Former Gov. Haley Barbour reflects on Katrina lessons, political landscape and governor’s race
BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) — Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was in Biloxi for a hurricane preparedness summit. Barbour discussed lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and shared his outlook on the upcoming midterm elections.
Hurricane preparedness
Barbour said preparation is key, noting that every storm is different.
“Be prepared. Preparation may differ. Katrina, far, far, far different storm from what this storm appears to be. Just like Katrina was very different from Camille,” Barbour said.
He said Hurricane Camille was previously considered the worst-case scenario until Katrina hit.
“We all thought Camille was as bad as it could get. And we got taught a lesson. It could be worse. And that was Katrina,” Barbour said.
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Midterm election outlook
Barbour said history shows the party that wins the White House often loses seats in Congress in the following midterm election. He added that Republican majorities in the House and Senate are in the single digits.
“We can’t stand much loss,” Barbour said. “If Trump loses the House and Senate, then his last two years, he will in many ways be a lame duck.”
Barbour said only three times in the last 100 years has the party that won the White House gained seats in the following midterm election.
On the economy as a factor in the midterms, Barbour said races will vary by location.
“Midterms are often about race by race. And you’ve got some places where you’ve got regular Republican candidates like Minnesota, Maine, Michigan, Iowa,” he said.
He pointed to the Texas Senate race, where the Republican incumbent lost his primary.
“We’ve got a situation where our incumbent senator lost the primary. And the hope that we have is that this guy running for the Democrats is so far left that Texas won’t accept him. We’ll see,” Barbour said.
Barbour said he expects a large field of candidates for president after Trump, including some connected to the Trump administration and others who are not.
He named the former governor of Virginia and the governor of Tennessee as potential candidates, along with the Vice President and Secretary of State.
“You have to go back to 2012 to have a really competitive race for the nomination,” he said.
Barbour said the field for Mississippi’s next governor’s race could be wide open.
“There are people who are predicting that the Lieutenant Governor will run, that the Attorney General will run, that the Agriculture Commissioner will run. You’ve got the auditor who might run. Then you’ve got a couple of people who’ve announced that they’re going to run,” he said.
Barbour named former House Speaker Philip Gunn and Tommy Duff as potential candidates.
“So that’s a very large field. Probably it’ll thin out some,” he said.
He added that he does not yet know who will run for the Democrats.
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November elections
While Mississippi voters are not electing a president this year, they will decide a U.S. Senate race involving Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith and a congressional race involving Republican incumbent Mike Ezell.
“I think both of them ought to win,” Barbour said.
Ezell is running against Democrat Jeffrey Hulum and Independent Carl Boyanton.
Barbour said outside money has flowed into the Senate race on behalf of the Democratic candidate, Scott Colom.
“But all this out-of-state money for Colom, I know the Democrats are hoping it’ll make it competitive,” he said.
Hyde-Smith is running against Colom and Independent Ty Pinkins.
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Republican growth in Mississippi
Barbour has been involved in Republican politics in Mississippi since 1968, when he worked on Richard Nixon’s campaign.
“I ran 30 counties in the Nixon campaign in the ’68 election,” Barbour said. “So when I started, there were hardly any Republicans.”
He said the party’s growth in the state came gradually, including under former Gov. Kirk Fordice, Mississippi’s second Republican Governor since Reconstruction.
“When Kirk was governor, we had hardly anybody in the legislature. By the time I got elected governor, we never had a majority in the House. And we had a majority one year in the Senate,” he said.
Barbour said Democrats in Mississippi receive significant out-of-state funding.
“The Democrats have some strength in the state, and they’d get a lot of out-of-state money. If not for that, the Senate race wouldn’t be much of a race,” Barbour said.
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