One of the more heated races is for Secretary of State and it’s seen fireworks and an onslaught of negative ads.
Southern Public Service Commissioner Sam Britton and State Senator Michael Watson are engaged in a battle in the Republican primary.
With one week until the primary now is the last chance to win over voters.
“Both of whom aren’t very well known statewide and if you’re not well known statewide you gotta go one of two things,” said Adam Ganucheau, politics reporter for Mississippi Today. “You gotta either get a lot of media coverage and a lot of press get some attention basically or you got to spend a lot of money or I suppose both.”
The campaigns have turned to attacking each other.
In one ad Britton goes after Watson’s PAC donations saying: “Michael Watson gave thousands of dollars to a group who tried to steal the republican nominations from Donald Trump.”
Watson has Governor Phil Bryant doing his bidding against Britton.
In a video from a recent gulf coast fundraiser Bryant attacks Britton saying:
“He wanted to run as a Democrat then he decided he wasn’t then he wanted to be a Republican and then he wanted to give money to Ronnie Musgrove.”
Commissioner Britton said in a statement:
“In this campaign my opponent has recklessly attacked me over and over. I’ve stayed focused on the issues that I feel are most important to this campaign and to Mississippians.
I’m proud to have been one of the first MS public officials to support Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign. I’m also disturbed to understand the lengths that my opponent went to work against Trump in ‘16.”
Senator Watson said:
” All of my campaign advertising is based on facts, not distortions or complete lies like Sam Britton has been doing. From altering photographs and trying to blatantly deceive voters, Sam Britton is running the most negative campaign of 2019.
My record is clear as a conservative legislator with real accomplishments and strong support of President Trump—even being asked by Governor Bryant to serve as part of Mississippi’s delegation to the 2016 Republican National Convention to support President Trump’s nomination—something I did enthusiastically, and Sam Britton was not a part of that delegation.”
The end goal according to Ganucheau is to separate themselves to increase their statewide profile.
“You know I know people get tired of seeing these attack ads and they’re trying to figure out who these candidates are and what they stand for but when you don’t have that name I’d like I said you have to do something to grab the attention of people and I think that’s why we’ve seen so many attacks, ” said Ganucheau.
The primary is August 6th.
