JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Amy St. Pe' has won an open seat on the Mississippi Court of Appeals.
She defeated Jennifer Schloegel Tuesday in a runoff election in the southeastern corner of the state, including the Gulf Coast.
Voters in central Mississippi were choosing a state Supreme Court justice Tuesday. Runoffs were between candidates who advanced from the Nov. 5 general election.
Voter turnout typically decreases between general elections and runoffs, and campaigns say turnout was especially challenging two days before Thanksgiving.
Supreme Court
Supreme Court Justice Jim Kitchens is seeking a third term and is challenged by state Sen. Jenifer Branning.
They are running in District 1, also known as the Central District, which stretches from the Delta region through the Jackson metro area and over to the Alabama border.
Branning received 42% in the first round of voting, and Kitchens received 36%. Three other candidates split the rest.
Mississippi judicial candidates run without party labels. But Democratic areas largely supported Kitchens on Nov. 5, and Republican ones supported Branning.
Branning is endorsed by the state Republican Party. She calls herself a “constitutional conservative” and says she opposes “liberal, activists judges” and “the radical left.”
Kitchens is the more senior of the Court’s two presiding justices, putting him next in line to serve as chief justice. He is endorsed by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Action Fund, which calls itself “a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond.”
In September, Kitchens sided with a man on death row for a murder conviction in which a key witness recanted her testimony. In 2018, Kitchens dissented in a pair of death row cases dealing with the use of the drug midazolam in state executions.
Court of Appeals
Amy St. Pe' will succeed Judge Joel Smith, who did not seek reelection to the Court of Appeals.
St. Pe’ and Schloegel advanced to Tuesday's runoff from a three-way contest, with St. Pe’ receiving 35% of the vote on Nov. 5 and Schloegel receiving 33%.
St. Pe' is a municipal judge in Gautier. Schloegel is a chancery court judge in Hancock, Harrison and Stone counties.
Emily Wagster Pettus, The Associated Press
