05/18/2026
Andy Gipson says he's the only one willing to fight for Mississippi.
Before you believe that, you should know who's doing the talking, what direction he wants to take us, and who's giving him his marching orders.
While Gipson demands Mississippi redraw its congressional districts to push out the only Black representative in the state's delegation, let's take a moment to look at the man behind the big hat.
This is the man who, in 2012, posted on Facebook that homosexuality is a sin and cited a Bible verse calling for gay people to be put to death. When Mississippians demanded an apology, he refused. "I do not, cannot, and will not apologize for the inspired truth of God's Word." He claims to represent all Mississippians. He just doesn't govern like it.
This is the man who authored HB 1523, Mississippi's license to discriminate, a law allowing businesses and individuals to deny services to LGBTQ Mississippians on religious grounds. Nissan opposed it. Tyson Foods opposed it. The Mississippi Manufacturers Association opposed it. Andy Gipson pushed it through anyway.
This is the man who co-authored HB 1510, the 15-week abortion ban with no exceptions for r**e or in**st, and drove it through the Legislature as Judiciary Committee chairman. That bill became Dobbs v. Jackson. It ended federal abortion rights for every woman in America. He brags about it on his campaign website.
This is the man who called protecting IVF "the greatest assault on the cause of life we've seen in Mississippi in a long time." He warned fertility treatment would lead to "cloning" and "back-door abortion." He blocked the bill while Mississippi couples begged for the right to start a family.
This is the man who defied the will of Mississippi voters on medical ma*****na. Voters passed Initiative 65 for sick and suffering Mississippians. Gipson refused to participate and vowed to sue if forced. The man who says "the People are in charge" decided he knew better than the people.
This is the man who held a campaign fundraiser at the Mississippi Agriculture Museum, a state facility he oversees, the same week a jury convicted Donald Trump on 34 felony counts for covering up payments to a p**n actress. Not a prayer for the country. Not a word about integrity. A fundraiser. On state grounds.
This is the man who talks endlessly about Mississippi farmers. But under his watch as Agriculture Commissioner, Mississippi has continued losing the middle class of farming that built this state. Medium-scale family farms are disappearing. Input costs have risen 70 percent since 1970. Black farmers in the Delta have been losing land for decades, and the corporate consolidation that displaced them continues unchecked.
What has Gipson done? He wrote letters to Wall Street banks on behalf of large commodity agriculture. He aligned himself with the Mississippi Farm Bureau, the lobbying arm of big commercial ag, not the family trying to hold onto 200 acres in the Delta.
He is, in every way that matters to a working farmer, Cindy Hyde-Smith in a big hat: long on the language of rural values, short on anything that actually protects the people living them.
Now he's on Facebook telling you that real leadership doesn't happen through social media posturing.
He wrote that on Facebook.
Gipson has backed every single Trump policy without question. So let's talk about what those policies have actually done to Mississippi.
Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill cut Medicaid and SNAP by more than a trillion dollars combined. An estimated 161,000 Mississippians are projected to lose health coverage. Nearly 400,000 Mississippians receive food assistance through SNAP, including more than 258,000 families with children. Mississippi could lose up to $4 billion in federal Medicaid funding by 2034. Fifty percent of Mississippi's children are covered by Medicaid. Those are not numbers. Those are neighbors.
Trump's tariffs have disrupted cotton and soybean markets that Mississippi farmers depend on. China canceled mass shipments of American farm products. Farm bankruptcies spiked. Mississippi's agriculture industry, the very sector Gipson is supposed to lead, has been squeezed from every direction while he cheered it on.
Medicaid expansion, which could have extended coverage to working Mississippians who fall in the gap, is now dead because of Trump's cuts. The state remains last in health outcomes. Rural hospitals are warning of service reductions and closures.
Mississippi has been at or near the bottom in poverty, education, health, and infant mortality for as long as Gipson has been in government. He has never once broken from the party line to fight for the people paying the price.
Gipson preaches freedom from government while using government to control your doctor's office, your fertility clinic, your medicine cabinet, and your body.
Gipson preaches the will of the people and then overrules voters when he doesn't like the answer.
Gipson preaches fighting for Mississippi while cheering on every policy that has hurt Mississippi the most.
He talks about Trump more than he talks about this state.
The big hat is hard to miss. Pay attention to the person wearing it.
