Leake County, Mississippi Republican Party

05/11/2026

This decision has far reaching and positive impacts on Mississippi. Now is the time to be conservative, now is the time to consider voting for strong leadership all across our state and local government. This announcement is just one result of the recent US Supreme Court’s decision to ruling district lines according to race was unconstitutional. Don’t believe it matters much?  This is the reason why Representative Benny Thompson will serve as long as he desires. His district is rigged so that no other person can beat him, especially a conservative. Mississippi must redraw district lines so they don’t benefit anyone, even on race.

Governor Tate Reeves called it "a good day for those who believe in the principle that all Americans are created equal. A good day for law and order. A good day for Mississippi!"

05/09/2026

We were fortunate to have Mississippi gubernatorial candidate Andy Gipson visit the Walnut Grove Fish House this evening! Afterwards, he headed to Madden to speak at Leake Academy’s graduation.
There are signs and cards available at the Fish House if you need some for your yard and to share.

04/30/2026

04/29/2026

Congratulations to the newly elected Leake County Republican Women Executive Committee members, Sheila Wall, Kristi Estep, Sherry Tubby, and Laurie Henderson. We look forward to our continued partnership in promoting a limited and conservative government. Congratulations, ladies, we appreciated the occasion and refreshments yesterday.

04/10/2026

Excellent job to all involved in making this a reality!!

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1bkoMQv2jr/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Senate Bill 2322 seeks to require that a person’s s*x determined at birth matches the gender listed on their ID.

The bill would also require non-citizens to prove they are in the country lawfully to get a license. The license would have to be marked to indicate it expires if their status changes.

The governor has until April 13 to take action on the bill. >>> https://www.wlox.com/2026/04/10/bill-tighten-id-requirements-drawing-mixed-reactions-lawmakers/

04/04/2026

The legislative session has ended for the year, unless a special session is called by Governor Reeves. As such, I want to share an overview from Leslie Davis of Mississippi Advocacy Group. We are continuing to see movement to bring back conservative, common sense across the state, including here at home in Leake County!
Jeremy Belk

“Legislative sessions don't always run smoothly. You have setbacks along the way. That was certainly the case this year, but when we step back and look at the conclusion of the 2026 session, we can say: It was a hard but good session.

We want to start off by thanking Governor Tate Reeves, Lt. Governor Delbert Hosemann, and Speaker Jason White for their leadership and partnership with us and others in the fight for these Republican bills.

We also want to thank a main key coalition partner, Mississippi Federation of Republican Women—a record twelve of the bills we both supported together passed! We also thank those in the faith community for being united in the fight like never before. Relationships and coalitions like all of these truly matter, and we thank them!

I outline these real wins below.

Not symbolic wins. Not messaging bills. Actual policy changes that will affect real people. And the reason is simple: People like you spoke out and showed up.

🏛️ Parents and the Non-Crazies Are Starting to Take Back Ground

For years, parents have been pushed out while liberals captured institutions, and somehow, common sense became controversial.

We pushed back in concrete ways this session.

With Senate Bill 2103 from Sen. Angela Hill, we are saying that the system can't quietly cut parents out of major decisions about their own children. Counselors in Mississippi will no longer have to abide by the radical American School Counselor Association Code of Ethics, which included keeping a child's gender confusion hidden from parents.

That shouldn't be controversial. But in today's world, it is. This bill is headed to the Governor.

And with SB 2322, also from Sen. Hill, Mississippi drew a line and said something even more basic: Truth still matters. The s*x on your driver's license must match your s*x at birth. And illegal aliens can’t drive in our state with fake licenses. This bill is headed to the Governor.

These aren't flashy ideas. They're foundational ones. And that's exactly why they matter. Thank you Senator Hill for leading on both of these issues and staying the course to the very end!

We can celebrate wins, but we can also look at what didn't pass. Sen. Josh Harkins' SB 2676, which would have stopped DEI-driven investing and SB 2714, which would have protected conservative Mississippians and people of faith from debanking financial discrimination—both fell short. That fight isn't over. It'll be back.

👶 Being Pro-Life Means More Than One Vote

It's easy to say you're pro-life in Mississippi. It's harder to build a system that actually supports life. That's where this session made real progress.

With SB 3124 from Sen. Harkins, Mississippi will strengthen support for the lifesaving work of our pregnancy resource centers by extending this Pregnancy Resource Tax Credit to individuals, not just businesses. Real support doesn't come from slogans. It comes from communities. Thank you Sen. Harkins for this much needed reform and for always being a strong Pro-Life advocate! This bill is headed to the Governor.

