Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District election, 2026 (March 10 Democratic primary)

	← 2024
Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District
	Democratic primary; Republican primary; General election
Election details
	Filing deadline: December 26, 2025
	Primary: March 10, 2026; Primary runoff: April 7, 2026; General: November 3, 2026; General runoff: December 1, 2026
How to vote
	Poll times: 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.; Voting in Mississippi
Race ratings
	Cook Political Report: Solid Democratic; DDHQ and The Hill: Pending; Inside Elections: Solid Democratic; Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic
Ballotpedia analysis
	U.S. Senate battlegrounds; U.S. House battlegrounds; Federal and state primary competitiveness; Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2026
See also
	Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District; U.S. Senate • 1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th; Mississippi elections, 2026; U.S. Congress elections, 2026; U.S. Senate elections, 2026; U.S. House elections, 2026; Alabama U.S. House racesAlaska U.S. House raceArizona U.S. House racesArkansas U.S. House racesCalifornia U.S. House racesColorado U.S. House racesConnecticut U.S. House racesDelaware U.S. House raceFlorida U.S. House racesGeorgia U.S. House racesHawaii U.S. House racesIdaho U.S. House racesIllinois U.S. House racesIndiana U.S. House racesIowa U.S. House racesKansas U.S. House racesKentucky U.S. House racesLouisiana U.S. House racesMaine U.S. House racesMaryland U.S. House racesMassachusetts U.S. House racesMichigan U.S. House racesMinnesota U.S. House racesMississippi U.S. House racesMissouri U.S. House racesMontana U.S. House racesNebraska U.S. House racesNevada U.S. House racesNew Hampshire U.S. House racesNew Jersey U.S. House racesNew Mexico U.S. House racesNew York U.S. House racesNorth Carolina U.S. House racesNorth Dakota U.S. House raceOhio U.S. House racesOklahoma U.S. House racesOregon U.S. House racesPennsylvania U.S. House racesRhode Island U.S. House racesSouth Carolina U.S. House racesSouth Dakota U.S. House raceTennessee U.S. House racesTexas U.S. House racesUtah U.S. House racesVermont U.S. House raceVirginia U.S. House racesWashington U.S. House racesWest Virginia U.S. House racesWisconsin U.S. House racesWyoming U.S. House raceSubmit

Mississippi 2026 elections

U.S. Senate • U.S. House • Appellate courts • How to run for office

Incumbent Bennie Thompson (D), Evan Turnage (D), and Pertis Williams III (D) are running in the Democratic primary for Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District on March 10, 2026. Thompson and Turnage have led in media attention.

The Associated Press' Sophie Bates wrote that Turnage's challenge is "the latest in a trend of young Democrats looking to oust the party’s old guard and rebrand the party after the 2024 election," and The Clarion-Ledger's Charlie Drape wrote the election "[sets] the stage for a contest that could test whether seniority and national stature still outweigh calls for change in one of Mississippi’s most reliably Democratic districts."^[1]^[2]

Thompson was first elected in 1993. Thompson is running on his record. In a Facebook post, he wrote, "Serving the people of this district isn’t just my job, it’s my honor and my responsibility. This work is rooted in the relationships built over time and the trust placed in me by the community I am proud to call home."^[3] He is also campaigning on preserving government services, and wrote in a newsletter, "I was proud to co-sponsor the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025 and the Rural Health Clinic Location Modernization Act of 2025 to help families get the healthcare they need and to keep food on the table."^[4]

Turnage is an antitrust attorney and former counsel for Sens. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).^[5] On his campaign website, Turnage says "he will stay focused on delivering real wins, stand up to Trump, and fight every day to ensure Mississippians can not only get by, but finally get ahead."^[6] He is also campaigning on affordability and antitrust measures, saying, "Affordability is at the top of mind for people. It’s not enough anymore to just say you’re a Democrat or you’re not Donald Trump. People want real plans."^[7]

Turnage says that the district wants a change in leadership, saying, "I've talked to so many people and it's clear that there's an appetite for new leadership, an appetite for a fighter from Mississippi. This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country. It was like that when [Thompson] was elected, and it remains that way today."^[2] Thompson has defended his record and says, "I am confident that my record on behalf of the people of Mississippi’s Second Congressional District will speak for itself. I will continue to run my campaign the way I always have. I trust the voters of the district to make their choice."^[8]

If no candidate receives more than 50% of the vote, the primary will go to a runoff scheduled for April 7.

