Thread by @jallen1985

In which MS state senator Barbara Blackmon in 2021 tells @BobbyHarrison9 that Mississippi exploits black-majority districts to pack black voters, which Kirk Fordice in 1992 admitted to @cspan that Mississippi did.

https://twitter.com/MSTODAYnews/status/1361004872016011264

For example, the black voters of Laurel are overwhelmingly carved out of Senate District 42, represented by Chris McDaniel (R-Klan).

Why? Supposedly in order to protect Juan Barnett (D-District 34) from competitive elections.

But no one came w/in 20 points of Juan Barnett in a general election in the past decade: ballotpedia.org/Mississippi_St…

Shoveling SO MANY black voters into 34 isn't necessary for black voters to have a fair chance to elect a candidate of choice in 34. It just makes 42 a Klan district.

The same is true of Senate Districts 18, 32, and 33.

Portions of Louisville and Meridian are carved out of 18 and 33, respectively, and into 32, represented by Sampson Jackson, a black Democrat.

The justification is that Sampson Jackson must be protected from competitive elections...but no one has challenged Jackson since 2015, when he won by a vote of 69% to 31%. ballotpedia.org/Mississippi_St…

The tradeoff? District 18 and District 33 are ultra-white districts, both of which were uncontested in the 2019 general elections. Only one was contested in 2015, resulting in a vote of 75% to 25%.

Incidentally, District 18 produced Jenifer Branning, the MS Senate elections chair last year, who blocked legislation to improve voting during the pandemic—and District 33 produced Jeff Tate, the curring MS Senate elections chair, who sponsors this year's main voter purge bill.

You might ask...but if they tilt these districts SO far in one direction, doesn't that just open the door for independent challengers?

Well, it WOULD, except that MS's ballot access rules are designed to deter candidates from running as independents:

https://twitter.com/jallen1985/status/1347240505906704384

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