With an amendment to House Bill 1613 from Rep. Celeste Hurst, Mississippi took on a growing, dangerous, and disturbing problem for women most people don't even realize is happening: abortion-inducing drugs are being shipped across state lines, with no doctor, no exam, and no follow-up. Mississippi women are literally delivering their babies in the toilet with no medical oversight. This bill puts an end to that. Thank you Rep. Hurst for your strong, unwavering leadership to protect women from this dangerous distribution of harmful drugs without physician assistance. What a HUGE protection and win for Mississippi women. This bill is headed to the Governor.

And HB 1758 from Rep. Lee Yancey will let foster children keep benefits that were meant for them. It's a quieter reform, but an important one. And it's one of those changes that makes you wonder: Why wasn't it always this way? Thank you Rep Yancey! This bill has been signed into law by the Governor!

🛡️ Protecting Kids Isn't Optional

Some issues shouldn't be partisan. Protecting kids is one of them. And yet, it takes real effort to get meaningful protections passed.

This session, lawmakers stepped up.

Sen. Hill and Republican lawmakers made sure s*xual predators and violent criminals can't erase their past by changing their names with SB 2126. This bill has been signed into law by the Governor!

Sen. Jeremy England's SB 2821 made it a capital offense to s*xually abuse a child. This bill is headed to the Governor.

THIS ONE IS HUGE! Rep. Joey Hood's HB 1224 Keeping Kids Safe Online Act addresses a threat that exists in every home with a smartphone. This measure passed the Senate unanimously and the House by huge margins—95 to 17. And for good reasons. Parents are realizing online platforms can be dangerous for kids. And kids are looking to parents and lawmakers to help protect them. Studies and internal whistleblower documents show that social media sites are gateways where children are being exposed to child predators, human trafficking, s*xtortion, and even child s*xual abuse material (CSAM). This bill sets the pace for the rest of the country by providing effective remedies parents and the Attorney General can use to hold online platforms accountable for knowingly and willfully putting kids in harm's way. This bill is headed to the Governor. I want to especially thank Rep. Joey Hood who courageously led the way on this bill from the beginning and Sen. Brice Wiggins who was a champion in the Senate. We are grateful for you both in your very real efforts to protect Mississippi kids from online predators and Big Tech’s addictive harm. This bill is headed to the Governor.

HB 525 from Rep. Kim Remak creates mandatory minimum penalties for s*xual battery. This bill is headed to the Governor.

There's more to do here. But this was real movement.

🗳️ Trust in Elections Doesn't Happen Automatically

Confidence in elections isn't something you can demand. It's something you build. Step by step.

With SB 2588 from Sen. England, Mississippi will now verify voter rolls using existing federal data, bringing basic accountability to our elections to ensure only US citizens vote. Thank you Sen. England for your strong work on this crucial bill! This bill has been signed into law by the Governor!

🇺🇸 Laws Matter, And They Have to Be Enforced

With SB 2114 from Sen. Hill, illegal immigration will now be a state crime, with enhanced enforcement and penalties for criminal illegal aliens. And HB 538 from Rep. Yancey will put teeth in our state’s prohibitions against sanctuary city policies. Thank you Sen. Hill and Rep. Yancey for your strong work! Both bills are headed to the Governor.

That's basic, but it matters.

⚠️ And Here's the Reality

Not everything passed.

Not one bill to restore work requirements and reduce welfare abuse made it across the finish line this session. Do we just love a government welfare program in Mississippi, or what? How many of our citizens will be added to the government dole until we say this is not good policy?

Parent’s right to choose the best education for their children failed, protecting Christians and conservatives from being debanked failed, even stronger protections to protect kids online failed, and legislation to end public schools’ hostility to religion failed. These aren't issues that go away. They'll be back in front of lawmakers next year, and your voice will matter again when they are.

That's not failure. That's the scoreboard at halftime.

🙏 Final Thought

If you’ve felt like nothing changes, I get it. But this session is a reminder that things can move in the right direction. It might not be pretty, but when Mississippians step up, it shows.

And it's all because of people like you who refused to sit it out.

So thank you. Grateful to be in the fight with you.

We look forward to Governor Reeves signing the rest of these conservative bills into law.”

