Politics 2019: Reeves wins gubernatorial election

Republican Lt. Gov. Tate Reeves was elected governor of Mississippi on Tuesday over state Attorney General Jim Hood, a Democrat.

Reeves will succeed term-limited incumbent Phil Bryant as Mississippi’s third consecutive Republican governor. To win the election, a candidate needed to receive a majority in the popular vote and win a majority of Mississippi's 122 state house districts.

Reeves’ victory, alongside Republican victories in both chambers of the state legislature, preserves Mississippi’s Republican trifecta. The trifecta has been in place since the party won a majority in the State House in 2011.

Alongside Lynn Fitch’s victory in the Attorney General election and Michael D. Watson Jr.’s victory in the Secretary of State election, Reeves’ win also secures a Republican triplex, control of the top three executive offices, for the first time since 1876.