The Mississippi Today politics team, including its two newest members, Simeon Gates and Michael Goldberg, outline the major issues lawmakers face as the 2025 legislative session begins this week.
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Geoff serves as Politics and Government Editor, working closely with Mississippi Today leadership on editorial strategy and investigations. Pender joined the Mississippi Today team in 2020, bringing 30 years of political and government reporting experience to the newsroom.
Previously, Pender served as Politics and Investigative Editor at The Clarion Ledger, where he also penned a popular political column. While at The Clarion Ledger, Pender helped lead digital transformation for the legacy publication, while overseeing watchdog news teams and government reporting. He previously served as an investigative reporter and political editor at the Sun Herald, where he was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for Hurricane Katrina coverage. Originally from Florence, Mississippi, Pender is a journalism graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi and has received numerous awards throughout his career for reporting, columns and freedom of information efforts.
Simeon Gates is a general assignment reporting intern at Mississippi Today. She previously worked at Southern Miss Student Media and attended the University of Southern Mississippi. As a student journalist, she received several awards including first place for the “Best Use of Video” in the college division of the Mississippi Press Association’s 2024 Better Newspaper Contest. Simeon is interested in political reporting and local government.
Taylor, a native of Grenada, covers state government and statewide elections. He is a graduate of the University of Mississippi and Holmes Community College. Before joining Mississippi Today, Taylor reported on state and local government for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, where he received an award for his coverage of the federal government’s lawsuit against the state’s mental health system.
