The Case for Governor Waller for Mississippi
The invocation of ‘not politics as usual’ brings principles of conservatism back into reality
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About the author’s politics
If you are at all like me, you hate reading persuasive political arguments without understanding the author’s biases. I’d like to take a moment to share my background and political leanings. The chart below depicts my results of the Political Compass test. Since living in Mississippi, I have voted in three presidential elections: John McCain in 2008; Mitt Romney in 2012 ; Jill Stein in 2016. I was a dues-paying member of the Democratic Socialists of America from 2017–2018 but have since returned to political independence of any party affiliation.
Bill Waller has run a grassroots campaign
In the primary runoff pre-election campaign financial reports, the Waller for Governor campaign received 417 contributions totaling $484,700 during the period of July 28 — August 17. The calendar year-to-date amount raised tops $1.7 million. Waller has been running a shoe leather campaign to have conversations with Mississippians where they live. Personally, I’ve run into Waller three times at various events. Compare Waller’s contributions to the Tate Reeves campaign which “received 123 contributions totaling $2,500,569.78 during this period, with $2.2 million of this being from two separate donations ($2 million and $200,000) from his own Friends of Tate Reeves candidate committee” (source).
The difference in the number of contributors interested in seeing a successful primary runoff election communicates the enthusiasm Bill Waller has been able to generate through his no-nonsense approach at discussing the issues. Though his Republican opponent has tried to cast Waller as a Republican-in-name-only spoiler, the Waller campaign has enjoyed the support of Mississippians tired of mud-slinging ideologues who only spend their time criticizing others instead of proposing any solutions.
