Phil Bryant

Dewey Phillip Bryant (born December 9, 1954) is an American politician who served as the 64th governor of Mississippi from 2012 to 2020. A member of the Republican Party, he was the 31st lieutenant governor of Mississippi from 2008 to 2012 and 40th state auditor of Mississippi from 1996 to 2008. A Republican, Bryant was elected governor in 2011, defeating the Democratic nominee Mayor Johnny DuPree of Hattiesburg. He was reelected in 2015, defeating truck driver Robert Gray.

Early life and education

Bryant was born in Moorhead in Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta. He is the son of Dewey C., a diesel mechanic, and Estelle R. Bryant, a mother who stayed home with her three boys. Bryant's family moved to the capital of Jackson, where his father worked for Jackson Mack Sales and was later Service Manager there.

Dewey Phillip Bryant attended Council McCluer High School his junior and senior years.

Bryant studied first at Hinds Community College and received a bachelor's degree in criminal justice from the University of Southern Mississippi and a master's degree in political science from Mississippi College in Clinton. He also received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws degree from Mississippi College, where he served as an adjunct professor teaching Mississippi political history, both before and during his first term as governor.

Political career

Prior to entering government public service, Bryant was a deputy sheriff in Hinds County from 1976 to 1981; he worked undercover in drug law enforcement and also worked as an insurance claims investigator. After his election to the Mississippi House of Representatives, Bryant served as Vice Chairman of the House Insurance Committee. Notably, he sponsored the Capital Gains Tax Cut Act of 1992.

In 1996, Bryant was appointed State Auditor by Governor Kirk Fordice. Bryant was subsequently elected to a full term as auditor in 1999 and reelected in 2003. That year he convinced the Mississippi State Legislature to grant law enforcement officers in the auditor's office's investigative division full powers of arrest.

In 2007, he was elected Lieutenant Governor of Mississippi, defeating the Democratic Party candidate, State Representative Jamie Franks.

In 2011, Bryant was elected Governor of Mississippi, defeating the Democratic nominee Johnny DuPree.

After leaving public office in 2019, Bryant became a founding member of BSS Global where he provides strategic advice and counsel and business development services to some of the world’s largest industry leaders.

Governor of Mississippi

2011 election

Bryant won the Republican primary in the gubernatorial election in 2011. He defeated Democratic nominee Johnny DuPree on November 8, with 60.98 percent of the vote compared to DuPree's 39.2 percent.

First term

On January 10, 2012, Bryant was sworn in as the 64th Governor of Mississippi. Former Republican State Chairman Jim Herring, a lawyer from Canton, headed the transition team. Once inaugurated, Bryant signed into law a bill requiring doctors at abortion clinics to have admitting privileges at local hospitals in an attempt to "end abortion in Mississippi". At the time, the state has a single abortion clinic, served only by out-of-state doctors who lack in-state admitting privileges.

From the outset of his first term, Bryant relentlessly championed public education reforms, and his 2013 “Education Works” policy package implemented some of the most transformational changes ever seen in Mississippi’s public education system. The proposals he guided into law include the establishment of evidence-based early childhood education programs; increased teacher pay; increased support for teacher National Board Certification; new scholarships for high-achieving high school students who want to work as public school teachers; and increased standards for university teacher training programs.

The cornerstone of his public education legacy is the “Third Grade Gate,” which requires public school third grade students to demonstrate appropriate reading skills before being promoted and also includes enhanced skills building for at-risk students and pedagogical training for classroom teachers.

Under his leadership Mississippi saw its lowest-ever unemployment rate; lowest-ever high school dropout rate; lowest-ever teen pregnancy rate; highest-ever number of jobs; highest-ever number of graduating physicians; highest-ever K-12 reading and math improvement scores; and highest-ever high school graduation rate.

2015 re-election

Governor Bryant ran for re-election in 2015, facing off against Mitch Young in the Republican primary, carrying 91.7 percent of the vote. On November 5, Bryant faced the Democratic nominee, truck driver Robert Gray, winning with 66.6 percent of the vote. Because Mississippi is one of the eight U.S. states that have a two-term lifetime limit, he was ineligible to seek a third term in the 2019 gubernatorial election.

Second term

In 2015, Phil Bryant refused to support legislation to change the flag of Mississippi to remove the Confederate battle saltire, even though some members of his party, such as House Speaker Philip Gunn, publicly said the flag needed to change so that it could represent all Mississippians. Bryant took the position that voters should make the decision on the state flag.

While Governor, Bryant largely centered his efforts on creating new economic opportunities, which yielded more than $8 billion in private sector investment in Mississippi as well as the largest economic project in state history — a landmark agreement with Continental Tire to build a major manufacturing facility in central Mississippi. The project was announced in February 2016. The newly-constructed facility celebrated its opening in October 2019, marking a $1.45 billion private investment.

Governor Bryant dovetailed public education reforms with a strong focus on workforce training programs and job creation. His administration worked to improve career-technical training programs and their delivery through Mississippi’s top-rated community and junior college system, pairing program offerings with local workforce opportunities and collaborating with the K-12 system to strengthen high school vocational programs.

On April 5, 2016, Bryant signed House Bill 1523, the HB-1523, which allows government employees and private businesses to cite religious beliefs to deny services to same-sex couples seeking a marriage license. The governor said on Twitter that HB-1523, "merely reinforces the rights which currently exist to the exercise of religious freedom as stated in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution."

Bryant announced on February 21, 2017, that he would make emergency budget cuts to most state agency budgets for the third time in the current fiscal year, having made similar cuts in the previous year because of the lack of projected revenue.

Bryant signed a law scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2019, that would ban abortions later than six weeks of pregnancy. The Center for Reproductive Rights in Jackson challenged the law. Because of his decision finding the prior less restrictive "15-week" law in the ''Currier'' case to be unconstitutional, Southern District of Mississippi Judge Carlton Reeves began his decision by referencing a prior law Bryant had signed and which Reeves had struck down in 2018. Judge Reeves wrote, "Here we go again. Mississippi has passed another law banning abortions prior to viability." He inquired, "Doesn't it boil down to six is less than fifteen?", adding that the new law "smacks of defiance to this court." Reeves noted that although there were exceptions for situations where the mother's life or health is endangered should pregnancy be taken to term, the law does not allow for exceptions in the cases of pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.

Investigative reporting during Bryant's second term that looked into Mississippi statewide public officials' misuse of political campaign funds showed that Bryant had not made payments to himself or utilized campaign credit cards for unrelated personal spending, and since 2012 had spent $2.6 million on his campaign with almost as much left over. The campaign fund was closed out with the majority of funds going to a political action committee, Imagine Mississippi PAC.Nave, R. L. (January 31, 2017) "Bryant transfers campaign funds to PAC"
Mississippi Today website
Retrieved February 16, 2017.

Personal life

Bryant and his wife Deborah have two children, Katie and Patrick, and four grandchildren. They are members of St. Mark's United Methodist Church in Brandon.

Electoral history

References

Works cited

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External links

Governor Phil Bryant
official government website

Phil Bryant for Governor
official campaign website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryant, Phil
21st-century American politicians
Mississippi College School of Law faculty
American United Methodists
Republican Party governors of Mississippi
Hinds Community College alumni
Lieutenant Governors of Mississippi
Living people
Republican Party members of the Mississippi House of Representatives
Mississippi College alumni
People from Moorhead, Mississippi
State Auditors of Mississippi
University of Southern Mississippi alumni
1954 births