Mary Hawkins Butler (born December 12, 1953) has served since 1981 as the

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. She is serving her tenth consecutive four-year term. First elected to office at age twenty-eight, she is among the longest-serving mayors in the United States.

Career

She earned a

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degree from

Belhaven University Belhaven University (Belhaven or BU) is a private evangelical Christian university in Jackson, Mississippi. Founded in 1883, the university offers traditional majors, programs of general studies, and pre-professional programs in Christian Minis ...

in the capital city of Jackson. Butler was an

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prior to her election as mayor of Madison in 1981. In 2021, Butler filed a lawsuit to overturn a voter-approved medical marijuana ballot initiative. She claimed there is a flaw in the state initiative process therefore medical marijuana initiative is invalid.

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agreed with Butler and overturned the medical marijuana initiative. Butler ran unsuccessfully for

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in the

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against incumbent Stacey E. Pickering of

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in the Republican primary.

Controversies

On April 23, 2015, Hawkins Butler gave her annual "State of the City Address," in which she compared city engineer Rudy Warnock to a corrupt state official, Chris Epps. As a result, Warnock threatened a lawsuit against Hawkins Butler. She has publicly stated that she believes the entire Madison Board of Directors is corrupt, even saying that all of its members need to be replaced. In 2020, Initiative 65 was approved in Mississippi, allowing doctors to prescribe medical marijuana. This Initiative was approved by a majority of 74%, winning all 82 counties. Mayor Butler filed a lawsuit in the Mississippi Supreme Court asking the court to invalidate the measure. On May 14, 2021, the Mississippi Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that Ballot Measure 1 (Initiative 65) was insufficient because it did not comply with the signature distribution requirements in the Mississippi Constitution and held that any subsequent proceeding regarding the initiatives were void. In February 2022, legislation was signed into law legalizing medical marijuana.

References

1953 births Living people Mississippi Republicans Women in Mississippi politics Mayors of places in Mississippi Place of birth missing (living people) Belhaven University alumni People from Madison, Mississippi Women mayors of places in Mississippi {{Mississippi-mayor-stub