Heavy-hitters arrive in South MS as contentious Gulfport mayor’s race nears end

Through phone calls, mailers and high-profile endorsements, the candidates vying to become Gulfport’s next mayor are making a final push to lure voters this week at the end of what has become an intense and high-stakes campaign.

In a rally on Friday headlined by U.S. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Republican leaders spoke in urgent terms about a race they called tight and too important to lose.

“This will take the extra-mile effort,” Scott said from a private hangar at the Gulfport-Biloxi International Airport. How the city votes, he added, “is going to be a sign for Mississippi.”

Scott, who was once floated as a possible running mate to President Donald Trump, appeared Friday on behalf of Republican mayoral candidate Hugh Keating. He spoke alongside U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, U.S. Rep. Mike Ezell and outgoing Gulfport Mayor Billy Hewes.

The rally came during a tense week of the campaign: Mississippi’s Republican Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced an investigation on Wednesday into Democratic candidate Sonya Williams Barnes after Republicans accused some locals of giving restaurant vouchers to voters in what the party calls a violation of state law.

Democrats, though, are defiant: Barnes called the allegations false this week and said she has “not engaged in any form of voter fraud.” Supporters who turned out for her in big numbers during the primary are condemning the news as a politically-motivated distraction and say they have faith their grassroots effort will prevail.

Barnes did not immediately return a message Friday afternoon. But she has said her team is knocking on doors and calling voters in a campaign that is “organized, energetic and grounded in the belief that our city deserves new leadership that listens, leads with integrity and acts in the public’s best interest.”

“I’m running because I hear the call for change from every corner of our community,” she said in a statement this week on social media.

Get out the vote rally

The Republican rally was billed as an effort to get out the vote and swelled to about 200 people. Republicans there said the Democratic energy behind Barnes campaign was a wake-up call that should galvanize voters. The crowd, some wearing red Trump hats, nodded along.

Barnes won the April Democratic primary with 3,316 votes. Mayor Billy Hewes, a Republican who is not running again, won the 2021 general election with 2,680 votes. Keating had no Republican opponent in the primary.

City officials said they had received more than 1,000 absentee ballots by Thursday evening. There were 177 absentee voters in the 2021 general election, according to the city.

Hyde-Smith said she asked Scott to visit Gulfport after she learned Democratic operative Stacey Abrams was supporting Barnes. Abrams grew up in Gulfport, and she and Barnes are the children of United Methodist ministers who were friends. Republicans have said her support is part of national Democratic effort to turn Gulfport blue. Barnes has said she alone is responsible for running her campaign and called similar statements divisive.

Democrats denounce GOP claims

At the Capitol on Thursday, a group of legislative Democrats gathered to reject the election fraud claims leveled by the state Republican Party. “This election has been very fair, very balanced. But these are scare tactics of the Republican party that have been used for years,” said Rep. Cheikh Taylor, Chairman of the Mississippi Democratic Party. “The fact is, she’s winning. And she’s winning in an area that’s uncommon for a lot of Democrats. She’s going to make history as the first African American female to become mayor, and I think people are afraid.”

The status of the Attorney General’s investigation is not clear because the office does not comment on open inquiries. Barnes said she and her attorney met with two investigators from the Attorney General’s Office on Thursday.

“I fully cooperated with the investigators and answered every question asked of me,” she said in a statement on social media. “These accusations are false, and I stand firmly on the truth.”

Keating said news of the investigation had not significantly changed Republican voters’ absentee turnout.

“We were already energized,” he said.

Mississippi Today reporters Michael Goldberg and Geoff Pender and Sun Herald reporter Anita Lee contributed.