by Hunter Dawkins, Owner/Publisher – editor@thegazebogazette.com or hdawkins@supertalk.fm
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI (GG) — As Washington, D.C. heats up for the 2026 midterm congressional elections, the qualifying deadline for all party primary candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate in the 2026 midterms was Friday, December 26, 2025. The fourth congressional district represents the southeast region of Mississippi, which has a population of 759,824 according to the 2020 Census. It includes all of Mississippi’s Gulf Coast, stretching ninety miles between the Alabama border to the east and the Louisiana border to the west, and extends north into the Pine Belt region.
The incumbent is Mike Ezell R-Pascagoula, a former law enforcement officer that was elected in 2023. A member of the Republican Party, he previously served as the sheriff of Jackson County from 2014 to 2022. Ezell beat past controversial incumbent Steven Palazzo in a runoff June 28 election 54% to 46% and then defeated Democratic nominee and former Hattiesburg Mayor Johnny Dupree in the November general election.
Palazzo was considered vulnerable to losing his seat because a Congressional Ethics report in 2021 alleged that he misused campaign funds. The congressman represented the fourth congressional district from 2011-2023.
Ezell faces five candidates in the upcoming 2026 Congressional midterm elections, 1 in the Republican primary, 1 independent, and three will face each other in the Democratic primary. Due to the Republicans holding a slim majority in the House of Representatives, (220-213, 2 vacancies) each congressional seat is vital for control of leadership. Ezell is a subcommittee chair (Coast Guard & Maritime) on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee.
Currently, Ezell has filed campaign finance reports with the Federal Election Commission, showing$183,000 for the 2025 period
The congressman’s challenger in the Republican primary is Sawyer Walters, a Military Intelligence Officer and State Law Enforcement Officer with the Mississippi National Guard. During his military service, the challenger was a development officer for the University of Southern Mississippi for nearly 3 years.
Previously, Walters served as a congressional staffer for former 4th Congressional District Representative Palazzo in several legislative positions short of 4 years. He earned a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2018. Originally, Walters grew up in Hattiesburg.
For the 3rd consecutive time, businessman Carl Boyanton is running for the 4th congressional district. Perennial candidate Boyanton decided this time to enter as an Independent. The former Republican endorsed Ezell four years ago.
Boyanton donated $500,000 of his own money into his campaign in 2022 and criticized Ezell of joining “the swamp”, voting for Kevin McCarthy 16 times for speaker, and supporting vaccine mandates. He has been the President of Farmer Fresh Produce for 26 years and lives in Diamondhead.
Community Activist Jeffrey Hulum III looks at the final ballot numbers in front of a packed crowd at Ms. Audrey’s Southern Kitchen & Catering in Gulfport, MS on Tuesday, July 20, 2022. Hulum won the special election for the Mississippi State House Seat District 119. Photo by Hunter Dawkins/The Gazebo Gazette via AP.
Finally with a mixture of three challengers in the Democratic Primary, District 119 State Representative Jeffrey Hulum is running for the South Mississippi seat. Newcomers D. Ryan Grover and Paul Blackman are also running in the Democratic Primary. Despite a Republican controlled Mississippi State Legislature, Hulum is the first African American to serve as the Vice Chair of the Marine Resources Committee.
Hulum graduated from Gulfport High School and later attended Central Texas College. Later, he joined the U.S. Army where he served for 22 years. Upon leaving the military, he founded several community organizations that focused on food drops. Additionally, Hulum was the author of the bill for the “Tuskegee Airmen Day” in 2024.
Blackman is a Navy veteran and political newcomer. Grover is a businessman who was the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in 2023.
The district, like most of Mississippi, is built on a history of agriculture. Politically, the district has been conservative even by Mississippi standards. What is now the 4th has not supported the official Democratic candidate for president since 1956. Since the turn of the millennium, it has given the Republican presidential candidate his highest margin in the state.
Long after this area turned solidly Republican at the federal level, conservative Democrats like longtime congressman Gene Taylor still held a number of local offices. Nevertheless, it was a foregone conclusion that Taylor would be succeeded by a Republican. This came to pass in 2010, when then-state representative Palazzo narrowly defeated Taylor in that year’s massive Republican wave. The Democrats have only put up nominal challengers in the district since then; only one Democrat has managed even 30 percent of the vote.
Demographically, the congressional district is 65.7% White, 22.7% Black, and 11.6% other. The Primary Election is set for March 10 with the General Election slated for November 3.
Candidates must file their year-end campaign finance report with the Federal Election Commission by January 31. Absentee balloting for the Primary Election will open January 26 and the voter registration deadline for the Primary is February 9.
