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Soon after the 2026 legislative session ended with a whimper, one senator noted that Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann had accomplished what many thought was impossible – convincing all 18 Democrats in the Mississippi Senate to vote to uphold vetoes by Republican Gov. Tate Reeves.
It is safe to assume that most Senate Democrats dream of overriding the Republican governor. But on that fateful final day of the session, they were so mad at Hosemann, a Republican presiding officer they have had a relatively good relationship with, that they voted to sustain Reeves’ vetoes.
Legislators finished most of their work by early April and returned to the Capitol for April 15 for the express purpose of taking up vetoes issued by Reeves.
Hosemann and House Speaker Jason White had the option to not summon legislators back into session if they lacked the two-thirds majority needed in each chamber to override the vetoes.
In other words, if they could not or did not want to reverse the governor’s decisions, why waste legislators’ time and the taxpayers’ money by returning to Jackson? The assumption was if legislators were coming back to town, there was going to be some veto overriding going on.
But Hosemann, for reasons he has yet to articulate, chose to convene the Senate but did not allow a vote on overriding the veto that many legislators believed was the primary reason for their return – a bill blocked by Reeves that would have ensured a modest degree of transparency and legislative oversight of more than a billion dollars of federal funds that were designated to help struggling rural hospitals and health care systems.
The governor maintained he had complete control of the funds, so he vetoed the bill. Legislators – at least until that April 15 nothing burger of a day – had argued that they, not the governor, constitutionally controlled the purse strings.
Reeves lobbied intensely against efforts to override his veto, making it a partisan issue. He pointed out the bill he vetoed was authored by Senate Public Health Committee Chair Hob Bryan, a Democrat. But the governor never mentioned that the actual content of the bill, by the end of the legislative process, was offered by House Public Health Chair Sam Creekmore, a Republican. Bryan and the Senate had agreed to the new language approved by Creekmore and the House.
The governor also argued that the bill could put the federal funds in jeopardy.
It is not clear why Hosemann refused to allow senators to try to override the veto on the rural health care bill.
It has been speculated that he counted votes and realized he could not garner the necessary two-thirds majority. But that begs the question of why, on such an important issue in terms of the Legislature maintaining its control of the purse strings, did Hosemann not allow debate and a vote?
Was the lieutenant governor actually persuaded by Reeves’ arguments? Did Hosemann not remember when he and former House Speaker Philip Gunn successfully prevented Reeves from having sole control of more than a billion dollars in COVID-19 relief funds in 2020? At that time, the governor also argued that legislative control could put the federal funds in jeopardy.
But Reeves’ warnings never came to fruition after the Legislature, led by Gunn and Hosemann, took control of the money in 2020.
At any rate, the Senate Democrats were upset with Hosemann’s refusal to allow a vote on overriding the rural health care veto and voted against overriding the governor’s veto of other bills. Without the Democrats’ votes, Hosemann could not muster the two-thirds majority needed to override the governor’s vetoes of money going to opioid prevention programs and to other projects throughout the state. The governor argued the programs were not properly vetted or were an inappropriate expenditure of state funds.
The day represented a big victory for Reeves as what will be a 24-year tenure in state government nears the end. After eight years as state treasurer, eight as lieutenant governor and now in his seventh year as governor, he has one legislative term remaining, beginning next January. Reeves has had only one veto overridden in his seven legislative sessions as governor. Notably, though, the two previous governors, fellow Republicans Haley Barbour and Phil Bryant, did not have any.
On April 15, it appeared Reeves would have multiple vetoes overridden. House members looked poised to override the rural health care bill and had already done their part to override the opioid prevention projects in a unanimous vote.
But thanks to the rift between Hosemann and Senate Democrats, the veto overrides did not occur.
It is true that politics can make strange bedfellows.
