20, 2015 at 10:05 pm
Not in this lifetime lady! That’s all this country needs is another liar in office! If that is your idea of progress, then I’ll take backwards any day. Fyi, I’d vote for Trump before I saw Hilary Clinton receive my vote! You are clearly out of touch with reality!
Rex
July 20, 2015 at 10:29 pm
I don’t see Mississippi going blue in 2016. For one, I don’t think Trump will be the Republican nominee, and there’s still a sea of red, conservative voters in Mississippi who will never, ever vote for Hillary Clinton.
But I do think Mississippi will ultimately turn blue because of hispanic immigration. When, not if, but when, the hispanics become an organized voting bloc in this state, they will flip Mississippi from the red to the blue column. That is, unless the Republican party learns how to articulate a message of positive conservatism, Ronald Reagan style. (instead of having our leading congressional Republicans voting for Obamatrade)
George Vassallo
July 21, 2015 at 10:15 am
This woman is delusional. Hillary Clinton is still suffering from her head wound and will not make it through the full campaign season. That is why she is being separated from citizens by ropes and her handlers. This country needs a truth teller like Trump. That is what the polls are telling us.
Beauregard
July 21, 2015 at 12:33 pm
Obama got 43% of the vote in Mississippi in 2013 because black voters in our state turned out en masse. They won’t turn out in those numbers for Hillary and she is just as crazy left as Obama. The Republican nominee, who WILL NOT be Donald Trump, will carry Mississippi 60-40 just as George W Bush did both times.
Donna Ladd
July 21, 2015 at 2:06 pm
Thanks for pointing out the typo, Lynne. I don’t find the typo as frightening as you do, but I sure hate making them. This was picked up from a blog post on our site, which I admittedly did fairly quickly. I will fix it on our site and suggest that the editor up there fix it as well.
As for the other comments: First, I’m no a big fan of Hillary Clinton (or Bill, for that matter). My post isn’t about that. What was interesting to me about the Examiner analysis is that it tracks on the data collection about Mississippi that has happened for years now that shows our state trending more “blue,” especially among young people, even back to Kerry. Click on the links above, and you’ll see that 62% of Mississippians 29 and under voted for Kerry back then; those folks are 40 now if they happen to still be in the state. And Kerry isn’t exactly Obama in his ability to excite anyone, much less young voters.
Click all the links, and you’ll see more data sources, whether or not one approves of it. It only goes to reason with our demographic makeup and generational shifts to voters who have more progressive ideas on gay rights, women’s rights, race, public education and so on.
Does that mean that Clinton takes Mississippi? Who knows? But she or another Democrat probably has a better shot than many who don’t follow the political trending here care to believe. And if it’s against Trump (isn’t he pulling way ahead of the GOP pack?), then she clearly would have a good shot at the state. So there’s not a lot “delusion” here; it’s based on data and bit of common horse sense.
Alan
July 27, 2015 at 6:00 pm
It is continually amusing to hear the pundits , of which you seem to be one, discounting Trumps chances. Establishment Republicans said the same about McDaniel. The only question is whether the RNC will stoop as low as Haley and company did to win at any cost. Obama was a nobody who had done nothing before being elected president. Trump is very much a somebody who is known to almost everyone and who has done more for more people than anyone else in the race. Once he wins the Republican nomination he will certainly start connecting with the Dems and Independents who are as disgusted as most Americans are with Washington and phonies like Hillary. Yes, trends are changing and that is the hope that sustains me.
Michael Hoffman
February 28, 2019 at 11:24 pm
HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
George
June 20, 2019 at 9:46 am
At least you have the balls to leave this crap up. lol