POPLARVILLE —
GOP candidate for governor and Pearl River County District Three Supervisor Hudson Holliday, was scheduled to kick off his campaign for governor today at 1 p.m. in front of the historic old courthouse here on Main Street. It will be an old-time political rally, his supporters say.
Supporters also are anxiously waiting to see what Holliday will say in his kick-off address.
Political pundits in Jackson give Holliday little chance of winning the GOP nomination, but Holliday has said being the underdog does not phase him, and he admitted, when he filed on Jan. 13 in Jackson at the GOP headquarters, that he could not match his opponents’ money and that his name is not a household commodity in Mississippi.
However, Holliday said he would conduct a grass-roots campaign, unlike his opponents, and depend on direct contact as much as possible as he campaigns for the state’s highest office.
Some of his supporters point to Finch and Fordice as other underdogs who won, and they say they believe Holliday can pull it off, too.
He has been campaigning and traveling all over Mississippi for 14 months, and says his response has been “great.” The Pearl River County supervisors says he believes he has the message that Mississippians want to hear, but adds he realizes he must get that message before the people before he can get elected.
Holliday’s supporters will be waiting anxiously to hear what he has to say today, and one of Holliday’s efforts will be to light a fire under his backers.
Said Holliday, right before he filed last week, “This election should be about who has the best vision, leadership and plans for moving Mississippi forward and off the bottom rather than who has the most money.”
He added, “I intend to conduct, and have been conducting, a grass-roots campaign and have been very humbled by the responses I am receiving from all over the state from people from all backgrounds.”
Holliday is trying to position himself as not being a member of the Mississippi political crowd, the “good old boys in Jackson.”
When he began his campaign, he kept telling people, “I am not one of them (professional politicians); I am one of you, just like you.” He told the Item in an interview when he first began, that he believed people were fed up with the professional politicians and their promises that they seem to never keep, and that he was offering an alternative to the same old “song-and-dance.”
Said Holliday just before filing, “(Voters) are hungry for a new face, new ideas and real leadership and not just more of the same. . .At a time when a lot of Mississippians can’t pay their light and water bill, I could not in good conscience fly all over the state, spending tens of thousands of the donors’ hard-earned money putting on a big show.”
Holliday’s task is formidable. He faces Lt. Gov. Phil Bryant, Pass Christian businessman Dave Dennis and state employee James Broadwater of Byram in the Aug. 2 Republican first primary to win the GOP nomination. Bryant is the front-runner and the man to beat.
The GOP winner will face a Democrat in the Nov. 8 General Election, either Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny DuPree or Clarksdale attorney and businessman Bill Luckett. DuPree is popular and could easily win the Democratic race. There is still time for others to jump in the races since the filing deadline is March 1.
Holliday’s first foray into politics was in 2007 when he won the District Three supervisor race in Pearl River County.
He chose not to run for re-election as supervisor while running for governor. He said he believes voters would think it “disingenuous” of him to do so.
Holiday is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi and the Army’s War College in Carlisle, Pa. He retired as a brigadier general from the Mississippi National Guard. When he retired the Army gave him a second star.
Local News
Related Photos
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RALLY PLANNED — Hudson Holliday plans to officially kick-off his campaign for governor in a rally in Poplarville today. File photo
Hudson Holliday kicks off campaign for governor today
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