Branning Wins Mississippi Supreme Court Seat, Defeats Kitchens

JACKSON, Miss. — State Sen. Jenifer Branning won a seat on the Mississippi Supreme Court, defeating Justice Jim Kitchens.

On Friday, The Associated Press declared the race for Branning as counties reported official results from the Nov. 26 runoff election.

Kitchens and Branning advanced to the runoff as leaders among five candidates in the Nov. 5 general election. They ran in District 1, also known as the Central District, which stretches from the Delta region through the Jackson metro area and over to the Alabama border.

Mississippi judicial candidates run without party labels, but Democratic areas largely supported Kitchens, and Republican ones supported Branning, who was endorsed by the Mississippi Republican Party.

Branning calls herself a “constitutional conservative” and said she opposes “liberal, activists judges” and “the radical left.”

Kitchens was seeking a third term and was the more senior of the court’s two presiding justices, which had put him next in line to serve as chief justice. He was endorsed by the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Action Fund, which calls itself “a catalyst for racial justice in the South and beyond.”

The numbers for Warren County were Branning: 3091, Kitchens: 2448.