4 days ago
Pine Belt chooses Republican candidates for special election in MS Senate. See who won
In a surprising upset in the Tuesday, Aug. 5, Republican primary for the Senate District 42 special election, Don Hartness unseated incumbent Sen. Robin Robinson.
In 2023, Robinson defeated Hartness in the Mississippi Senate District 42 race, winning with nearly 56% of the vote to Hartness' 44%.
This time, Hartness won more than 70% of the vote in the three-person race that also included candidate RJ Robinson.
A candidate needs to have 50% plus one vote to have the majority when there are multiple candidates in a primary. Otherwise a runoff election will be held between the two candidates who gained the most votes.
In this instance, Hartness won far more than the minimum number of votes to win the primary outright. Since there are no opposing candidates for District 42 in the November special election, Hartness will take over the office from Robinson in January.
In Senate District 44, Chris Johnson, the current senator for District 45, won a narrow victory over his opponent Patrick Lott, despite sparking a controversy earlier this year when he was accused of alienating the affection of a doctor's wife. Johnson received about 54% of the vote to Lott's 46%.
Johnson will face Democratic challenger Shakita Taylor in November's special election.
Results are unofficial until they are certified by the Mississippi Secretary of State's office.
Here's how they voted:
Senate District 42
Don Hartness: 4,246 votes or 70.7%
Robin Robinson: 1,676 votes or 27.9%
RJ Robinson: 84 votes or 1.4%
Senate District 44
Chris Johnson: 2,282 votes or 53.8%
Patrick Lott: 1,961 votes or 46.2%
The special election was called after a federal judge ruled the 2021 redistricting plan was flawed.
The legislative election held in 2023 was based on the 2021 district lines, following the 2020 Census. Those districts were challenged in 2022, and a federal court agreed that they diluted the Black vote in Mississippi.
State lawmakers were ordered to go back to the drawing board to create new district lines in three areas of the state, with two centered on Senate districts and the third on the House of Representatives.
The new plan was approved in May, and a special election was scheduled for November.
The NAACP, which had filed the lawsuit challenging the redistricting, did not agree with the plans submitted for the Senate in DeSoto County nor the House of Representatives in the Golden Triangle, and appealed the three-judge panel ruling.
The new plan for redistricting in the Hattiesburg area was not challenged.
Other Pine Belt Senate races on the November ballot
In addition to Senate Districts 42 and 44, the following races will also be on the November ballot:
Incumbent Sen. Juan Barnett, D-Heidelberg, is running unopposed in District 34.
Incumbent Sen. Joey Fillingane, R-Sumrall, is running unopposed in District 41.
Hattiesburg attorney Anna Rush, a Republican, and former Hattiesburg mayor Johnny DuPree, a Democrat, are seeking the Senate District 45 seat.
Lici Beveridge is a reporter for the Hattiesburg American and Clarion Ledger. Contact her at lbeveridge@ Follow her on X @licibev or Facebook at
This article originally appeared on Hattiesburg American: Hartness, Johnson win Republican primary elections near Hattiesburg
