Republicans have held a 3-1 partisan advantage in Mississippi’s House delegation since 2010, when the last of the state’s conservative “boll weevil” Democrats switched parties for good. There hasn’t been anything resembling a close race in Mississippi since then. But the state has played host to some exciting primaries: GOP Reps. Michael Guest in the 3rd District and Steven Palazzo in the 4th District both faced serious challenges last year, with Palazzo ultimately losing renomination to current congressman Mike Ezell by eight points.
During the 2000 and 2010 redistricting cycles, the U.S. Supreme Court tasked a federal judicial panel with drawing Mississippi’s congressional boundaries in order to ensure compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. But in 2020, Mississippi’s Republican-led legislature reassumed control of the process. Soon after the lines were redrawn, Democrats and voting rights groups accused the legislature of racial gerrymandering. They sued in federal court, alleging that the Legislature excessively packed the 2nd District with Black voters to prevent competition in the state’s other three seats. But a federal court disagreed and the U.S. Supreme Court
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