Congressman Michael Guest and Candidate Michael Cassidy have a close race happening for Mississippi’s third congressional seat, which has resulted in a runoff election on June 28.
Guest is currently the congressman representing Mississippi, and Cassidy said, though he has no political history, he felt pushed to run for the seat to get Guest out of the position and go against the status quo.
“I got in the race a few months ago because I’m just fed up with the path that our country is on and the fact that our leaders seem to be doing absolutely nothing, even on the right, to stop its decline,” Cassidy said. “I looked into our current representative, Michael Guest, and looked at his record and saw that he was one of the ones that had to go.”
Cassidy joined the Navy after 9/11 and is still in the Navy Reserves. Originally from Virgina, he moved to Mississippi in 2016 to be an instructor pilot. Guest grew up in Mississippi, graduated from Brandon High School in 1988 and Mississippi State University in 1992.
“As a former prosecutor, I worked for more than 20 years to help make our communities a safer place to work, worship and raise a family,” Guest said. “I have always tried to put my faith and family first, and I’m dedicated to making Mississippi a better place for all of us. I’m a Christian conservative, a deacon and a Sunday school teacher at my church—Brandon Baptist Church. My wife and I have two sons, Kennedy and Patton, and we are very thankful for our family and friends who are helping during this campaign.”
Guest is a former prosecutor for Madison and Rankin Counties and said he led an office that prosecuted 20,000 criminals in the metro area.
“I’ve taken that same fight to Congress to support law and order, help make sure our men and women in law enforcement have the tools they need to succeed, and to improve our national security—including working to strengthen our border to stop illegal immigration and the flow of drugs coming here,” Guest said. “When elected in 2018, I made a commitment to the people of Mississippi that I would fight for conservative values and support free market economic policies of lower taxes, fewer regulations, and promoting our Constitutional
freedoms and liberties—including the right to life of the unborn and our Second Amendment rights.”
Cassidy credits getting enough votes to force a runoff election to his hard pro-life stance that he doesn’t believe Guest shares.
“The biggest contrast between us is pro-life – this is something my opponent will attempt to hide or cloak with endorsements from a couple different pro-lifers, but the very fact of the matter is he voted twice to give over one billion dollars of federal taxpayer money to planned parenthood, which is the largest abortion provider,” Cassidy said. “They are part of the larger bills, and he’ll say ‘we have to fund the rest of the government.’ A big reason why I got so many votes is because I have stood up and said I will not give a single dime to planned parenthood.”
However, Guest said he has a 100 percent pro-life record.
“Unfortunately, my opponent has based his entire campaign on lies about my record so I will be setting the record straight during the runoff,” Guest said. “I have a proven conservative voting record in Congress. I have a 100 percent pro-life voting record and have been endorsed by National Right to Life and the Susan B. Anthony List.”
Cassidy said that Guest voted for the January 6 commission bill regarding the capitol attack. However, Guest said this, again, is untrue as the record shows at https://clerk.house.gov/Votes/2021197.
“I’d like to set the record straight on this,” Guest said. “This is another point my opponent has used to lie about my record. I did not vote for Nancy Pelosi’s Select Committee on January 6 that’s currently in the news. I voted against the Select Committee because I knew it would lead to the circus we are seeing from the current select committee.”
Both candidates said that inflation is an issue that they want to address, however, Guest said Cassidy’s policies do not reflect this stance.
“My opponent, Michael Cassidy, has proposed a radical welfare state idea of forcing taxpayers to give newlyweds $20,000 as a ‘wedding gift’ and to pay them to have children—making taxpayers pay their children a monthly stipend every month until they are age 17,” Guest said. “Additionally, my opponent has proposed the ‘Medicare for All’ plan that is being promoted by the most liberal members of Congress such as Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio Cortez.”
Guest said that, once people found out about these proposals, Cassidy tried to erase them from his website.
Meanwhile, Cassidy said he has an “American First” platform that is focused on what American’s interests are. He said those inside the beltway in D.C., including Guest, have forgotten what it is like to be outside of that realm.
Cassidy said there were a lot of people that didn’t know about the first election and, historically, runoffs have fewer people who show up to the polls due to voter fatigue. Guest also reiterated wanting a good turnout for the runoff election.
“I think we had a lower voter turnout across the Third District than many of us imagined...” Guest said. “It’s important to note that if you did not vote on June 7, you can still vote on June 28.”
