Democrat Baria holds House seat despite opponent's back from top Republicans

David Baria survived a stiff challenge from the state Republican Party to keep his House 122 seat.

Baria said he holds a 103-vote lead over Republican challenger Mickey Lagasse with 27 affidavit ballots to count.

The Republicans clearly wanted Baria out. Gov. Phil Bryant, Lt. Gov Tate Reeves, House Speaker Phil Gunn and GOP chairman Joe Nosef all came to the Coast to campaign for his opponent.

"They threw everything at me they had out of Jackson," said Baria, who won his second term in the House as a Democrat in an increasingly Republican district. "But the bottom line is the voters of Hancock County don't want to be told by Jackson who their representative will be."

Still, despite the top Republicans campaigning against, Baria said he could work with them.

"I always believe there's a chance," he said. "If (Democrats) are able to close the gap in terms of majority, even if the Democrats don't come out on top, I would hope the Republicans will reach across the aisle to come up with a plan to move Mississippi forward."

He said he especially hopes Coast Republicans will help him ensure that BP oil disaster money that he said should be spent on the Coast does not wind up in the general fund.

In other races, Sen. Michael Watson easily defeated Libertarian challenger Kendall Boyd. Republican Joseph "Mike" Seymour, with 41 percent of precincts in, had opened a 2,105-298 lead over Democrat Jimmy "Bo" Alawine for the Senate 48 seat vacated by Tony Smith, who lost his primary race for PSC.

Democratic Sen. Deborah Dawkins defeated Republican Walter Crapps, 4,963-4,337, to keep her Senate seat in District 48.

On the House side, incumbent Republican Manly Barton was leading Libertarian Joshua Hardy in District 109, and Charles Busby, also a Republican, had a big lead over Democrat Kay Sims in District 111 with a little over a quarter of the precincts in.

In District 121, Republican Carolyn Crawford kept her seat with a 3,273-1,612 victory over Democratic challenger Brian Pearse.

This story was originally published November 3, 2015 at 10:54 PM with the headline "Democrat Baria holds House seat despite opponent's back from top Republicans ."