Chapter 7: The Deal I understand why they picked DeSoto. We already covered that. This chapter is the other half. There had to be something else to it for Watson, Fitch, Reeves, and Hosemann to risk so much political capital. To hide the map. To destroy what little was left of their conservative reputations by sitting at the same table with the ACLU. To spend a quarter of a million dollars of taxpayer money fighting their own base. To lie on the record and tell a federal judge there wasn’t time, then open qualifying two weeks later for a different judicial seat in the same county. To violate the constitutional rights of 86% of DeSoto County. What was it? I just couldn’t put my finger on why the “Republican” State leadership would fight so hard against us on stopping a gerrymandered judicial district in DeSoto — and even more mind-boggling, why they would team up with the ACLU and fight us in court. I spent months trying to see the angle. I knew it had to be more than state leadership just not liking DeSoto. A deal had been made, at least that was the political rumor, and it was clear what the ACLU got out of the deal. They got a gerrymandered judicial district in DeSoto where two liberal judges could get elected and conservative judicial candidates had no chance. So the state had to be getting something to offset that from the ACLU. But what was it? Then while one of the ACLU attorneys was cross-examining Representative Eubanks. He had flown in from New York, Chicago, DC or based on the accent maybe even straight from China, obviously doesn’t know our local politics or the details of the deal, so unknowingly he showed their hole cards and I caught it. He was going through the MARIS map census data that the state had included in the conference report and pointing out the racial breakdowns of the special district in DeSoto. Then he went through the special gerrymandered district in Jackson — the “Capitol Complex District.” The Capitol Complex District is the Jackson elites’ dream — revitalize downtown Jackson around the Capitol, the state fairgrounds, the UMMC medical center and other state buildings as the anchor, make it the thriving center of business for our state again. The state’s biggest donors want it. Big developers of course want it. Same crowd that has spent thirty years trying to dam the Pearl River into lakes and waterfront lots next to downtown — Two Lakes, then One Lake. Flood control as the pitch to use taxpayer funds. Development in the fine print. Aha. The dots connected in that moment. We had to go through all we had been through and wind up in a federal lawsuit with the entire Mississippi Good O’le Boy RINO Establishment and the entire National Liberal legal machine lined up against us in an old courtroom in Aberdeen, MS for it to all finally be revealed. That’s the deal the state’s top politicians made with the ACLU! That’s what this was all about! The MARIS map packet with 2020 census data that was included in the conference report is sitting right there in black and white. Almost exact opposites. Until January of this year, all anyone had seen was the large statewide map with a little pink spot in the upper corner of DeSoto. I’ll attach that and the census data from the MARIS map packet included in the conference report at the bottom. DeSoto County is District 21. The whole county: 150,203 people. 64.80% White. 25.17% Black. Voting-age: 67.13% White. 24.85% any-part Black. Then look at Subdistrict 21-1, the sliver they slipped in on us: 35,111 people. 36.26% White. 52.40% Black. Voting-age: 40.83% White. 50.52% any-part Black. They didn’t draw the subdistrict to be competitive. They drew it to just clear 50%. Just enough to call it a majority-minority district. Just enough, pre-Callais, to claim the Voting Rights Act made them do it. That’s not coincidence, that’s the deal. 1/2

Now look at Hinds around the capital in Jackson. Majority-Black county. They did the exact opposite. District 7-1, the big Hinds piece: 72.60% any-part Black voting-age. 24.36% White. District 7-3, the slice next to it: 51.83% White voting-age. 43.27% any-part Black. A majority-White subdistrict in a majority-Black county (Hinds/Jackson). A majority-Black subdistrict in a majority-White county (DeSoto). They offset it. It is my opinion, based on the facts that have been revealed, that the state’s top RINO politicians made the following back-room deal with the Liberal ACLU: if you back off the legal challenges on the majority-white gerrymandered subdistrict around the Capitol Complex District in deep blue Jackson, we will give you a special left-voting gerrymandered subdistrict in a deep red county so you can get some liberal judges elected in a traditionally conservative area. It might not have just been the ACLU this deal was made with. It was probably also made with the people who run the Democrat Party in Mississippi. You see, the ACLU legal team has to have local people and activist groups agree to sign up as the plaintiffs for their cases. Then they fly in with the money and the attorneys. We may never know the truth. I’m sure all involved will deny it, but they aren’t fooling me. The state has been building the Capitol Complex District since 2017. I was there at that time. It started with just streets and Capitol Police. In 2023 it expanded to a separate appointed court inside that district. Jackson activists and the NAACP sued over that court. That fight was still hot when these judicial bills were being drawn. In December 2024 the NAACP dropped its federal case over the Capitol Complex court. They said they were “heartened” by “safeguards.” The case was dismissed without prejudice. The legislative session started weeks later in January. A few months after hiding the map and the details, in April 2025, the Legislature passed the DeSoto judicial subdistrict bills and the Governor signed them. Coincidence? I’ll let you decide. In other words, they chose to throw DeSoto under the bus, I’m certain because they already don’t like us since we don’t usually vote for the establishment in elections. But they messed up. They underestimated us. We put it all together. We caught them red-handed. We are sick and tired of the establishment dividing our communities and pitting us against each other based on race. Desoto is a wonderful place to call home. We elect our leaders here based on qualifications not race. We all just want to live together in peace without any liberal judges! Now, I’m not against having a Capitol Complex District and cleaning up the crime around Jackson at all. In fact, I’m very supportive of the state stepping in to clean up Jackson. But I am against it if it’s going to be at the expense of the safety and prosperity of another area of our state, especially if it’s my home in DeSoto. We don’t want liberal judges and crime here in DeSoto County. The people here want law and order and judges that will uphold those conservative principles. More importantly, we at least want the right to vote for our judges, and right now 86% of our county doesn’t even get to vote on these two new subdistrict judges. Watson didn’t just break his word to me. He, Fitch, Reeves, and Hosemann all betrayed the 86% of DeSoto County who can’t vote for these judges, and they betrayed their entire conservative Republican base. They have lost my votes in the Republican primary. They should all PUBLICLY support DeSoto by actively removing this unconstitutional subdistrict. Open these illegal judicial subdistrict seats back up for mid-cycle fair and legal elections where all 100% of our county can vote. And stop making excuses. Cards on the table. All in. 2/2

