By Jeremy Pittari, Magnolia Tribune
(Photo from Shutterstock)
A series of eight public meetings will be held in as many cities starting this month to gather input on the likely redistricting coming to legislative, congressional, and judicial districts across Mississippi.
During a less than 10-minute organizational meeting Monday of the Joint Legislative Committee on Reapportionment and Redistricting, members of the Mississippi House of Representatives and state Senate elected Senator Dean Kirby (R) as the committee’s Chair, Rep. Noah Sanford (R) as Vice Chair, and Rep. Rodney Hall (R) as Secretary.
The planned public meetings will be held as part of the Legislature’s anticipated effort to redraw electoral districts in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Callais v. Louisiana that determined racial gerrymandering to be unconstitutional as it had been practiced under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act.
The first of the meetings will be held on August 18, with the last to be held on September 24. All of the meetings will be livestreamed and are expected to start at 6 p.m.
Below is the schedule along with the venues where the meeting are set to take place:
- Tuesday, Aug. 18, at the Itawamba Community College in Tupelo.
- Thursday, Aug. 27, at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia.
- Tuesday, Sept. 1, at Delta State University in Cleveland.
- Tuesday, Sept. 8, at Alcorn State University in Natchez.
- Thursday, Sept. 10, at a venue to be determined in Meridian.
- Thursday, Sept. 17, at the University of Southern Mississippi in Hattiesburg.
- Tuesday, Sept. 22, at Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College in Gulfport
- Thursday, Sept. 24 at the New Capitol in Jackson.
It is widely believed in Capitol circles that Governor Tate Reeves (R) will call a special session later this year for lawmakers to redistrict legislative districts prior to the start of the 2027 election cycle’s qualifying period on January 2. Congressional and judicial redistricting would then seemingly be taken up during the 2027 legislative session.