This page focuses on the Democratic primary in Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District. For more in-depth information on the district's Republican primary and the general election, see the following pages:

Candidates and election results

Democratic primary

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

Democratic primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 2

Incumbent Bennie Thompson (D), Evan Turnage (D), and Pertis Williams III (D) are running in the Democratic primary for U.S. House Mississippi District 2 on March 10, 2026.

		Candidate
		Bennie Thompson
		Evan Turnage
	Submit photo	Pertis Williams III

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Voting information

See also: Voting in Mississippi

Election information in Mississippi: March 10, 2026, election.

What was the voter registration deadline?

In-person: Feb. 9, 2026
By mail: Postmarked by Feb. 9, 2026
Online: N/A

Is absentee/mail-in voting available to all voters?

No

What was the absentee/mail-in ballot request deadline?

In-person: N/A
By mail: N/A by N/A
Online: N/A

What is the absentee/mail-in ballot return deadline?

In-person: March 10, 2026
By mail: Postmarked by March 10, 2026

Is early voting available to all voters?

No

What were the early voting start and end dates?

N/A to N/A

Are all voters required to present ID at the polls? If so, is a photo or non-photo ID required?

N/A

When are polls open on Election Day?

7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m. (CT)

Candidate profiles

This section includes candidate profiles that may be created in one of two ways: either the candidate completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey, or Ballotpedia staff may compile a profile based on campaign websites, advertisements, and public statements after identifying the candidate as noteworthy. For more on how we select candidates to include, click here.

Bennie Thompson

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: Yes

Political Office:

United States House of Representatives (assumed office: 1993)
Hinds County Supervisor (1980-1993)
Mayor of Bolton (1973-1980)
Alderman of Bolton (1969 to 1972)

Biography: Thompson earned a bachelor's degree in political science from Tougaloo College in 1968 and a master's degree in educational administration from Jackson State University in 1972. He worked as a teacher.

Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

Thompson ran on his record and wrote, "Serving the people of this district isn’t just my job, it’s my honor and my responsibility. This work is rooted in the relationships built over time and the trust placed in me by the community I am proud to call home."

Thompson campaigned on preserving government services and wrote, "I was proud to co-sponsor the Keep SNAP and WIC Funded Act of 2025 and the Rural Health Clinic Location Modernization Act of 2025 to help families get the healthcare they need and to keep food on the table."

Thompson campaigned on bringing federal funds in the district and wrote, "I am proud to have secured more than $4 million in federal funding... in 2025. These investments are supporting job growth, strengthening public education, expanding access to healthcare, and improving critical infrastructure."

Show sources

Sources: Facebook, "Bennie Thompson Facebook post, January 16, 2026; Congressman Bennie Thompson, "2025 Year in Review," January 14, 2025; Congressman Bennie Thompson, "About," accessed January 22, 2026; United States Congress Biographical Directory, "THOMPSON, Bennie," accessed January 22, 2026

Evan Turnage

Party: Democratic Party

Incumbent: No

Submitted Biography: "Evan Turnage grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. As a child at New Hope Christian School, he learned quickly what that service meant: delivering meals at Stewpot Ministries, singing carols for the sick at Christmas, and helping neighbors in need. These experiences shaped an understanding that still guides Evan today. After graduating as valedictorian of Murrah High School, he continued his education at Morehouse College, studying physics and Spanish and finishing at the top of his class at the esteemed HBCU. From there, Evan went to Yale Law School at a moment when the nation was grappling with systemic inequities in policing and economic opportunity. Evan got to work as an antitrust lawyer at Kirkland & Ellis, and he saw firsthand just how broken competition laws were in this country under the first Trump administration. His conviction to unrig the system eventually took him to Capitol Hill, where he served as senior counsel to Senator Elizabeth Warren and later as chief counsel to then-Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, a role that made him the top lawyer in the U.S. Senate. Day after day, he worked to hold corporations accountable, expand voting rights, and fight for an economy that worked for everyone. Evan authored various major pieces of legislation, including the No Kings Act, which eventually led to the No Kings protests around the country, and the Price Gouging Prevention Act, which was adopted for Vice President Harris’s presidential platform."

