The Gazebo Gazette
PASCAGOULA (GG) — On Tuesday, April 7, Mississippi’s Secretary of State, Michael Watson, announced his campaign for Lieutenant Governor for the 2027 statewide election in the Magnolia state.
Watson, a lifelong Republican, held a campaign kickoff event in his hometown of Pascagoula where he was joined by family and friends. Watson will continue his campaign announcement tour over the next three days with stops in Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Jackson, Meridian, Starkville, Tupelo, Oxford, Olive Branch, Cleveland and Brookhaven.
“In everything I’ve done as a public servant, I’ve focused on this question—where can I do the most good for Mississippi,” Watson stated. “I’ve looked for ways to help our state grow, and I’ve always put my faith, family and conservative principles at the forefront of every decision. So today, I’m announcing my campaign to be Mississippi’s next Lt. Governor.”
“From health care, education and energy policies to our state’s budget, regulations and economic development initiatives, there’s a lot of work to do,” Watson stated. “We need to make sure conservative solutions are at the forefront of all the decisions we make. To tackle the key issues in the future, as Lt. Governor, I’ll use those principles along with my experience from the State Senate and Secretary of State’s Office to show the world what we can achieve together.”
“In the State Senate, I was heavily involved in writing conservative legislation that became law and made a positive difference in our state,” Watson said. “At a time when illegal immigration was not getting nearly enough attention, I led the fight to get the first comprehensive legislative reform passed and signed into law. It later became the model other states adopted as it made businesses verify the citizenship of their workers–to protect American jobs and deter illegals from coming here in the first place. I drafted the Fetal Protection Act which strengthened penalties for injuring an unborn child, and I was honored to be part of the pro-life legislation which ultimately led to the U.S. Supreme Court overturning the nightmare of Roe v. Wade,” Watson stated. “Mississippi led the way on bringing about the most pro-life legislation—and the most pro-life Supreme Court decision—in the history of our country.”
In 2027, Watson defeated incumbent Tommy Robertson for the Mississippi State Senate in the District 51 seat (Pascagoula) and his first in the state government. 12 years later, Watson ran for the Mississippi Secretary of State position to fill a vacancy left.
“As your Secretary of State, I’ve worked hard to help our counties and local officials conduct fair elections with the integrity voters deserve,” said Watson. “As an attorney, I always wanted the experts on my team, so I started the job with an 82-county tour to build strong working relationships—and to ensure election integrity and ballot security are at the forefront of Mississippi elections. Our policy initiatives started with making sure only United States citizens were voting in Mississippi. We then passed legislation requiring all voting machines to have a voter-verified paper ballot–so there’s always a paper trail to confirm the accuracy of your vote,” Watson continued. “We also now require post-election audits, banned ballot harvesting and just last week had the SHIELD Act signed into law to close the last loopholes on non-citizens’ possible access to a ballot.”
“Because of the policies we’ve drafted and helped implement, Mississippi has climbed 15 spots in election integrity rankings during my time in office–moving from 26th to 11th in the country for election integrity policies,” said Watson. “I was honored when President Trump’s White House asked me last January to lead a working group of Secretaries of State to strengthen election integrity at the state level. They trusted me, appreciated the policies Mississippi has implemented, and believed they could serve as a model for other states. As the State Land Commissioner, our office also formed the Conservation Task Force as a way of bringing together state leaders and experts in conservation and wildlife to create a statewide master conservation plan—to protect our natural resources for future generations.”
The qualification period for the county/statewide elections in 2027 has not begun.
