Republican Trent Kelly
Leadership.
That’s what Republican Trent Kelly said sets him apart in the race for Mississippi’s First Congressional District representative, and that’s what he said his constituency would see from him in Washington.
A first-term district attorney for seven north Mississippi counties — including Monroe, Lee and Tishomingo — Kelly also served as Tupelo city prosecutor from 1999-2011. He’s a 29-year veteran of the Mississippi Army National Guard, serving two tours in Iraq in 2005 and 2009, and now serves as colonel and commander of the 168th Engineer Brigade. He holds a master’s degree in strategic war studies from U.S. Army War College.
Kelly said he believes those experiences will help him navigate the politically divided ranks of Capitol Hill and adequately represent the best interests of north Mississippi citizens.
“No. 1 is leadership. Not leadership from a book but actual leadership,” Kelly said. “Both as a district attorney and as a colonel in the National Guard, with most of the decisions we face, ‘No’ is not an option. You have an objective, and then you figure out how to achieve that objective by using…the things you have available to you. I think that’s a good skill to have.”
Kelly, 46, of Saltillo, placed second on May 12 in a 13-man, non-partisan special election to replace the late Congressman Alan Nunnelee, moving on to Tuesday’s run-off with Walter Zinn, a Democrat.
As a congressman, Kelly said he would promote a pro-small business, pro-agriculture agenda and employ his military experience in a way that would responsibly deal with foreign conflicts, particularly those in the Middle East. Party politics, he said, had little role in accomplishing those objectives.
“The primary goal of Congress is to defend this nation from all of its enemies, and I think there are some very really threats out there both economically and militarily,” Kelly said. “I feel like we have a goal of defending this nation at all costs. (Economically) I think what Congress has to do is quit allowing regulations to hinder our businesses and our business people’s ingenuity.
“I see myself as representing the values of this district,” he added. “Generally speaking, this is a very conservative district, and that’s what the people would be sending me there to do is to represent the views of this district and not the views of a party or a section of a party. … I’m more of an issue-driven person than a party-driven person.”
Economy
Growing the economy, Kelly said, begins with recruiting industry to an environment where it could thrive, and that starts with having a workforce trained for the task. In turn, a trained workforce with viable job opportunities will reduce poverty.
“You have to make sure there is a workforce that wants to work and is trained to work,” he said. “We have a very good workforce here in north Mississippi and a lot of industries are popping up. I think here we’re doing a lot of things right to make sure people have the opportunity to go to work if they want to.”
When speaking on raising the minimum wage, Kelly said he believes the businesses themselves should dictate what constitutes a fair wage. The danger of the federal government raising the minimum wage too high, he said, is its affect on cost-of-living and small businesses in states like Mississippi. For example, he said a minimum wage of $15 — as some groups have suggested — would affect places like California or New York differently than Mississippi because the cost-of-living is lower here.
Conversely, he said letting businesses profit from a lower-regulation environment would translate into higher wages for their employees without an artificial fix.
Defense
On defense, Kelly commended the strides the U.S. had made in the Middle East over the last decade but said the U.S. needs to avoid entering future conflicts without a clear long-term vision.
Despite the recent rise of the ISIS terrorist group, particularly in Iraq since the U.S. troop withdrawal, he believes American forces helped stabilize the region during decade-long campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. Re-entering that theater, militarily, he said needs to hinge on whether those countries ask for American assistance and whether engaging in the conflict advances U.S. interests.
“I think the biggest problem we have right now is we don’t ever look long term enough,” he said. “We look at the short-term solution, but we don’t ever look enough at the second or third affects of those things.”
Education
While Kelly’s opponent has tried to establish himself partly as the “pro-education” candidate, Kelly said public education strides and education reform should be “state and local government issues.” Even so, Kelly said his children attend public schools so he has a vested interest in Mississippi’s public schools performing well.
