Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba waited until Friday’s deadline to submit paperwork for reelection as the Democrat is now officially looking to win a third term, even with a federal indictment looming over his head.
Lumumba told reporters earlier in the week that the reason he did not provide qualifying material earlier in the process was because he’s been “busy working.” His team was also tasked with bringing finance reports up to date before becoming eligible. He delivered a manila envelope to the municipal clerk’s office one minute before the 5 p.m. deadline with what is presumed to be those updated reports to land himself on the ballot after previously not filing campaign finance reports since July 2021.
“I’m the only candidate who’s required out of the mayoral election to do some of the documentation that other candidates don’t have to do. That’s not a problem, but that’s the only explanation for that,” he said during his weekly press conference on Monday.
Lumumba is accused of accepting some $50,000 in bribes from undercover FBI informants posing as real estate developers to unlawfully change a deadline for what he believed was a hotel project looking to land in the capital city. He faces up to 75 years in prison if convicted of an array of corruption-related charges.
Lumumba was indicted in November, alongside Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens and Ward 6 City Councilman Aaron Banks. Former Ward 2 City Councilwoman Angelique Lee pleaded guilty to her involvement, admitting she accepted thousands in bribes from the same informants, while the others maintain their innocence and await trial.
While Lumumba has called the indictment “political prosecution,” citizens of Jackson have been working in recent months to line up challengers. That work has shaped what will be the busiest Democratic primary and general election for Jackson mayor in recent memory.
As the qualifying period closed Friday evening and city hall locked its doors for the weekend, 14 Democrats, three Republicans, and five independents had thrown their hats in the ring, according to an unofficial list provided by the municipal clerk’s office.
On the Democratic side, three running have experience as elected officials: state Sen. John Horhn, former Hinds County Supervisor David Archie, and former Edwards Mayor Marcus Wallace.
Horhn, who has represented Jackson in the Mississippi Legislature for over three decades and lost a mayoral bid against Lumumba in 2017, is running on a “Jackson is Ready” platform. He believes his relationships inside the capitol building can help Mississippi’s most populous city in sectors of infrastructure, public safety, and education – without making public fear of a full state takeover a reality.
“It’s going to be tough for us to climb out of this hole that’s been dug for us. It’s really unfortunate. But I hope that folks will focus on the health of the city, the survival of the city, and the survival of its people,” Horhn optimistically said.
“To those who want to count Jackson out: we say not so fast because Jackson is ready.”
Archie served as a county supervisor for four years but lost a reelection bid in 2023, subsequently embarking on an ongoing legal battle to try to prove his belief that the election was stolen from him.
After two terms as mayor in Edwards, a small town 30 miles west of Jackson, Wallace moved to the capital city to try to get the same seat he held in his former place of residence.
Other Democrats running for Jackson mayor are James “Blue” Butler, LaKeisha J. Crye, Delano Funches, Socrates Garrett, James E. Hopkins, Tim Henderson, Kourtney Christopher Page, Keyshia Sanders, Ali ShamsidDeen, and Albert Wilson.
Funches is a local attorney, while ShamsidDeen served as a municipal judge for nearly 15 years until 2022. Henderson is a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, who stated he’s “more resilient and committed to ensuring folks have a safe place to live and cleaning up this city.”
Crye is a nurse practitioner and business owner. Hopkins founded Reset Jackson, a grassroots community outreach organization aimed at violence prevention. Wilson directs a similar nonprofit called Genesis and Light Center while also working as an educator. Garrett is the owner of a general contractor company and was previously appointed by former Gov. Haley Barbour as chair of the Mississippi Broadband Connect Coalition. Sanders was a city employee who pleaded guilty to wire fraud in 2023.
As three Republicans in Ponto Ronnie Downing, Kenny G, and Wilfred Beal decided to run for mayor in a city long controlled by Democrats, radio personality Kim Wade might be considered the most conservative voice on the ballot. The host who has made a name for himself on a right-leaning WYAB show said on air Thursday that the city needs to stop thinking about race and instead think about what unified efforts can be made to “actually have some concrete steps that work to restore Jackson.”
Wade is running as an independent, along with Zach Servis, Rodney DePriest, Lillie Stewart-Robinson, and John Oliver Emmerich III. Servis is a musician. DePriest is a former Clinton alderman who moved to Jackson and founded a violence intervention nonprofit called REJXN. Stewart-Robinson is a preschool director and pastor. Emmerich is a columnist for Jackson-based Northside Sun and other newspapers across the state.
Downing lost the Republican primary for mayor in 2021, a race that saw less than 500 votes. Beal is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who has worked since 2019 as a transportation planning manager in the city’s transit division. Minimal information was available on Kenny G at the time this article was written.
Even with few Republican candidates, habitual GOP voters are expected to turn out for the Democratic primary. Ashby Foote, the only Republican currently on the city council out of Ward 1, has decided to run for reelection as an independent to allow his built-in voter base to have a louder voice in deciding which Democratic candidate will advance. The Democratic primary in 2021 saw less than 20,000 voters in a city with a population of around 144,000.
Municipal primaries are to take place on April 1, including races for mayor and city council. Residents who are not registered to vote have until March 3 to do so. The general election will take place on June 3.
