MS senator muddies Gulfport mayor’s campaign with ‘racially charged’ comment
Opponents for Gulfport mayor — Hugh Keating and Sonya Williams Barnes — agreed early on that they would run clean campaigns.
But Mississippi Sen. Joel Carter of Biloxi, Keating’s godson and a fellow Republican, has taken a swipe at Democrat Barnes on social media that some of residents deemed offensive. He also inaccurately commented, Barnes said, that Barnes secured federal disaster cleanup contracts.
“What he is trying to do is cause division and we have been very intentional about being very inclusive of all races, all religions,” said Barnes, who is Black.
On his Senate Facebook page, Carter noted that Georgia politician Stacey Abrams is financially supporting Barnes’ campaign. Abrams, also Black Democrat, focused on voter turnout and came stunningly close in 2018 to defeating Republican Gov. Brian Kemp in a race that drew national attention.
Carter wrote on Facebook: “Stacey Abrams and her cronies are highly involved in the Gulfport mayoral race. Hugh’s opponent will have more than enough cash to bus voters to the polls and feed them. The democrats will be extremely organized. Do not take this mayoral race for granted! Hugh is NOT a shoo-in!.”
Keating hasn’t publicly rejected or apologized for Carter’s comments.
“I speak for myself,” Keating said. “ . . . I don’t have any control over what some of my supporters may say, any more than my opponent has control over what some of her supporters may say.”
Carter said his comments were aimed at getting out the Republican vote for the June 3 general election. His post came April 1, after a strong showing by Barnes in the Democratic primary.
Her winning primary vote total was 3,316. Current Mayor Billy Hewes, a Republican who is not seeking office again, won the 2021 general election with 2,680 votes, records show. For the 2025 primary, Keating did not have a Republican opponent.
“They saw the votes that we got out,” Barnes said. “ . . . They’re scared.”
Stacey Abrams grew up in Gulfport
By Thursday afternoon, Carter’s Facebook post had 114 comments and 230 shares.
Barnes noted that Abrams is not “an outsider,” having spent most of her childhood in Gulfport. Both Abrams and Barnes are the children of United Methodist ministers who were friends. Abrams’ mother, in fact, gave the eulogy at the funeral of Barnes’ mother.
Abrams said in a statement emailed to the Sun Herald on Thursday: “Like me, Sonya grew up grounded in faith, service, and the belief that our communities deserve better. While I may have moved from the place we’ve both called home, I’ve watched her lead with heart and purpose — Gulfport would be well-served to have her vision and her voice in the mayor’s office.”
While Abrams has contributed to Barnes’ campaign, the mayoral candidate said she alone is responsible for running it. Barnes won all three of her elections to serve 10 years in the Mississippi House of Representatives before resigning in 2022 for a job at the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Carter, once her colleague in Jackson, has not returned telephone calls from the Sun Herald about his Facebook post but did respond to texted questions.
“The reason for the post was for Republicans to understand that they can’t take this race for granted,” he wrote. “They need to get out to the polls and vote.”
Senator’s post upsets some residents
Carter denied any ill intent, but more than one commenter took offense.
“It is deeply disappointing to see Senator Joel Carter resort to baseless, racially charged accusations against Sonya 4 Mayor, falsely claiming that voters will be ‘bused to the polls and fed,’ ” Gulfport resident Bernell Topp Kelly wrote. “There is no evidence to support this tired and offensive narrative, which has long been used to undermine and intimidate Black voters.”
Carter was previously called out over what critics said was a racist post on Twitter in February 2023, after the U.S. shot down a Chinese surveillance balloon off the South Carolina coast. He posted an image of a balloon that said in handwritten red text, “Weather Barroon” and “Totary NOT For Spying.”
In the Facebook back-and-forth over the mayor’s race, Carter was also referring to Barnes when he told one of her supporters that her candidate “received federal contracts for disaster cleanup when not qualified” and asked, “When did your candidate get out of the funeral home business?”
He did not respond to a text from the Sun Herald about the comment.
Barnes said she still works as funeral director at Lockett Williams Mortuary, a family funeral home, and has never had a federal contract for disaster cleanup or any other purpose. “If I did,” she added, “it’s not illegal, so what is the point?”
While she and Carter were once colleagues, she said that his comments did not surprise her.
“In this climate, nothing surprises me from anyone these days and that’s just the truth,” Barnes said. “We had a society where people had respect for each other and elected officials had respect for each other. But in this climate, people no longer respect each other.”
She added: “I really don’t want to give him life with his statement and I have asked my team to move on from this.”
She and Keating both recalled their encounter back in January at the Coast legislative reception in Jackson.
“And the first thing Hugh said to me was, ‘We’re going to have a clean campaign,” Barnes said, ‘I said, ‘Of course, I would operate no other way.’ ”
Keating said he did not know ahead of time what Carter planned to post on Facebook.
“What’s done is done, unfortunately,” he said. “The situation became more than it should have and that’s the way it goes sometimes.”
