March 12, 2026
‘Seniority is how you get things done in Washington,’ the senior congressman said.
Adding to his 30-year-long resume, Rep. Bennie Thompson won the March 10 Democratic Party primary election to serve Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District for another term, the Associated Press reports.
At 78 years young, Thompson defeated two Democratic opponents, Evan Turnage and Pertis Williams III, to face the unidentified Republican candidate this November. He celebrated the victory on social media, saying he was “grateful” to voters for their faith in his leadership. “I didn’t begin this journey at the top or with a roadmap. As Langston Hughes wrote, life has not been a crystal stair. Every challenge only strengthened my resolve to expand access and opportunity,” he said on X.
“Thank you for the faith and the honor of serving you.”
With calls for younger leadership on Capitol Hill, Turnage, 34, had support from leaders after serving as counsel to then-Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. But Thompson says experience is the way of the game and says there is still work to be done. “Seniority is how you get things done in Washington,” the senior congressman said.
As Democrats fight to retake control of the House in November, if successful, Thompson will become chair of the committee overseeing the Department of Homeland Security. He says he looks forward to getting back to Congress to seek transparency around the battle in Iran and a partial government shutdown. “We have to get Donald Trump in check,” the Democratic leader said.
His leadership hasn’t gone unnoticed by colleagues and voters. He is the only Democrat to represent Mississippi in Congress as his majority-Black district spans the western part of the state between central Mississippi and the Mississippi River, according to The Hill.
Turnage was hoping to add to that lineage, campaigning on a message of economic populism and positioning himself as an understanding leader who would impose regulations on Big Tech and artificial intelligence. But despite his defeat, he wishes Thompson well — but just hopes he will take things up a notch. “I can only wish Rep. Thompson the best and hope that being granted another term pushes him to meet this moment,” Turnage said in a conceding statement. “Our people cannot afford another decade of the same.”
Voters like Dyamone White think Thompson has done just fine. White went to high school with Turnage but voted for Thompson instead. The small business owner, who has a business next door to the congressman’s Bolton, Mississippi, office, said, “his leadership and decades of service to the district and the state of Mississippi is nothing that should be forgotten.” “He has served his district well,” the voter said.
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