A popular Democrat’s decision to enter the Mississippi gubernatorial election has buoyed hopes for change in a state beset by corruption scandals, mismanagement, and shuttered hospitals. Democrats believe they have a real chance at electing their first Mississippi governor since 1987. 

Brandon Presley, who announced his gubernatorial campaign last month, serves on the state’s three-member Public Service Commission, which oversees utilities, energy projects, and consumer protections. Mr. Presley has styled himself as a populist, deeply religious, abortion rights fighter during his more than 20 years in elected office. 

In a poll released by Tulchin Research on Monday, Mr. Presley leads the incumbent, Governor Reeves, by 47 percent to 43 percent. 

Mr. Presley represents the northern district on the commission — a heavily Republican area of the state. In 2016, President Trump won the district with 62 percent of the vote. Just a year earlier, Mr. Presley won re-election to the commission with 60 percent of the votes cast. 

In 2001, at age 23, Mr. Presley was elected mayor of his hometown of Nettleton — becoming the youngest mayor in Mississippi history. In 2007 he was elected to the Public Service Commission, and he has been re-elected three times. In 2019, he ran unopposed. 

Mr. Presley has tapped President Clinton’s chief political strategist, James Carville, as an unpaid advisor. “I’ve got a big emotional investment in Brandon’s campaign,” Mr. Carville told the Daily Journal after the staff announcements. 

Mr. Presley has a famous cousin in the late singer, Elvis, and his fiancee is a relative of the state’s last Democratic governor, Ray Mabus. 

Mr. Reeves has suffered through some high-profile stumbles since his election nearly four years ago.

It was disclosed last year that millions of taxpayer dollars intended for welfare programs were diverted to the University of Southern Mississippi’s athletics program. A Hall of Fame quarterback, Brett Favre, is accused of working with Governor Bryant and Mr. Reeves, who was lieutenant governor at the time, to illegally funnel the money to the school, which Mr. Favre’s daughter attends and where she is an athlete.

Mr. Favre has denied wrongdoing and has filed a defamation lawsuit against the state auditor’s office.

The scandal only got worse after Mr. Reeves became governor. Last year, he fired the attorney charged with investigating the misspent funds, Brad Pigott.

“He seemed much more focused on the political side of things,” Mr Reeves said in an interview with Mississippi Today. “He seemed much more interested in getting his name in print and hopefully bigger and bigger print.”

The most important issue to Mississippi voters, according to the Tulchin poll, is the misuse of welfare funding. Nearly 75 percent of respondents say Mr. Reeves acted improperly. 

Last year, the city of Jackson was plagued by a public health crisis when a nearby river flooded the local water treatment plant, contaminating the city’s water supply. A blame game ensued between Mr. Reeves and the city’s leadership, with the Black mayor, Chokwe Lumumba, accusing Mr. Reeves of racism for not providing adequate support. Mr. Reeves, in turn, blamed the city’s chronic staff shortages and political gridlock for the slow response to the crisis. 

Mr. Presley has made investments in health care a pillar of his campaign, saying he would sign Medicaid expansion into law in the state, bringing millions of federal dollars into Mississippi. 

For nearly 20 years, Mississippi has been plagued by rural hospitals shuttering. According to a report from Mississippi’s health department, 79 percent of people admitted to rural hospitals had to travel out of their home county for care in 2018. The state’s chief health officer, Dan Edney, said at a Board of Health meeting last year that the state is at risk of losing as many as 12 more hospitals in 2023. 

Under the Affordable Care Act, state legislatures can approve expansions to the federal Medicaid program in their states. The federal government covers about 90 percent of the total costs for those who join the program. Mr. Reeves has never publicly supported that expansion, but he had come under fire for supporting it privately. 

A former University of Mississippi chancellor, Dan Jones, claimed Mr. Reeves told him in a private meeting that Medicaid expansion would help his state by bringing down costs, insuring more people, and allowing rural hospitals to remain open. Yet he then allegedly told Mr. Jones that he would not do so as governor because it was not in his “personal political interest.”

According to a Siena College poll from last month, Mr. Reeves holds a statewide approval rating of 40 percent, with especially underwhelming numbers among members of his own party. Just 64 percent of Mississippi’s Republicans have a favorable view of the governor.

The Democratic candidate won a highly coveted endorsement last month when Congressman Bennie Thompson threw his weight behind Mr. Presley. “Mississippians deserve a leader who cares,” Mr. Thompson said in the statement. “That’s who Brandon Presley is, it’s exactly what he will do and why he has my support.”

The congressman highlighted their work together in trying to solve the Jackson water crisis in recent months. Mr. Thompson’s support is especially important in a state that is nearly 40 percent Black. After the 2022 midterm elections, Mr. Carville said Mississippi is a more viable option than Florida for Democrats because of the large Black population. 

Mississippi — along with Kentucky and Louisiana — will hold their gubernatorial election this November.