Longtime Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) fended off a millennial Democratic challenger in Tuesday’s primary election for Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District.
Thompson, who is seeking to serve an 18th term in Congress, received 84.8% vote in the solidly blue district.
The 78-year-old congressman’s opponent, Evan Turnage, was 1 years old when Thompson was first-elected to Congress.
Turnage, a 34-year old lawyer and former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), made the incumbent’s tenure and the need for generational change a central focus of his campaign, but he fell short in his long-shot bid to replace Thompson, receiving only 13.8% of the vote.
“People are fired up and ready for change,” Turnage said on X ahead of Election Day. “The last 33 years we’ve had some of the same persistent issues.”
One of Turnage’s campaign ads noted Mississippi’s 2nd is “the poorest district in the poorest state in the country.”
“That was true when I was one when our congressman was first elected. It’s true today,” Turnage said.
Thompson is seeking another term in the House at a time when several of his longtime colleagues have opted to pass the torch, including former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Reps. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Jerry Nadler (D-NY).
Thompson, the first black Democrat to represent Mississippi in Congress, should have little trouble being re-elected to the House.
Mississippi’s 2nd District is the most Democratic out of the four in the state.
The district voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris over President Trump in the 2024 election by about a 60%-40% margin.
Thompson, the ranking member on the House Homeland Security Committee, also served as the chairman of the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol Building.
Former President Joe Biden awarded Thompson the Presidential Citizens Medal – the nation’s second-highest civilian honor – for his work on the Jan. 6 panel.
