Vote Tuesday: Candidates battle for seats on state’s highest courts

When Mississippi voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide who should become the country’s next president, a large swath of voters will also participate in a battle for seats on the state’s highest court. 

Incumbent Justice Jim Kitchens, the second-most senior judge on the Mississippi Supreme Court, is facing a challenge from four opponents, most notably Republican state Sen. Jenifer Branning of Neshoba County. 

In the five-person race for the Central District, which covers part of the Delta and the state’s capital Metro Area, the Republican Party has thrown its infrastructure and money behind Branning, a self-described “constitutional conservative.” There are three other challengers: Ceola James, a former Court of Appeals judge, and Byron Carter and Abby Gale Robinson, both private-practice attorneys.

Kitchens, first elected to the court in 2008, is a former district attorney and private practice attorney. On the campaign trail, he has often touted his experience as an attorney and judge, particularly his time prosecuting criminals and his rulings on criminal cases. 

“It’s one thing to talk about being tough on crime and another to sign your name at the bottom of a death warrant,” Kitchens said at the Neshoba County Fair. “You heard me right — a death warrant. I’ve done that, too, and I’m the only candidate who’s done that.” 

Kitchens has raised over $288,000 and spent around $189,000 of that money, leaving him with roughly $98,000 in cash on hand. Most of his campaign donations have come from trial attorneys around the state. 

Kitchens is one of two centrist members of the high court and is widely viewed as the preferred candidate of Democratic elected officials, though the Democratic Party has not endorsed his candidacy. Not only are GOP forces working to oust one of the dwindling number of centrist jurists on the high court, they appreciate Kitchens is next in line to lead the court as chief justice should current Chief Justice Mike Randolph step down.

Branning, a private practice attorney, was first elected to the Legislature in 2015. She has led the Senate Elections Committee and the Senate Transportation Committee. During her time at the Capitol, she’s voted against changing the state flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem, voted against expanding Medicaid to the working poor and supported mandatory and increased minimum sentences for crime.

While campaigning for the judicial seat, she has pledged to ensure that “conservative values” are always represented in the judiciary, but she has stopped short of endorsing policy positions. 

“The bottom line is this: We can elect conservatives to our executive and legislative branches,” Branning said at the Neshoba County Fair this summer. “But if we elect liberal, activist judges to our judicial branch, they will undermine the will of the voters and undo the conservative policies that are helping our state grow.” 

Branning has raised over $666,000 and spent roughly $312,000, leaving her with around $354,000 in cash on hand. Several special interest groups and trade associations have donated to her campaign, but the donations have been supercharged by a $250,000 personal loan she gave her campaign. 

Branning and Kitchens have spent thousands of dollars on TV ads in recent weeks, blitzing the airwaves before the election.

One of Kitchens’ ads is a play on his name and similar to ads he’s aired in past elections. His wife, in the commercial, maintains he needs to be on the high court to keep him out of her kitchen.

One of Branning’s ads contains footage of a violent riot (not in Mississippi) with a narrator claiming “radical judges are overturning laws, threatening our safety and putting our freedom at risk.”

“As a constitutional conservative, I will always follow the law, and I will never legislate from the bench,” Branning says in the ad. “That means I will call balls and strikes instead of writing the rules of the game.” 

Judicial races in Mississippi are supposed to be nonpartisan, and candidates have some restrictions on what they can say on the campaign trail. But these elections are essentially nonpartisan in name only. During a recent hearing over how Supreme Court justices are elected, an attorney with Attorney General Lynn Fitch’s office even said partisan politics plays a large role in the elections. 

The Southern Poverty Law Center, an advocacy group specializing in civil rights litigation, has endorsed Kitchens’ bid for reelection, while the state GOP has endorsed Branning’s campaign. 

Southern Supreme Court Seat 

David Sullivan is also challenging incumbent Justice Dawn Beam for her seat in the Southern District, which includes Hattiesburg and the Gulf Coast area. 

Sullivan is a public defender in Harrison, Stone and Pearl River Counties and has been a municipal judge in D’Iberville since 2019. A Gulfport resident, Sullivan comes from a family of attorneys and judges. His father, Michael D. Sullivan, also served as a Supreme Court justice. 

Beam joined the state Supreme Court in 2016 after former Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her to the bench to fill the seat left vacant by former Justice Randy Pierce. She was later elected to a full eight-year term and is now running for her second term. She is the only woman on the court.

Before joining the state’s highest court, Beam served as a chancery court judge. Throughout her career, she has focused on improving child welfare in the court system.  

Open Court of Appeals seat 

Three candidates – Ian Baker, Jennifer Schloegel and Amy Lassiter St. Pe –  are competing for the open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals. The seat, concentrated in South Mississippi, opened up when Judge Joel Smith decided not to seek reelection. 

Baker is an assistant district attorney for Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties. Schloegel is a Chancery Court judge in Harrison, Hancock and Stone counties. St. Pé is an attorney in private practice, a municipal court judge in Gautier, and a city attorney for Moss Point. 

The state Supreme Court often has the final say in cases involving criminal, civil and death penalty appeals, questions on the state’s laws and its constitution, and legal issues of public interest. To prevent a backlog of cases, the Supreme Court assigns cases for the Court of Appeals to consider.

The top two courts in recent years have had the final say over legislation to create a support court system within the city of Jackson, struck down Mississippi’s ballot initiative process and ruled on whether the Legislature can appropriate public tax dollars to private schools. 

Absentee voting is currently ongoing, and in-person absentee voting ends at noon on November 2. Voters can cast in-person ballots for judicial races on November 5 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. 

With more than two candidates competing in the Central District Supreme Court seat and the Court of Appeals race, a runoff election would take place on Nov. 26 if no single candidate in the two races receives a majority of the votes cast.