New state GOP chair hopes to work on expanding party foothold in Mississippi

Former U.S. Attorney Mike Hurst took the helm of the Mississippi Republican Party on May 11, and he said he is planning to continue several outreach programs within the party and grow the Republican base in Mississippi.

Hurst told the Clarion Ledger he was honored to be voted into the party's leadership position, and he hopes to continue the good work of the former party chairman Frank Bordeaux, who held the position since 2020.

"It's a huge honor, but it's a really demanding responsibility that it's been placed on me," Hurst said.

That work will include several outreach programs to increase party membership in minority and women populations throughout the state.

So far, Hurst said those efforts already resulted in more Republican women being involved in the party and last year's election of Rodney Hall of Southaven as the first Black Republican in the Mississippi House Representative since 1894.

"I think there are a lot of opportunities there for folks to see that we share the same values, we share the same principles, and we are the party of Lincoln," he said.

Hurst, who had previously worked as the chairman of the United Republican Fund, was endorsed by Bordeaux, as well as Republican Gov. Tate Reeves and Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann leading up to the May 11 vote. Professionally, Hurst works locally as an attorney for Phelps Dunbar, a New Orleans-based law firm.

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Who is Mike Hurst?

Hurst began his political career like many others within his party — by engaging with politically interested people, joining clubs and working for campaigns.

While Hurst said he grew up in Newton County with his family telling him they were Republicans, he first became interested in politics while attending Millsaps College from 1995 to 1997, where he joined a conservative student group.

"That's really where I started getting together with other like-minded folks, to really get it out on the campaign trail," he said.

Before leaving to attend law school in Washington, D.C., Hurst worked for congressional candidate Chip Pickering.

Once in the nation's capital, he began working on other campaigns while attending George Washington University Law School. One of those campaigns was for George W. Bush, who was running for president against Al Gore, a Democrat from Tennessee.

After graduating from law school in 2000, he began working as an attorney and then as counsel for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee and again for Pickering starting in 2003.

While in his time there, Hurst worked on several historic pieces of legislation. Most notably, he helped to amend the Stafford Act, which outlines disaster relief and response, to provide further incentives and relief to local residents and businesses impacted by a natural disaster.

"It was important to us because it was our families and our friends on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and even further north, who were really impacted and hurt by Hurrican Katrina," Hurst said. "They wanted to go back to work, they wanted to rebuild, they didn't want a hand out, and this was a way to help do that."

Hurst also was part of a team that worked on the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which made it a crime if someone killed an unborn child if they harmed or killed a pregnant woman.

Hurst would leave Pickering's office in 2006 to move back to Mississippi and begin working for the Southern District's U.S. Attorney's Office as an assistant attorney, where he worked until he ran for Mississippi Attorney General in 2015 against incumbent Democrat Jim Hood.

At the time, Hood was the only Democrat holding a statewide office in Mississippi, and while he lost race, Hurst said he was glad to have done it.

"Looking back now almost nine years later, it's one of those things where the Lord calls you to be obedient, and you're obedient. You think there's going to be a certain outcome, but it's not your outcome, it's his outcome," Hurst said.

Receiving more notice from the party

Despite losing the AG race in 2015, Hurst said his campaign garnered him name recognition among state Republicans and beyond.

In 2016, he also began working for the Mississippi Center for Public Policy as general counsel and director of the Mississippi Justice Institute. In 2017, former President Donald Trump appointed him to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District.

"I'm not exaggerating when I say I never had any intention to be a United States Attorney and I never had any thought that I would even be considered," Hurst said. "I think stepping out in faith and running for AG, following what I believe was the Lord's call. … I think that's how my name got out there."

Hurst went on to serve in that role until Democratic President Joseph Biden came into office in 2021.

As U.S. Attorney, Hurst said he worked to increase the number of indictments his office handed down, decrease violent crime throughout the state, stop the spread of the opioid crisis, as well as work on immigration cases.

Most notably, Hurst's office worked around the state to drastically decrease violent crime rates in cities such as Jackson, Natchez and Hattiesburg, to name a few.

What is next?

Moving forward, Hurst said he plans to move the party forward by focusing on conservative values.

"I'm excited about it, because we've got the fire in the belly," Hurst said. "We've got people out there who want to make our state better, and we believe we can do that with our conservative principles. I'm really excited for trying to set a vision based on what we believe in as Republicans and trying to execute on that."

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Grant McLaughlin covers state government for the Clarion Ledger. He can be reached at gmclaughlin@gannett.com or 972-571-2335.

This article originally appeared on Mississippi Clarion Ledger: New MS GOP chair wants to work on women, minority outreach in Mississippi