The seats of four Mississippi Supreme Court justices were up for election on November 5, 2024. One of the four seats is going to a runoff election on November 26, 2024. The other three were decided in the November 5 general election. Judicial elections in Mississippi are officially nonpartisan.

Bolts Magazine’s Caleb Bedillion and Daja E. Henry wrote that an “overall shift in power on the court depends on the outcome of [the] runoff election.” The court has nine members. While conservatives will still have a majority on the court, the outcome of the election could reshape the court’s ideological makeup to a less conservative court, or leave the current conservative majority largely intact.

Justice Jim Kitchens is facing state Sen. Jenifer B. Branning (R) in the runoff election. In the November 5 election, Branning finished first with 41.7% of the vote to Kitchens’ 35.5%. Three other candidates split the remaining 22.7% of the vote. Because no candidate received 50% of the vote, the election is going to a runoff.

Kitchens has served on the court since 2009, after being elected. According to Mississippi Today’s Taylor Vance, “Kitchens is one of two centrist members of the high court and is widely viewed as the preferred candidate of Democrats, though the Democratic Party has not endorsed his candidacy.” Kitchens is campaigning on his experience and said voters should choose someone “who knows the courtroom from experience rather than just theory.” The Southern Poverty Law Center Action Fund has endorsed Kitchens.

Branning is campaigning as a more conservative justice and wrote in a Facebook post, “There’s a clear choice in this Runoff because I’m the only candidate who will bring new energy and Constitutional conservative leadership to the Mississippi Supreme Court.” Branning also said, “I’m the only candidate with legal and legislative experience…I’m a wife and a mother and running to bring a new generation of constitutional conservative leadership to the people of Mississippi on the Supreme Court.” The state Republican Party has endorsed Branning.

Four justices ran for re-election, two with opposition and two without opposition. Justices Robert P. Chamberlin and Jimmy Maxwell ran unopposed. Justice Dawn H. Beam ran for re-election, but was defeated by David Sullivan.

As of November 2024, a Republican governor appointed six judges to the court, and three judges were initially selected in a nonpartisan election.

To read more about state supreme court elections that occurred in 2024, click here.