Michael Watson announces run for lieutenant governor

PASCAGOULA (Mississippi Today) – Secretary of State Michael Watson announced in his hometown of Pascagoula on Tuesday morning that he will run for lieutenant governor in the Republican primary next year.

“As the son of a shipyard worker and a bank teller, I’ve never forgotten where I came from,” Jackson County native Watson told a crowd in Pascagoula.

When he won the election for secretary of state in 2019, Watson became the first person from the Coast to be elected to a statewide office in nearly two decades.

Watson’s campaign chose to launch his bid for lieutenant governor at the Hilton Garden Inn in Pascagoula. The hotel is the former site of the old LaFont Inn, where former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott launched his congressional campaign and announced his retirement from the Senate.

“This is where I’m from, and this is who I am,” Watson told the crowd.

Watson plans to hold a series of announcement events around several cities in the state over the next few days, starting along the Coast and ending in Brookhaven on Thursday night. (Continue Reading)