Key Messages

To read this candidate's full survey responses, click here.

We must clean up our government to get government working for the people. In order to restore trust in our system, we have to get corporate money out of politics, ban members of Congress from trading stock, and overhaul corporate lobbying.

We have to secure the economic rights of every American and tackle the affordability crisis. This means holding cheating corporations accountable for illegal behavior like price gouging, and we must protect and expand the federal benefits that Americans have earned.

We must shore up democracy in this country by strengthening voting rights and civil rights, promoting equality, and protecting constitutional rights from unelected judges.

Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey responses

Ballotpedia asks all federal, state, and local candidates to complete a survey and share what motivates them on political and personal levels. The section below shows responses from candidates in this race who completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Survey responses from candidates in this race

Click on a candidate's name to visit their Ballotpedia page.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

Expand all | Collapse all

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Evan Turnage (D)

We must clean up our government to get government working for the people. In order to restore trust in our system, we have to get corporate money out of politics, ban members of Congress from trading stock, and overhaul corporate lobbying.

We have to secure the economic rights of every American and tackle the affordability crisis. This means holding cheating corporations accountable for illegal behavior like price gouging, and we must protect and expand the federal benefits that Americans have earned.

We must shore up democracy in this country by strengthening voting rights and civil rights, promoting equality, and protecting constitutional rights from unelected judges.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Evan Turnage (D)

antitrust, voting rights, civil rights, women's rights, court reform, healthcare, anti-corruption

You can ask candidates in this race to fill out the survey by clicking their names below:

Campaign ads

This section includes a selection of up to three campaign advertisements per candidate released in this race, as well as links to candidates' YouTube, Vimeo, and/or Facebook video pages. If you are aware of other links that should be included, please email us.

Bennie Thompson

Ballotpedia did not come across any campaign ads for Bennie Thompson while conducting research on this election. If you are aware of any ads that should be included, please email us.

Evan Turnage

"'Done Playing Nice' - Evan Turnage for Congress" - Turnage campaign ad, released January 12, 2026

View more ads here:

YouTube

Endorsements

See also: Ballotpedia: Our approach to covering endorsements

Ballotpedia researchers did not identify any candidate websites that provide endorsement information. If you are aware of a website that should be included, please email us.

Democratic primary endorsements
Endorser

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

We provide results for polls that are included in polling aggregation from RealClearPolitics, when available. We will regularly check for polling aggregation for this race and add polls here once available. To notify us of polls available for this race, please email us.

Campaign finance

Candidate spending

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Bennie Thompson	Democratic Party	$497,950	$579,555	$1,544,559	As of February 18, 2026
Evan Turnage	Democratic Party	$65,464	$11,586	$53,878	As of December 31, 2025
Pertis Williams III	Democratic Party	$0	$0	$0	Data not available***
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2026. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC). * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election. * Candidate either did not report any receipts or disbursements to the FEC, or Ballotpedia did not find an FEC candidate ID.

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.^[9]^[10]^[11]

If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.

By candidate	By election
Bennie Thompson Evan Turnage	FEC

District analysis

Click the tabs below to view information about voter composition, past elections, and demographics in both the district and the state.

District map - A map of the district in place for the election.
Competitiveness - Information about the competitiveness of 2026 U.S. House elections in the state.
Presidential elections - Information about presidential elections in the district and the state.
State party control - The partisan makeup of the state's congressional delegation and state government.

District map

Competitiveness
Presidential elections

State party control

Below is the district map in place for this election. Click the map below to enlarge it.

See also: Primary election competitiveness in state and federal government, 2026

This section contains data on U.S. House primary election competitiveness in Mississippi.

Post-filing deadline analysis

The following analysis covers all U.S. House districts up for election in Mississippi in 2026. Information below was calculated on Dec. 26, 2025, and may differ from information shown in the table above due to candidate replacements and withdrawals after that time.

