Campaign Finance and Recent House & Senate Results

Mississippi doesn’t have a ton of competitive elections over the past decade where we could look at the money raised and the final outcome, but there are several and they generally all paint a good picture for those that raised the most money.

2000 Fourth District: Ronnie Shows (D) vs. Dunn Lampton (R). In the old Fourth District, Republicans made a run at Shows seat while Lampton raised a little over $1 million. Shows pulled in a little over $1.1 million but would win re-election by a relatively comfortable 59-40 margin.

20002 Third District: Chip Pickering (R) vs. Ronnie Shows (D). This race of incumbents took place after their districts were merged following the loss of a House seat. Pickering raised over $3 million- about double that of Shows- and won easily 64-35.

2002 Second District: Bennie Thompson (D) vs. Clinton B. Lesueur (R). That same year, the Republicans gave Bennie Thompson his biggest re-election scare in recent history. Thompson won by a relatively thin 55-43 margin despite out raising Lesueur nearly 6-1 ($543k to $97k).

2004 Second District: Bennie Thompson (D) vs. Clinton B. Lesueur (R). The rematch two years later wasn’t as close with Thompson winning by a 58-41 margin. That is despite Lesueur doing significantly better in terms of raising money. He would raise about $330,000- slightly less than half of the $750,000 raised by Thompson.

2006 Second District Dem Primary: Bennie Thompson (D) vs. Chuck Espy (D). Bennie Thompson faced a challenge from within the Democratic primary in 2006, but held off Espy by a 64-36 margin. Thompson posted nearly $800,000 following the primary compared to about $225,000 for Espy.

2008 First District GOP Primary: Greg Davis (R) vs. Glenn McCullough (R). The hotly contested GOP primary for Roger Wicker’s open House seat would be won by Greg Davis in a runoff. According to pre-runoff filings, Davis had raised about $400,000 but that was a good bit less than the $515,000 raised by McCullough.

2008 Third District GOP Primary: Gregg Harper (R), Charlie Ross (R) and David Landrum (R). In one of the more interesting races in recent time, Harper would manage to fly under the radar while Landrum and Ross battled it out and then win relatively easily in the runoff against Ross. For that primary, Landrum raised about $1.2 million (a little less than half was self-financed) and Ross raised a little over $1.1 million. Harper was a distant third raising a little over $600,000 for the primary.

2008 First District: Travis Childers (D) vs. Greg Davis (R). Both Davis and Childers were on the ballot several times in 2008, with Childers prevailing when it counts. He would win the 2008 general election 54-44. For the election cycle, Childers raised more than $1.8 million compared to $1.5 million for Davis. For the special election that Childers won earlier in the spring, Davis raised a little more than $1.3 million compared to about $1.1 million for Childers.

2008 Senate: Roger Wicker (R) vs. Ronnie Musgrove (D). This open seat pitted the interim Senator (Wicker) versus the former governor (Musgrove). Wicker would raise nearly $6 million compared to well under $3 million for Musgrove. Wicker would go on to win with 55 percent of the vote.