“Mississippi isn’t making news. We are now making history,” Gov. Tate Reeves told a packed crowd under the pavilion at Founder’s Square during his annual Neshoba County Fair stump speech.
On what was a brutally hot Thursday, the elements were not nearly as fiery as the state’s top elected official as he defended Mississippi’s record under his leadership and challenged what he said is a “false narrative” surrounding the state’s economy and education.
Reeves, taking a page out of President Donald Trump’s playbook, criticized media figures he believes have sinister agendas to slam Mississippi, its Republican leadership, and the values pushed under that leadership.
“They just can’t possibly understand our Mississippi values and our Mississippi way of life. They sit in their liberal enclaves up in the north or in the west, and in some instances, they even move down here to enlighten us of what they think is a better way. In fact, most of the time, it seems that they are against our way every step of the way,” Reeves said.
“They cannot fathom that a conservative government run for the people, by the people will lead to educational and economic prosperity for all of our people,” he continued. “A lot of these so-called reporters and activists aren’t interested in telling the truth about the special things happening in our state. They’d rather push a false narrative to generate clicks. They’re intent on pushing their own agenda at our expense.”
Bringing out receipts, Reeves blasted national outlets for running editorials accusing Mississippi of being “awash in destitution, pain and suffering,” claiming that the state’s economy is weak, contending that Mississippi is America’s worst state for business, and asserting that states such as Mississippi with abortion restrictions lose their “economic edge.”
“Boy, were they wrong. Today, in Mississippi, we are knocking down barriers, and our state’s economy is booming,” Reeves said. “We set an all-time state record, and then we break it over and over and over again.”
During the governor’s six years in office, Mississippi has secured more than $35 billion in new private investment, becoming a top-three state for jobs created through reshoring. The state has also achieved record-low unemployment rates and emerged as one of the fastest-growing states in terms of real domestic product growth, with per capita income experiencing a recent surge. Reeves has long championed himself as a business-friendly leader with his record emphasizing that approach.
His recent focus has been on Mississippi’s economic momentum through new partnerships with giants in artificial intelligence, investing in AI-related education initiatives, and becoming a national leader in the energy sector. According to Reeves, these campaigns have been made possible through major wins in economic development.
“When it comes to reporting on Mississippi’s economy, the national media consistently gets it wrong, and they rarely get it right. These ‘Yankee’ reporters are the definition of ‘artificial intelligence,'” Reeves remarked, adding, “But it doesn’t stop with economic development. They’ve also been dogging our education reforms for years.”
Reeves also touched on the pushback Mississippi’s leaders received when toughening literacy standards for third graders to advance to the next grade, consolidating school districts, allowing students in failing districts to enroll in a public charter school, and passing education scholarship accounts for pupils with special needs.
“After we passed [the reforms], there were a lot of wild claims made and being thrown around from all over. One very vocal liberal activist in our state said that Mississippi is setting these kids up for failure. The head of Obama and Biden’s education policy transition team even went so far as to say, and I quote, ‘If districts really want to meet the needs of third graders, they would pass struggling readers along to the fourth grade,'” Reeves reminisced. “How crazy is that?”
Mississippi has made recent strides in education, as highlighted by a breakthrough in literacy rates, significant improvements in fourth and eighth-grade math and reading scores, record-breaking high school graduation rates, a downtick in dropouts, and school districts bettering their accountability grades. Mississippi was once in the educational cellar on a national scale, but the state has since reversed course.
According to Reeves, these victories have even led some former detractors to switch sides. Pointing to a recent Free Press interview with Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff during President Barack Obama’s first two years in office, Reeves noted that the prominent Democratic leader vouched for the work Mississippi has done in reforming education as a standard that ought to be employed nationally.
“We are consistently exceeding expectations. We are proving the doubters wrong, and we are charting a new path for prosperity for all of our people,” Reeves said. “Mississippi’s critics don’t understand us because they don’t have any interest in getting to know us. They want to shame us for our values and for us to be ashamed of being Mississippians. But I’ve got news for them — We’re not ashamed to believe in God and to display our faith … In other words, we are not, and we never will be ashamed to be Mississippians.”
To Reeves, the state’s critics fail to realize that Mississippi’s best virtues hinge on its populace being unapologetically Mississippian. The governor suggested that the faith-based values instilled in droves of Mississippians at a young age have paved a clear path to recent success stories. And though Reeves understands that critics may not agree with the politics of many Mississippians, painting false narratives about the state will not reverse the positive progress continuing to be made.
“Mississippi is winning, and we’re doing it without sacrificing the conservative values that helped build the greatest state in the greatest nation in the history of mankind,” Reeves said. “Mississippi is no longer your punchline, nor is Mississippi your punching bag.”
“We are a blueprint and a model for what is possible when you have conservative values, when you have the best people on the planet, and when you have an unyielding will to succeed. That is Mississippi, so I say, ‘Thank God for Mississippi.'”
