David Jordan will be facing some familiar opposition in his bid to return to the Mississippi Senate for a seventh term.
The 80-year-old Greenwood Democrat will be facing Earl G. Blackmon of Lexington, an independent who also ran against Jordan in 2011, in this fall’s general election.
Four years ago, Blackmon outpolled Jordan in Holmes County but lost big everywhere else in Senate District 24 as Jordan collected 59 percent of the vote and coasted to victory over the Lexington insurance agent.
Another Greenwood Democrat seeking a seventh term in Jackson, Rep. Willie Perkins Sr., will face a much easier path. No other candidates qualified to run in Perkins’ House District 34.
Jordan and Perkins were both first elected to the state Legislature in 1993.
Friday was the deadline for candidates to qualify to run for the Legislature and statewide office. Perkins is the only Greenwood area legislative candidate running without an opponent.
The most crowded field is the race to replace retiring Rep. Bobby Howell, R-Kilmichael, in District 46, which includes all of Montgomery County along with portions of Leflore, Carroll, Grenada and Attala counties.
Three Montgomery County Republicans — James Bennett, Shed Hunger IV and Karl Oliver — will all face off in their party’s primary in August.
Ken Strachan, the Carroll County coroner and former mayor of North Carrollton, is running as a Democrat in the district.
Significant changes in the state’s redistricted legislative map, which takes effect for the first time this fall, altered the landscape in District 34, which had been represented by Schlater Democrat Linda Whittington since 2006.
Whittington’s district was redrawn to include the home of current District 24 Rep. Kevin Horan, D-Grenada. Horan, a first-term legislator, will be running for re-election in the new district.
Whittington announced last month that she would not seek re-election and filed to run for Leflore County tax collector instead.
Whittington’s district had previously taken in portions of Carroll, Holmes, Humphreys, Leflore, Montgomery and Washington counties.
Under the redrawn House district map, District 34 will now take in portions of Grenada and Tallahatchie counties. It no longer includes any precincts in Humphreys, Montgomery or Washington counties.
Horan will be facing fellow Grenada Democrat Reta Holden, who will be looking to return to the state House of Representatives. The former lawmaker last represented the town in Jackson in 1999.
Another former Grenada lawmaker, Donny Ryals, will also be staging a comeback bid. Ryals served a single term as a Democrat in the House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003. The former representative qualified to run as an independent against Sen. Lydia Chassaniol, R-Winona, who is seeking re-election.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
