Nov. 1 was an evening of heated political jousting.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves and challenger Brandon Presley swapped accusations of deceit and unethical activity throughout their first and only debate, just days before the Nov. 7 gubernatorial election.
Yet amid the broader allegations of lies, deception, and self-dealing, one clear and jarring discrepancy stood out. It illustrated just how conveniently faulty—or, perhaps, flexible—memories can become in politics, even from one moment to the next.
It started when Mr. Presley, a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, answered a Mississippian’s pre-recorded question about reforming welfare “to eliminate single-family homes.” He spoke of his own single mother.
“My mama worked every day. My mom was somebody that Tate Reeves would say is a welfare person, but my mama worked every day,” he said.
In his rebuttal, Mr. Reeves said that his opponent in the race was attempting to speak on his behalf.
“You don’t speak for me,” the governor told Mr. Presley.
Mr. Presley then said that his answer hadn’t referenced Mr. Reeves, despite his comment just moments before that the governor would describe his mother as “a welfare person.”
“I don’t think anything in my answer right there, reciting the fact of my childhood, said anything about how the governor thinks about anything,” Mr. Presley said.
“Brandon lied to you again,” Mr. Reeves told the audience, continuing to speak until the moderators urged them to continue to another question.
The Deep South contest has attracted national media attention, and the incumbent governor has retained a strong lead over Mr. Presley, who once also served as mayor of the small community of Nettleton, Mississippi.
Mr. Reeves, who was first elected governor in 2020 after serving as lieutenant governor, scored a key endorsement from former President Donald Trump in a recent video message.
“He’s done a fantastic job,” the former president said. “The radical left maniacs who are attacking me are also after him.”
Running as a Democrat in a conservative southern state, Mr. Presley didn’t go out of his way to associate himself with President Joe Biden, a connection that his opponent sought to establish repeatedly during the hour-long debate.
In his closing statement, Mr. Presley referred to an uncle, Harold Ray Presley, who served as the sheriff of Lee County, Mississippi. He held up the lawman’s sheriff star.
Early exchanges between the candidates concerned Medicaid expansion, which the governor opposes and his challenger supports.
The Democratic candidate also said the state should take steps to “reach out to black-owned businesses” and “Mississippi-owned businesses, both black and white” when awarding contracts.
Mr. Reeves, for his part, stressed his spending on a historically black college, Jackson State University, after Mr. Presley said he would make funding for the institution a top priority in improving the state’s capital city.
The two also debated K–12 education, with the governor emphasizing the state’s rapidly improving test scores under his leadership. Mr. Presley, by contrast, said he was “proud” to garner an endorsement from the Mississippi Association of Educators, a teachers union.
