Representative Bennie Thompson, the longest-serving congressional Black Democrat in Mississippi, won his primary race for the Second Congressional District on Tuesday, The Associated Press said, offering a rebuttal to calls for older lawmakers to step aside for a younger generation.
Mr. Thompson, first elected to the district in 1993, was one of several Democrats who faced a primary challenge this year from a younger member of his party eager to capitalize on broader frustrations with aging leadership in Washington. But his stature in the community appears to have helped him surmount those national headwinds.
Evan Turnage, a 34-year-old antitrust lawyer who recently returned to his home state after working as legal counsel for Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, had been one of two challengers to Mr. Thompson hoping to make that case in Mississippi.
But in the Second Congressional District, which stretches hundreds of miles from the state capital of Jackson to some of the poorest counties of the Mississippi Delta, Mr. Thompson’s record of steering millions of dollars back home and spending time in the district was enough to keep voters on his side. He also remains the top Democrat on the House Homeland Security committee, putting him in line to reclaim the gavel should his party take back the chamber.
The primary demonstrated how ousting a senior lawmaker could become complicated for voters in the lawmaker’s own district, especially in a region like the South, which has a long history of deference toward elder statesmen who fought to expand voting rights and delivered resources to key communities.
Mr. Thompson, who grew up in the small rural town of Bolton, Miss., burnished his reputation in the state as a young voting rights activist. He worked his way up through local political elections before running for Congress. And he gained national attention for his role as chairman of the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a bully pulpit he seized to invoke the brutal violence of a segregated South.
Mr. Turnage tried to argue that given the length of Mr. Thompson’s tenure, he should carry some responsibility for the poverty and financial disinvestment that still plagues much of the district. (Mr. Thompson’s allies placed blame for those challenges on Mississippi’s Republican-controlled state government.)
The incumbent also spent the last few weeks crisscrossing the district to meet with voters and deliver ceremonial checks earmarked for projects that he had secured.
“Many of the paths I have walked had never been walked before by someone who looked like me or came from where I come from,” Mr. Thompson wrote on Facebook after The Associated Press declared him the winner. “Through faith, perseverance, and sometimes trial and error, I remained committed to opening doors and expanding access for the people I serve.”
Mr. Thompson has also worked to maintain support in his district by throwing his political weight behind other Democrats. That includes Scott Colom, a district attorney who easily won the Democratic primary to challenge Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, a Republican who also won her primary, according to The Associated Press.
It was not immediately clear which Republican candidate Mr. Thompson would face. Because the district has long supported Democrats, it is widely expected that Mr. Thompson will return to Washington.
Emily Cochrane is a national reporter for The Times covering the American South, based in Nashville.
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