The 2025 Gulfport mayoral election in Gulfport, Mississippi, was held on June 3, 2025, alongside other Gulfport municipal races. Incumbent mayor Billy Hewes is eligible for re-election to a second four-year term, but has announced that he will retire.[1][2][3]
Primary elections were held on April 1, 2025.[4][5] Former Democratic member of the Mississippi House of RepresentativesSonya Williams-Barnes won her party's primary, defeating former professional basketball player Ronnie Henderson, and Republican attorney Hugh Keating won his party's nomination unopposed. In the general election, Keating defeated Barnes by a margin of 6.4%, as the race has become more competitive.
Although Barnes lost the election, she has praised its people for having its highest voter turnout in this city's history. Over 13,000 citizens voted for this year's mayor race.[6]
The Mississippi Republican Party accuses Sonya Williams-Barnes of voter fraud and vote buying, led by its chair D. Michael Hurst Jr. who has proof to back up its claims that she and her campaign violated campaign finance laws. They claim that Stacey Abrams[a]was helping her win the election because she was an outsider from Georgia.[12] Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch and her office opened an investigation into her campaign's alleged violations. The Mississippi Democratic Party chair Cheikh Taylor slams the investigation as a "false and desperate attack from a failing campaign." Williams-Barnes campaign denies the accusations and responds the press conference by the GOP “was nothing more than a scare tactic by [her opponent’s] party to rally last-minute support, and a desperate attempt to distract from their lack of vision for our city.”[13] Rev Eddie Hartwell Sr., a pastor at St James Baptist Church, said the voucher idea was his. His group, behind it, called All Souls to the Polls, and its members say they want to increase voter turnout. Hartwell denies being involved in either campaign or the efforts were illegal.[14] Outraged after the GOP's accusations, the Mississippi Democrats called an investigation into one of Island View Casino's owners, Rick Carter, for what they called "voter intimidation." [15]
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