The Other Side: Mississippi Today's Political Podcast

Democratic Party Chairman Cheikh Taylor says voters are fed up with high prices, corruption and turmoil emanating from Washington as Mississippi's midterm federal elections enter the home stretch. He says Trump appears to be aiding in Democratic GOTV efforts.

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Scott Colom says Mississippi voters are fed up with high prices and D.C. corruption and "We've got to go in a new direction." He takes digs at Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's refusal to debate and lack of public town halls and forums.

Republican Ron Eller, a physician's assistant from Raymond, is making his third run for the 2nd District U.S. House seat in Mississippi. Eller, an Army veteran, explains how God spoke to him telling him to run via a congressional lapel pin he found in the parking lot of a Sam's Club and outlines his platform.

  State Rep. Jeffrey Hulum III, who's represented Harrison County in the state House since 2022, says his experience as a 22-year Army combat veteran, and years of helping feed the neediest Mississippians has taught him about leadership and how to bring communities together. Hulum is the Democratic nominee for the 4th District U.S. House seat in Mississippi, running against incumbent Republican Mi...

Michael Chiaradio, an entrepreneur and owner of a small farm in Shubuta, is the Democratic nominee for Mississippi's 3rd District congressional seat, challenging incumbent Republican Michael Guest. Chiaradio, a first-time political candidate, said that as a constituent he was disappointed with Guest rubber stamping the Trump administration agenda, and that when he saw Guest as the only name on his...

Mississippi Today welcomes back Adam Ganucheau to look back on the early days of the newsroom and the origins of The Other Side. Plus, Mary Margaret White joins editor-in-chief Emily Wagster Pettus to look ahead to 10-year anniversary celebrations and what audiences can expect in years to come.

Department of Public Safety Commissioner Sean Tindell has been overseeing the state Highway Patrol, Bureaus of investigations and narcotics, Capitol Police, drivers services, forensic lab and medical examiners, and many other law-enforcement divisions. Before that he was a state Court of Appeals Judge, state senator and a prosecutor on the Coast. He said his experience has prepared him to serve as...

Democratic nominee for Mississippi's U.S. House District 1 outlines why he is running against incumbent Republican Rep. Trent Kelly. Johnson, a longtime attorney, is director of the MacArthur Justice Center at the University of Mississippi where he pushed to shut down the state's anachronistic debtor's prisons. Johnson said his focus if elected to Congress would be on affordability, access to affo...

State and national GOP strategist Henry Barbour runs through likely and confirmed candidates for Mississippi races this year and next, running down the ticket from U.S. Senate, stopping just shy of dog catcher.

Last week, Attorney General Lynn Fitch joined what's shaping up to be a crowded list of candidates running for governor in 2027. Mississippi Today reporters Michael Goldberg and Taylor Vance sit down with Mississippi Today Ideas editor Bobby Harrison to discuss the candidates who have entered the race and the policy ideas emerging in the race so far. 

Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson, a Republican candidate for governor next year, says he's concerned the proliferation of data centers in Mississippi puts the state at risk and that he's hearing major concerns about data centers and AI from Mississippians as he campaigns across the state. Gipson said data centers and the AI boom are being funded by debt and "circular financing," similar to wha...

Senate Judiciary A Chairman Brice Wiggins has worked for years to reform Mississippi's notoriously opaque youth courts. He sat down with Mississippi Today to discuss why the courts are now somewhat open to the public, what happened during the the recent special legislative session and why having a uniform youth court system is crucial to to the state.

Stuart Stevens for decades was one of the top Republican political strategists and he ran campaigns for dozens of congressional, senatorial, gubernatorial and presidential campaigns. But the Mississippi native left the party over President Trump and says, "There is no Republican party ... it has turned into the pro-tariffs party." Stevens says the GOP these days, "in many ways is to the left of th...

Mississippi Today's Molly Minta walks through the Jackson corruption case that resulted in the conviction of five people, including former Mayor Chockwe Antar Lumumba and former District Attorney Jody Owens, from the city's initial plans to develop some property into a convention hotel to the FBI bribery sting.

Katie Blount talks about leading the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, including the public response to the Two Mississippi Museums. She retired as the department's director on June 30.

Mississippi Today staff gives a rundown of the political stumping at the Neshoba County Fair last week. Did anyone make any news? Did we mention it was hot?

Senate Public Health Chairman Hob Bryan said the lack of transparency around the governor's program to spend millions in federal rural health dollars in Mississippi is "almost the Saturday Night Live parody of secrecy." Bryan and his House counterpart, Chairman Sam Creekmore, share their frustrations over lack of input from communities, and the Legislature, in how the state spends federal rural he...

Mina Corpuz with Mississippi Today and Daja E. Henry with The Marshall Project review their deep-dive reporting into suicides in Mississippi's prisons. Inmates -- including those known to pose harm to themselves -- are often locked away in solitary confinement without adequate checks on their wellbeing. The reporters looked at a decade's worth of data and tell harrowing stories through the eyes of...

Tameshia Shelton, a Clay County mother of four, is serving life in prison on a murder conviction. But the latest reporting from Jerry Mitchell and Madeline Nguyen has opened the door for her to get a long-awaited retrial. The investigative reporters join Emily Wagster Pettus to discuss their findings and the recent ruling from the Mississippi Supreme Court.

National NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson talks with Mississippi Today about GOP redistricting in Mississippi and across the South, and on his organization's call for a boycott of major college athletic programs in states pushing to weaken Black voting power through gerrymandering.

Mississippi Today's politics team gives a rundown on a monumental week in the Magnolia State that saw thousands of people marching and rallying in Jackson over voting rights and the gerrymandering battle embroiling much of the nation.

House Democratic Leader Robert Johnson of Natchez says that as states across the nation become embroiled over racial and partisan gerrymandering of voting districts, he believes now they'll know "what it's like to be in Mississippi" with its long struggles with voting rights and drawing district lines. What other states see as unprecedented political battle, Johnson said, "We call Tuesday."

Attorney Ty Pinkins is an independent candidate for U.S. Senate this year, facing incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democratic candidate Scott Colom. Pinkins says partisan politics and big-money influence are causing government to fail Mississippians and the system has become 'a self-licking ice cream.'

Scott Colom, district attorney and former judge, is the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate in Mississippi's upcoming midterm election. He says incumbent Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith has put politics ahead of what's good for Mississippians and that he will be more accessible to constituents and support policies that help them.

Longtime Sen. Hob Bryan, chairman of the Senate Public Health Committee, discusses the recent failed attempt by lawmakers to override the governor's veto of a bill aimed at oversight and transparency in spending of hundreds of millions of federal funds for rural health care in Mississippi.