Candidates in tight race for Mississippi Supreme Court as St. Pe' wins Court of Appeals seat

JACKSON, Miss. — Amy St. Pe' won an open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals on Tuesday, wrapping up one of two runoffs in judicial races between candidates who advanced from the Nov. 5 general election.

State Sen. Jenifer Branning and Justice Jim Kitchens, meanwhile, were in a tight race as votes were still being counted late Tuesday in runoff election for a Mississippi Supreme Court seat.

Voter turnout typically decreases between general elections and runoffs, and campaigns said turnout was especially challenging two days before Thanksgiving.

Supreme Court

Kitchens and Branning faced off in District 1, also known as the Central District, which stretches from the Delta region through the Jackson metro area and over to the Alabama border.

The race was too early to call. Branning led Kitchens by 518 votes, or 0.44 percentage points, out of more than 128,000 votes counted at midnight ET. The Associated Press estimated there were more than 11,000 votes still to be counted. In the Nov. 5 election, 7% of votes were counted after election night.

Branning received 42% in the first round of voting, and Kitchens received 36%. Three other candidates split the rest.

Mississippi judicial candidates run without party labels. But Democratic areas largely supported Kitchens on Nov. 5, and Republican ones supported Branning.

Branning is endorsed by the state Republican Party. She calls herself a ''constitutional conservative'' and says she opposes ''liberal, activists judges'' and ''the radical left.''

Kitchens is seeking a third term and is the more senior of the Court's two presiding justices, putting him next in line to serve as chief justice. He is endorsed by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Action Fund, which calls itself ''a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond.''

In September, Kitchens sided with a man on death row for a murder conviction in which a key witness recanted her testimony. In 2018, Kitchens dissented in a pair of death row cases dealing with the use of the drug midazolam in state executions.

Court of Appeals

St. Pe' will succeed Judge Joel Smith, who did not seek reelection to the 10-member Court of Appeals. The district is in the southeastern corner of the state, including the Gulf Coast.

St. Pe' and Jennifer Schloegel advanced to Tuesday's runoff from a three-way contest, with St. Pe' receiving 35% of the vote on Nov. 5 and Schloegel receiving 33%.

St. Pe' is a municipal judge in Gautier. Schloegel is a chancery court judge in Hancock, Harrison and Stone counties.