Chapter 6: The Trial The emergency injunction hearing began July 31, 2026, in Aberdeen, Mississippi, at the federal courthouse. A run-down town. But an old-money, Deep-South feel. A building put up in a time when U.S. Senators could still stick special projects in a bill. A lot of political power has come out of Northeast Mississippi over the years. Not only this federal court building. There is also the Thad Cochran Bankruptcy Court in this small town. But now a town gutted and run down. A grocery store with fried chicken and a Subway that got wiped out that week by all the attorneys at our trial. No cheese, no chips, and hardly even any bread left before the truck ran again. If you ever go to Aberdeen, the fried chicken and vegetables at the local grocery store is the place to eat, by the way. Warm meals and a friendly smile. Worth every penny. The U.S. Marshals assigned to this building’s security are real salt-of-the-earth guys. You can tell they have been around a long time and seen a lot of crazy stuff in their years watching over that building. Never felt safer in a building than in that one. Built like a fort. Modern for its day, heavily dated now. Post office boxes for the small town locals on the left as you came in. One way in and one way out. Metal detectors, pockets emptied, and everything on the conveyor belt to go through the scanner. Very quiet and clean. Old pictures of judges that go way back. Courtrooms were upstairs. The public elevator was out all week so we took the stairs. I like taking the stairs anyway. Two courtrooms up there. We were in the one on the left. A brass doorknob into the courtroom so smooth and worn from over the years people purposely waited for someone else to open the door so they wouldn’t have to be the one to mess around with it to get it open. When you entered it felt like walking into a walk-in cooler. The judge must like it cold. Wooden pews either side at the back as you walk in serve as the gallery with very bright white lights. A place to be respected. A place where serious business took place. The Defendants — the state hired attorneys, Fitch’s stand-in designee from the AG’s office (she dare not show her face there), the ACLU posse, and Meacham’s worthless attorneys — all sat at the same long set of tables to the left. They had to push several tables together because there were so many of them. Meacham, Watson’s staff, and Tate’s goofy errand boy texting the play-by-play all hung out together in the pews behind us to the left. We the Plaintiffs sat in the middle at a table facing the judge. An empty jury section to the right, unneeded for this trial. What a hornet’s nest I had whacked. If I had to guess, over a million dollars in legal fees sitting at the table to my left all together in federal court laughing at us. The state hired Brunini, Grantham, Grower & Hewes out of Jackson and authorized up to $250,000 of taxpayer money to fight us. The contract ran July 9, 2026 through July 8, 2027, at $425 an hour for attorneys. They signed it one week after we filed. Solid firm. Heavy hitters. If I ever wanted to violate someone’s constitutional rights they would definitely be the guys I’d hire. The ACLU flew in their top voting-rights attorneys from around the country — Chicago, New York, D.C. Many of the same attorneys that have been fighting the Trump administration the last ten years. Add all these attorneys to the mix and it was over a dozen lawyers there to try and make sure that 86% of DeSoto County wouldn’t get to vote for two judges. Our county Election Commission ran more exact numbers during the hearing. It came out that only 14% of the voting-age population live in the actual voting district. The bills had old precincts in them. So 86% VAP live outside the district and can’t vote. 1/3

Mike called them out. He impeached the state’s witness — the lead attorney and interim Assistant Secretary of State (Watson too cowardly to show up himself so he sent a lady to take the fall for him). Mike brought up that Tate Reeves had just appointed Judge Celeste Wilson on July 27, 2026 — four days before the trial — a circuit judge from DeSoto County, to the State Supreme Court. By state law Reeves had to announce sign-ups for her seat and that election had to be certified and added to the November 3rd ballot. The very remedy we were asking for, the thing they swore in a federal court document that could not be done, they were about to do with another now-open judge seat in our very county. Mike also pointed out Reeves was required by law to issue the proclamation opening qualifying, and he strangely hadn’t done that yet. It is my opinion, even though I’ll never be able to prove it, but I believe Watson directed her to tell these lies in federal court on his cowardly behalf. I’ll just never believe his second in command wrote those lies as his office’s official position without his knowledge. They told the court there wasn’t time. Then fourteen days after the hearing closed, they opened qualifying for a different judicial position. I call that a lie. We just couldn’t believe Watson, Fitch, and Reeves would side with the ACLU and fight us this hard on this. I understand why they picked DeSoto, but there had to be something else to it for them to risk the political capital over this. What was it? The emergency injunction hearing wrapped August 5, 2026. 3/3