President Donald Trump has nominated two men to fill Mississippi’s vacant U.S. attorney posts.

The nominees are Mike Hurst of Madison and Chad Lamar of Oxford, whom, if confirmed, will be the federal government’s top prosecutors in the state.

Hurst, the Southern District nominee, is the director of the Mississippi Justice Institute and general counsel for the Mississippi Center for Public Policy. In 2015, he ran unsuccessfully for attorney general against Democrat Jim Hood. Prior to that, Hurst was an assistant federal prosecutor focusing on public corruption cases, including that for former corrections commissioner Chris Epps.

The Northern District nominee, Lamar, has been an assistant U.S. attorney since 1991. Since April 2014, Lamar has headed the criminal division.

U.S. Sens. Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker applauded the nominations. Both nominees face confirmation by the U.S. Senate.

Ryan L. Nave, a native of University City, Mo., served as Mississippi Today's editor-in-chief from May 2018 until April 2020. Ryan began his career with Mississippi Today February 2016 as an original member of the editorial team. He became news editor August 2016. Ryan has a bachelor’s in political science from the University of Missouri-Columbia and has worked for Illinois Times and served as news editor for the Jackson Free Press.