On Monday, May 12, 2025, Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann not only made his official announcement that he will be running for Mississippi governor in the next election, but he also visited with several elected officials of Clarke County.
Mr. Hosemann met with Senator Jeff Tate, State Representative Troy Smith, State Representative Billy Adam Calvert, the Board of Supervisors, Sheriff Anthony Chancelor, Mayor Steve Watkins, all elected officials in the courthouse, James Buchanan representing Pat Harrison, Scott Cooper representing Howard Industries, and others.
Senator Jeff Tate said, “The lieutenant governor decided to make a stop in East Mississippi today. When doing that, he made a few stops in Meridian in the morning hours. He called me this morning and said, ‘You know, Jeff, I would really like to stop by Quitman and Clarke County.’ We had a good meeting at the Clarke County Board of Supervisors’ room at the courthouse early this afternoon about what all has been accomplished by the legislature in the last five years and his vision in seeing where Mississippi will go in the next few years. In doing that, he laid out a case of why he was running for governor. There is a feeling that Mississippi is heading in the right direction, whether it be Howard Industries coming to Quitman, whether it be the data center coming to Meridian, whether it be for all these other economic projects happening across Mississippi, or whether it be the fact that we are eliminating the income tax and the fact we are reducing the grocery tax. When you look at where we rank with educating our children in Mississippi, we were 50th just a few years ago, and we’ve made such great progress where we are starting to get to the other side of 25 being above average instead of below average. With that, there’s a feeling that nobody can deny that Mississippi is heading in the right direction. He came by to give an update of what we’ve done, what we are going to do, and then he made the announcement. He let it be known that he’s going to be running for governor in 2027.”
Supervisor Scott Evans believed the meeting was very productive.
“It was a productive conversation,” stated Evans. “We discussed Howard Industries, Archusa Dam, and other economic plans. We had productive talks about Howard Industries and their present and future plans for the Quitman location. We also had productive meetings about Archusa where some possible outcomes that had not been broached previously were thrown out. Those possible outcomes will take some efforts from our contingence in Jackson.”
One of the economic growths that Clarke County has seen is Howard Industries. Scott Cooper, Plant Manager of Howard Industries, made a presentation giving an overview of their present and future plans for Howard Industries. They are looking forward to adding more jobs in Quitman as their plans come to fruition.
The meeting wasn’t complete without discussing Archusa Dam and the difficulties of making that happen. They explored some areas that might be an option, the difficulties at obtaining money at this particular time because of federal government and state issues, and all agreed they would look for solutions—maybe thinking outside the box to find some original ideas to make these things happen.
Evans was able to show Hosemann the amount of devastation that was left after the dam burst.
“I had some videos of the dam when it was breached and what it looked like afterwards. We played that, and Mr. Hosemann watched intently,” described Evans. “We had a long conversation after that about some options that we have not discussed previously because we knew of some issues surrounding those options, and the lieutenant governor is willing to work with us around those issues.”
Senator Tate made it clear that the main issue right now is getting the funds needed to replace the dam.
“I expressed the fact that there are a lot of different jurisdictions out there that ask for project money and ask over and over again for more money after they receive money. It’s not about what have you done for me; it’s about what have you done for me lately,” emphasized Tate. “What I voiced was that Clarke County has one major concern, and that’s fixing the dam at Archusa, and that if we are trying to find a way to do that: whether it be through a no interest loan, whether it be through appropriated money, whether it be through convincing the federal government, or whatever we can do to get that dam fixed. I stated that if we could try to get money appropriated and get money to it in any way possible that Clarke County would not be like a lot of other jurisdictions that say, ‘Well what have you done for me lately.’ If they could help with that, so many people from Clarke County would be grateful because that is the number one concern. There are a lot of people asking for a lot of money for different things. That’s our main concern. That’s our main thing to ask, that’s my main thing to ask, that’s Troy Smith’s main thing to ask, and that’s Mr. Bill Adam Calvert’s main thing to ask: we ask for money that comes from the state to go to Clarke County to fix the dam so that we can get Archusa lake filled again.”
One thing is for sure, and that’s Lieutenant Governor Delbert Hosemann left knowing how bad Clarke County wants and needs the water back into the lake.
