Voters in House District 23, which includes part of Webster County, will return to the polls next week to cast ballots in a runoff election for a new representative.
Perry Van Bailey of Calhoun City and Andrew “Andy” Stepp of Bruce will meet in the runoff on Tuesday, Jan. 31, having advanced from a special election on Jan. 10. Special election candidates run as independents.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m.-7 p.m. and the deadline for absentee voting is noon Saturday, Jan. 28, at the circuit clerk’s office in Walthall. One may vote in the runoff without having voted in the special election.
Webster County precincts in House of Representatives District 23 are Bellefontaine, Walthall, Big Black, Maben, Clarkson, Cumberland and Mantee. The district also includes all of Calhoun County and portions of Grenada and Lafayette and counties.
The runoff is necessary because none of the three special election candidates reached the 50% mark. Stepp garnered 48.5% while Bailey came in second with 38%. The winner will serve the remainder of Jim Beckett’s term this year. Qualifying is underway for the 2023 regular election with that winner in November serving the succeeding four year-term. Beckett, a Republican, resigned his legislative seat last year to become executive director of the Mississippi Public Utilities Staff.
Bailey, 58, is a farmer who is retiring at the end of the month from the Houston office of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Stepp, 64, is a pharmacist who owns and operates Stepp-Saver Pharmacy in Bruce.