03/15/2026

I’ve heard ‘voter fraud isn’t a problem’ for years. Sadly, I saw it first hand about 3 years ago. The only way to ensure this stops is for good, honest and ethical people to get involved in their local elections!

https://www.fox10tv.com/2026/02/26/3-monroe-county-women-indicted-voter-fraud-court-documents-reveal/?outputType=amp

03/07/2026

02/12/2026

Great article by Jeff Hickman.

PepsiCo spent $2.8 million last year lobbying to keep junk food eligible for food stamps.

But last week— after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. got 18 states to ban SNAP purchases of products like soda, candy, and processed snacks— PepsiCo announced price cuts of up to 15% on Doritos, Lay's, Tostitos, and other Frito-Lay products.

The company's official explanation was "affordability." CEO Ramon Laguarta cited low-income consumers are switching to store brands.

But the timing tells the real story.

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program— food stamps— is a $100 billion per year program serving roughly 42 million Americans. And according to the USDA's own data, about 20 cents of every SNAP dollar goes to sweetened beverages, candy, salty snacks, and sugar.

In fact soft drinks alone are the single largest category of SNAP purchases.

And, until last week, products from Pepsi’s Frito-Lay division were in 7.2% of all shopping trips paid for with SNAP (i.e. taxpayer-funded) benefits.

So when the government stopped subsidizing demand for their products, PepsiCo had to do something they hadn't needed to do in years: compete.

This is what the free market does— it forces companies to be more efficient, cut prices, and pass savings on to their customers.

But here's the thing— this is one company, one product line, one government program.

Zoom out and you can see just how much of price inflation in our daily lives is due directly to government spending— before we even get into monetary policy like printing money.

When a guaranteed buyer shows up with a bottomless wallet, prices go up.

Just look at college tuition. In 1965, Congress passed the Higher Education Act and began backing student loans with federal dollars.

Since then, tuition has risen roughly three times faster than inflation. A year at a private university that cost $2,800 in 1963 now costs over $85,000.

The New York Federal Reserve studied this directly and found that for every dollar increase in subsidized student loans, tuition rose by up to 60 cents.

The mechanism is simple: when the government guarantees the tuition money, universities raise prices... simply because they can.

Healthcare is even worse.

Before Medicare and Medicaid were created in 1965, the government's share of healthcare spending was about 31%. Today it's roughly 64%. Medicaid spending alone has grown from $13 billion in 1975 to over $900 billion today.

And— shocker— healthcare prices have risen dramatically over the same period. The US now spends nearly $5 trillion per year on healthcare, far more per capita than any other developed country, with outcomes that are often worse.

The pattern is the same everywhere you look: the government shows up with money. Prices rise to absorb it. The subsidy becomes permanent. The industry restructures itself around the guaranteed revenue. And then anyone who suggests pulling back the money is accused of "cutting" a vital service.

Now consider the scale of this in America today.

Federal spending has risen from about 18% of GDP in the 1990s to nearly 24% today. That means almost a quarter of the entire American economy is government money.

Of this, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has publicly estimated that 10% of the federal budget— roughly $600 billion per year— is lost to outright fraud of the Somali daycare type in Minnesota.

Then there's the legal graft. California alone received roughly $100 billion in federal grants over the past few years for DEI initiatives that produced nothing except more government jobs and campaign contributions.

So how much of America's economic output is actually real?

How much is just government money making a round trip— borrow more debt, hand it out through some boondoggle program where it is spent at a PepsiCo subsidiary, counted as "economic activity," making people obese... then more money spent on healthcare to keep them alive and paying enough taxes for the government to be able to pay interest on the debt...

It’s absurd when you think about it. We don't have a precise answer. But the Pepsi story gives us a clue. The moment the government stopped subsidizing one small corner of the economy, prices dropped by 15% within a week.

RFK didn't regulate PepsiCo. He didn't cap prices. He didn't launch an antitrust investigation. He simply stopped the government from funneling taxpayer dollars into unhealthy food... and the market corrected overnight.

Now imagine what would happen if the government stopped subsidizing entire industries— the defense contractors billing $10,000 for a toilet seat, the universities charging $85,000 for a degree in gender studies, the healthcare system where nobody can tell you what anything costs.

We might finally find out how much of this economy is real.

And that, frankly, is what makes it so hard to fix. Because so many peoples' livelihoods now depend on the government gravy train.

But this trajectory has an expiration date. The federal government borrows $2 trillion a year to keep it all going. Interest on that debt already exceeds $1 trillion annually— more than the entire military budget— and it's growing faster than any other line item.

-- James Hickman / Schiff Sovereign