Nancy Loome, director of the public education advocacy group The Parents Campaign, outlines major issues for the Mississippi Legislature’s 2025 session to Mississippi Today’s Geoff Pender, Bobby Harrison and the newest member of the politics team, Simeon Gates, who will be covering education issues at the Capitol.

READ MORE: As lawmakers look to cut taxes, Mississippi mayors and county leaders outline infrastructure needs

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Geoff serves as Politics and Government Editor, working closely with Mississippi Today leadership on editorial strategy and investigations. Pender joined the Mississippi Today team in 2020, bringing 30 years of political and government reporting experience to the newsroom.

Previously, Pender served as Politics and Investigative Editor at The Clarion Ledger, where he also penned a popular political column. While at The Clarion Ledger, Pender helped lead digital transformation for the legacy publication, while overseeing watchdog news teams and government reporting. He previously served as an investigative reporter and political editor at the Sun Herald, where he was a member of the Pulitzer Prize-winning team for Hurricane Katrina coverage. Originally from Florence, Mississippi, Pender is a journalism graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi and has received numerous awards throughout his career for reporting, columns and freedom of information efforts.

Bobby Harrison, Mississippi Today Ideas editor, previously served as Mississippi Today's senior capitol reporter covering politics, government and the Mississippi State Legislature. He writes a weekly column.

A native of Laurel, Bobby joined our team June 2018 after working for the North Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo since 1984. He also worked for his hometown Laurel Leader-Call.

Bobby has a bachelor’s in American Studies from the University of Southern Mississippi and has received multiple awards from the Mississippi Press Association, including the Bill Minor Best Investigative/In-depth Reporting and Best Commentary Column. He was recognized for two consecutive years as “Advocate of the Year” for the North Mississippi Special Needs Arc.

He is president of the Mississippi Capitol Press Corps Association and works with the Mississippi State University Stennis Institute to arrange luncheons for newsmakers.

Simeon Gates is a politics reporter at Mississippi Today focusing on K-12 education issues. She previously interned with Mississippi Today as a general assignment reporter. Before that, she interned at Southern Miss Student Media and attended the University of Southern Mississippi. As a student journalist, she received several awards including first place for the "Best Use of Video" in the college division of the Mississippi Press Association's 2024 Better Newspaper Contest.