JACKSON, MS (AP) — State Senator Jenifer Branning defeated Justice Jim Kitchens to secure a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court.
As counties announced the official results of the runoff election on November 26, the Associated Press announced the Branning race on Friday.
In the general election held on Nov. 5, Kitchens and Branning progressed to the runoff as the front-runners out of five contenders. They ran in District 1, sometimes referred to as the Central District, which extends from the Delta region to the Alabama border via the Jackson metro area.
Candidates for Mississippi’s judiciary do not identify themselves by party. However, Kitchens was generally supported by Democrats, while Branning was supported by Republicans.
The state Republican Party backed Branning. She identifies as a constitutional conservative and claims to be against the radical left, liberal judges, and activists.
Kitchens, the more senior of the court’s two presiding judges, was next in line to become chief justice and was running for a third term. The Action Fund of the Southern Poverty Law Center, which bills itself as a force for racial justice in the South and beyond, endorsed him.
Kitchens supported a man on death row in September when a key witness renounced her testimony in a murder case. Kitchens dissented in two death row cases involving the use of the medication midazolam in state executions in 2018.
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