The distance between Cheikh Taylor’s and Wil Colom’s residences may be only 30 miles, but philosophically, their views of how a state party chairman should approach making the Mississippi Democratic Party viable again are arguably much further apart.
Taylor, from Starkville, will be seeking his first full term as the state’s Democratic Party chairman when the 82-member executive committee meets June 22 in Jackson.
Taylor was elected to take over as party chair last July when the executive committee voted to oust chairman Tyree Irving with one year remaining on his term.
Colom, a rare Republican-turned-Democrat in the state, confirmed Thursday he also will seek the position. The Columbus attorney has served in a variety of roles in the Democratic Party over the past 25 years.
Taylor, 50, is entering his third term representing District 38 in the Mississippi House of Representatives. He wants to raise the party’s profile, while Colom’s approach is just the opposite.
“I want the party to be more time-sensitive in calling out corruption and poor leadership at every turn,” Taylor said.
Colom, 74, said he’ll take more of a behind-the-scenes approach.
“You’ll hardly notice that I’m there because I’ll be working in the trenches,” Colom said. “The purpose of politics is policy and winning elections, not issuing press releases about things that don’t matter.”
Colom criticized Taylor’s recent press release calling on Democrats to boycott this year’s state fair because Agriculture Commissioner Andy Gipson had held a rally in support of former president and convicted felon Donald Trump at the fairgrounds, which are operated by the state department of agriculture.
“It’s pointless,” Colom said.
Taylor said the call for a boycott is evidence of his commitment to make the party more topical and visible.
He said the 10 months he has served as party chairman has been both enlightening and encouraging.
“I think I’m battle-tested and battle-ready,” Taylor said. “During that time, I’ve gained knowledge of everything from precinct caucuses to the state primary, general election and the national election. Nothing against Mr. Colom, who I have known for a long time, but I believe I have the consent of Democrats across the state who have been paying attention to what’s been happening in the last 10 months.”
Colom said he’ll focus his entire attention to building the party, noting that Taylor is a legislator.
“I’m not a player-coach,” Colom said. “Cheikh is a great candidate. I believe he needs to be elected to statewide office. But for this position, I think my skill set is better suited for it than the last two or three chairmen. As a lawyer and a businessman, I know you have to focus on the long term and building the party structure. I’ll be focusing on a plan to win elections in 2027 because the time to do that is now, not election year. We need to be working now, raising funds and identifying candidates at every level. That’s what structure is all about.”
Taylor said he wants the party to broaden its work.
“I have a plan for the next four years that involves raising funds and supporting candidates who can win at every level,” he said. “We can’t just focus on the governor’s race or even the statewide races. We need to go beyond that to help elected people in mayoral, aldermen and supervisors races, school boards and every other elected position, so that when the governor’s race and the other statewide races come, we have people in place to support them at those levels.”
Either man faces an uphill battle to restore the party to significance, at least at the state level. A Democrat hasn’t won a statewide office in the last two election cycles while the Republican Party has held a supermajority in both chambers of the legislature since 2011. Republicans have gained seats in both chambers over the past two cycles as well.
Taylor believes the executive committee will reward his work over the past year by electing him to a full term. Colom acknowledges that Taylor has support in the executive committee.
“To be candid, I know that some (executive committee members) committed to giving him a full term when he agreed to take over last year,” Colom said. “But I believe I have some support, too.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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