Tate Reeves

Tate Reeves, Governor of Mississippi, called an extraordinary legislative session on 5 May 2026, within 24 hours of the Supreme Court's Callais ruling granting immediate effect, positioning Mississippi among the first wave of Republican-controlled states moving to redraw congressional maps without VRA majority-minority district constraints. The Callais ruling freed states from the requirement to maintain majority-Black districts under VRA Section 2. Mississippi has four congressional districts, at least one of which was drawn to include a majority-Black population under the Thornburg v. Gingles doctrine that Callais overturned.

Reeves is a second-term Republican governor elected in 2019 and re-elected in 2023. He rose to prominence as state treasurer before becoming lieutenant governor under Phil Bryant, winning the governorship in a competitive general election against Democrat Jim Hood. He has governed as a fiscal conservative with a strong anti-abortion record and has resisted Medicaid expansion despite Mississippi ranking last or near-last on most healthcare access measures.

Mississippi's redistricting session is closely watched by the Brennan Center and NAACP Legal Defence Fund as an early test of how aggressively Republican states will move against majority-minority districts post-Callais. The state has a significant Black population — approximately 37 per cent — and the session's map output will signal whether Callais is being used to maximise partisan advantage or merely to achieve map compactness.