“There’s very little that the federal government has done or will do in the state of Mississippi as far as education,” he said. “I won’t speak about a bunch of rhetoric or things I can’t do even though it might sound good on the campaign trail. I’m more of a ‘What issues can I influence and affect,’ and those are the ones I’m going to focus on.”
Democrat Walter Zinn
Grassroots.
If Democrat Walter Zinn’s candidacy is nothing else, it’s that.
And though his low-budget campaign didn’t include the media advertising blitz some of his opponents displayed, it has him one step away from the U.S. Congress.
Zinn, 34, of Pontotoc, placed first on May 12 in a special election to replace the late Alan Nunnelee as Mississippi’s First Congressional District representative. That earned him a spot in Tuesday’s runoff, where he’ll face Mississippi district attorney Trent Kelly.
Though the election is technically non-partisan, Zinn was the only Democrat in the field for a seat that has, at least in recent history, largely favored Republicans. That does not bother Zinn in the least.
“I think I’ve demonstrated a type of candidate that they are not used to in this district — young, informed and also experienced,” Zinn said. “I give them something to believe in. If you look at the environment, no other candidate is offering the solutions or the practical approach to a lot of the pressing issues we have in this district.”
An attorney and political consultant, Zinn began his career as an intern for Roger Wicker when he represented Mississippi’s First District. Though at the time on a trajectory to become a Republican, Zinn decided to cast his lot with the Democrats because of what he viewed as policy failures — particularly in education — of the George W. Bush administration.
After earning a bachelor’s degree at Millsaps and a law degree at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Zinn worked on Jim Hood’s first campaign for attorney general and later served as one of his clerks. In 2008, he worked on Travis Childers’ successful campaign for representative. Then, at 27, he unsuccessfully sought to become the executive director of the Mississippi Democratic Party.
From there, he managed Harvey Johnson’s race for Jackson mayor, then worked as his government affairs director and dealt heavily with Johnson’s administration’s legislative and lobbying agenda. Later, he worked in the same capacity under former Jackson mayor Chokwe Lumumba.
He’s also worked as a consultant on campaigns in Illinois, Iowa, Florida and Michigan.
Zinn’s platform heavily focuses on improving education and bringing people out of poverty.
Education
On the education front, he supports pushing students to read by second grade and finding ways to better engage students along vocational tracks. He said he’s also the only candidate speaking to how third-grade failures on exams and what that leads to in the juvenile justice and detention system.
“There are a lot of politricks involved, rather than politics,” he said. “That’s why Mississippi will still be at the bottom because people aren’t taking people’s quality of life seriously.”
Addressing poverty
Poverty and education, he said, go hand-in-hand. He said he supports strengthening workforce training as a means of creating a higher-paid workforce. Also, he believes in being a good steward of federal funds coming into the state, rather than doing away with or limiting programs meant to help the poor.
“What my platform is about is building people up to where they actually need less because they are in a more self-sufficient place,” he said.
“I’m not a fan of large government either, but large government is a sign that people need a lot more than the local communities can produce,” he added. “So they can talk a good game on one side of the pendulum about shrinking government and telling the government to stay out of our business, although the government pays almost 50 cents of every (public) dollar we have here.”
Zinn has Lowndes County roots, as his father served as music minister for nearly a decade at Southside Baptist Church in Columbus. He said he’s deployed his family members and friends in Lowndes County and throughout the 22-county congressional district during the campaign to drum up support. Now, it’s about the “tag and drag” method, he said, meaning his team must reach voters who identify with his message and compel them to return to the polls on Tuesday.
“I’m very proud that my candidacy demonstrates that grassroots politics still work, and that if you have a quality message it can be attractive to people,” Zinn said. “Again, had we had the money, I believe we would have been successful on the first ballot … it was somewhat disappointing because I know we had the right gameplan and the right targets. We just didn’t have the resources to make that push to make the difference in winning and losing on the first ballot. … I’m running to win. At the end of the day, I’m running well. I’m running competently. I’m offering the most intelligent and practical platform. If people want that, I should win.”
Zack Plair is the managing editor for The Dispatch.
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