Fifteen candidates — nine Democrats and six Republicans — ran for Mississippi’s four U.S. House districts. That’s 3.8 candidates per district. There were three candidates per district in 2024, 5.8 in 2022, 3.8 in 2020, 3.5 in 2018, 2.8 in 2016, and 4.3 in 2014.

No districts were open in 2026, meaning all incumbents — one Democrat and three Republicans — ran for re-election. There was one district open in 2018, the only election cycle since 2014 in which a district was open.

Five primaries — three Democratic and two Republican — were contested in 2026. In total, there were three contested primaries in 2024, seven in 2022, five in 2020, three in 2018, three in 2016, and six in 2014.

Two districts — the 2nd and the 4th — tied for the most candidates who ran for a district in 2026. Three candidates ran in each district.

Two incumbents — Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-2nd) and Mike Ezell (R-4th) — faced primary challengers in 2026. There was one incumbent in a contested primary in 2024, four in 2022, three in 2020, one in 2018, two in 2016, and three in 2014.

Candidates filed to run in the Republican and Democratic primaries in all four districts, meaning no districts were guaranteed to either party.

Partisan Voter Index

See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index

Heading into the 2026 elections, based on results from the 2024 and 2020 presidential elections, the Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district is D+11. This meant that in those two presidential elections, this district's results were 11 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Mississippi's 2nd the 120th most Democratic district nationally.^[12]

2020 presidential election results

The table below shows what the vote in the 2024 presidential election was in this district. The presidential election data was compiled by The Downballot.

2024 presidential results in Mississippi's 2nd Congressional District
Kamala Harris	Donald Trump
60.0%	39.0%

Presidential voting history

See also: Presidential election in Mississippi, 2024

Mississippi presidential election results (1900-2024)

16 Democratic wins
15 Republican wins
2 other wins

Year	1900	1904	1908	1912	1916	1920	1924	1928	1932	1936	1940	1944	1948	1952	1956	1960^[13]	1964	1968	1972	1976	1980	1984	1988	1992	1996	2000	2004	2008	2012	2016	2020	2024
Winning Party	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	SR^[14]	D	D	D	R	AI^[15]	R	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

See also: Party control of Mississippi state government

Congressional delegation

The table below displays the partisan composition of Mississippi's congressional delegation as of October 2025.

Congressional Partisan Breakdown from Mississippi
Party	U.S. Senate	U.S. House	Total
Democratic	0	1	1
Republican	2	3	5
Independent	0	0	0
Vacancies	0	0	0
Total	2	4	6

State executive

The table below displays the officeholders in Mississippi's top four state executive offices as of October 2025.

State executive officials in Mississippi, October 2025
Office	Officeholder
Governor	Tate Reeves
Lieutenant Governor	Delbert Hosemann
Secretary of State	Michael Watson
Attorney General	Lynn Fitch

State legislature

Mississippi State Senate

Party		As of January 2026
	Democratic Party	18
	Republican Party	34
	Other	0
	Vacancies	0
Total		52

Mississippi House of Representatives

Party		As of January 2026
	Democratic Party	42
	Republican Party	78
	Independent	2
	Vacancies	0
Total		122

Trifecta control

Mississippi Party Control: 1992-2025
Four years of Democratic trifectas • Fourteen years of Republican trifectas
Scroll left and right on the table below to view more years.

Year	92	93	94	95	96	97	98	99	00	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
Governor	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
Senate	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R^[16]	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R
House	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R	R

District history

The section below details election results for this office in elections dating back to 2020.

General election

General election for U.S. House Mississippi District 2

Incumbent Bennie Thompson (D) defeated Ron Eller (R) in the general election for U.S. House Mississippi District 2 on November 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Bennie Thompson (D)	62.0	177,885
	Ron Eller (R)	38.0	108,956

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 286,841
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
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Republican primary runoff

Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Mississippi District 2

Ron Eller (R) defeated Andrew S. Smith (R) in the Republican primary runoff for U.S. House Mississippi District 2 on April 2, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Ron Eller	76.8	4,837
	Andrew S. Smith	23.2	1,459

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 6,296
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.