Michael D. Watson Jr. (born December 22, 1977) is an American politician and the incumbent

Secretary of State of Mississippi The Mississippi Secretary of State is an officer of Mississippi originally established under the Article IV, §14 of Mississippi Constitution of 1817, and was reestablished under Article V, §133 of the Mississippi Constitution of 1890. Several ...

. A

Republican Republican can refer to: Political ideology * An advocate of a republic, a type of government that is not a monarchy or dictatorship, and is usually associated with the rule of law. ** Republicanism, the ideology in support of republics or agains ...

, he previously represented the 51st district in the

Mississippi State Senate The Mississippi Senate is the upper house of the Mississippi Legislature, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Mississippi. The Senate, along with the lower Mississippi House of Representatives, convenes at the Mississippi State Capitol ...

from 2008 to 2020.

Career

Watson is an attorney from

Pascagoula, Mississippi Pascagoula ( ) is a city in Jackson County, Mississippi, United States. It is the principal city of the Pascagoula Metropolitan Statistical Area, and is part of the Gulfport–Biloxi–Pascagoula Combined Statistical Area. The population was 22 ...

. He ran in the 2007 Mississippi elections for the state senate against

Tommy Robertson Thomas Robertson (17 October 1876 – 13 August 1941) was a Scottish footballer who played as an outside left. He was part of the Heart of Midlothian team that won the Scottish league title in 1897. He also played for Liverpool between 1898 a ...

, and won. Watson considered running for

governor of Mississippi A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political r ...

in the

2015 Mississippi gubernatorial election The 2015 Mississippi gubernatorial election took place on November 3, 2015, to elect the Governor of Mississippi. Incumbent Republican Governor Phil Bryant ran for re-election to a second and final term in office. This is the highest percentag ...

, but opted to run for reelection instead. While in the Mississippi Senate, Watson voted against legislation that would make it easier for college students in Mississippi to vote with absentee ballots; under the legislation, students would have been allowed to use college registrars as witnesses for their absentee ballot application. In the

2019 Mississippi elections A general election was held in the U.S. state of Mississippi on November 5, 2019. All executive offices in the state were up for election. The primary election was held on August 6, 2019 and runoff elections were held on August 27, 2019. Although t ...

, Watson ran for

. He defeated Sam Britton in the Republican primary, and defeated

Johnny DuPree Johnny DuPree (born November 18, 1953) is an American politician and member of the Democratic Party who served as the mayor of Hattiesburg, Mississippi from 2001 to 2017. He was the Democratic Party nominee for Governor of Mississippi in 2011, th ...

in the general election on November 5. He was sworn-in to the office on January 9, 2020. In a television interview on March 26, 2021, Watson expressed concern that "

woke ''Woke'' ( ) is an adjective derived from African-American Vernacular English (AAVE) meaning "alert to racial prejudice and Racial discrimination, discrimination". Beginning in the 2010s, it came to encompass a broader awareness of social ineq ...

" college students in Mississippi, among others, would vote, falsely claiming that an Executive Order by President Biden on March 6, 2021, would automatically register people to vote. Watson also falsely claimed that people would be sneakily registered without their knowledge. After considering challenging

Tate Reeves Jonathan Tate Reeves (born June 5, 1974) is an American politician serving as the 65th governor of Mississippi since 2020. A member of the Republican Party, Reeves served as the 32nd lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 2012 to 2020 and as ...

in the 2023 Mississippi gubernatorial election, Watson elected instead to run for reelection.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Watson, Michael 1977 births 21st-century American lawyers 21st-century American politicians Living people Mississippi lawyers Republican Party Mississippi state senators People from Pascagoula, Mississippi Secretaries of State of Mississippi University of Mississippi alumni