Attorney General Jim Hood is considering whether he will run for Mississippi governor in 2019.

Speaking at a press gathering Thursday afternoon, Hood did not rule out a gubernatorial bid, citing family and financial considerations as factors in his decision. He is the only Democrat holding statewide elected office.

“I don’t know the answer to your question at this point,” Hood said when asked of a potential run. “I do know that we’ve got to change what we’re doing over there. We can’t keep on doing what they’re doing over there right now.”

Since the Legislature signed off on a law that sweeps many agencies’ special funds into the general fund earlier this year, Hood has criticized both the legislative leadership and the governor for the law and called into question the legality of parts of it. The law called for a sweep of $187 million, but Hood said at least $79.4 million of that money cannot be included.

“The problem is when the legislators can’t tell you what’s going on,” Hood said. “The leaders can’t tell you. They obviously do not know. When people don’t know about the budget, there’s trouble in the making.”

Hood is serving his 13th year as Mississippi Attorney General. He has represented the state in numerous cases, including the prosecution of Edgar Ray Killen, who killed three civil rights workers during the 1964 Freedom Summer. He has also received national awards for his focus on the state’s cyber crimes division, which locates and prosecutes Internet predators.

In 2015, his most recent reelection bid, he raised nearly $2 million and fended off Republican challenger Mike Hurst by 10 percentage points (55-45).

When asked this week if he would consider another AG bid, Hood said he has not ruled that out as a possibility.

“I love what I do,” he said. “I have a good bit to consider. … I’ll have to cross that bridge when I get to it.

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Mississippi Today’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications:

• Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
• Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

For print publications:

• You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Michael Guidry for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

If you have any other questions, contact Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields.

AG Hood considers 2019 run for governor

by Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today
July 8, 2016

<h1>AG Hood considers 2019 run for governor</h1> <p class="byline">by Adam Ganucheau, Mississippi Today <br />July 8, 2016</p> <p>Attorney General Jim Hood is considering whether he will run for Mississippi governor in 2019.</p> <p>Speaking at a press gathering Thursday afternoon, Hood did not rule out a gubernatorial bid, citing family and financial considerations as factors in his decision. He is the only Democrat holding statewide elected office.</p> <p>“I don’t know the answer to your question at this point,” Hood said when asked of a potential run. “I do know that we’ve got to change what we’re doing over there. We can’t keep on doing what they’re doing over there right now.”</p> <p>Since the Legislature signed off on a law that sweeps many agencies' special funds into the general fund earlier this year, Hood has criticized both the legislative leadership and the governor for the law and called into question the legality of parts of it. The law called for a sweep of $187 million, but Hood said at least $79.4 million of that money cannot be included.</p> <p>"The problem is when the legislators can’t tell you what's going on," Hood said. "The leaders can’t tell you. They obviously do not know. When people don’t know about the budget, there’s trouble in the making."</p> <p>Hood is serving his 13th year as Mississippi Attorney General. He has represented the state in numerous cases, including the prosecution of Edgar Ray Killen, who killed three civil rights workers during the 1964 Freedom Summer. He has also received national awards for his focus on the state’s cyber crimes division, which locates and prosecutes Internet predators.</p> <p>In 2015, his most recent reelection bid, he raised nearly $2 million and fended off Republican challenger Mike Hurst by 10 percentage points (55-45).</p> <p>When asked this week if he would consider another AG bid, Hood said he has not ruled that out as a possibility.</p> <p>“I love what I do,” he said. “I have a good bit to consider. … I’ll have to cross that bridge when I get to it.</p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://mississippitoday.org/2016/07/08/ag-hood-considers-2019-run-for-governor/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://mississippitoday.org&quot;&gt;Mississippi Today&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.&lt;img src=&quot;https://cdn.mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/06074517/MT_icon-logo-favicon-1-200x200.png&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=10688&amp;amp;ga4=G-VSX4B701MS&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://mississippitoday.org/2016/07/08/ag-hood-considers-2019-run-for-governor/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/mississippitoday.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p> Copy to Clipboard

1