Indicted Democratic Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba was easily defeated in his re-election bid on Wednesday after being indicted for conspiracy to commit federal bribery, wire fraud, and money laundering.
Lumumba’s bid for a third term was severely hampered by the serious federal charges announced last November. The mayor, alongside Hinds County District Attorney Jody Owens II and Jackson City Council member Aaron Banks, face years in prison if convicted. All three have pleaded not guilty.
Democratic State Senator John Horhn has decisively defeated the two-term incumbent in Jackson’s Democratic mayoral primary runoff, winning by a commanding 75% of the vote with more than 12,000 votes separating the candidates.
Unofficial vote totals released by the City Clerk’s Office showed Horhn trouncing Lumumba 18,493 to 6,246, a stunning reversal from their previous matchup in 2017 when Lumumba defeated Horhn with 55% of the vote.
The runoff follows an April 1 primary in which Lumumba’s support had already plummeted to just 17%, while Horhn secured 48% but fell short of the majority needed to avoid a primary runoff.
“People are ready for something different,” Horhn said in a recent interview. “They are ready for change; they’re ready for leadership; they’re ready for better streets; they’re ready for less crime; they’re ready for more opportunities.”
The indictment of Lumumba and his colleagues alleges the three Democrats accepted bribe payments from people they thought were real estate developers looking to build a hotel near the downtown convention center, who were actually undercover FBI agents. Lumumba allegedly received $50,000.
According to local reports, the officials were in a bugged room on a yacht in Broward County, Florida, when they were caught. The undercover agents reportedly asked Lumumba to move forward a deadline for a “statement of qualifications” required for the planned hotel development, after which one agent handed the mayor five checks worth $50,000 total that were later deposited in his campaign account.
Lumumba has consistently denied any wrongdoing, calling the federal charges a “political prosecution” intended to damage his reputation.
“There is no coincidence, and its timing being just before the upcoming mayoral race,” Lumumba said in a video statement last year. “My legal team will vigorously defend me against these charges.”
As recently as last Friday, Lumumba continued to push back against the allegations: “Residents have been, you know, told a narrative that should – that should give them every reason for us not to be here, right? And we’re trying to make it clear that that’s not who we are.”
Lumumba is the son of the late Republic of New Afrika leader Chokwe Lumumba, who also served as Jackson’s mayor before his death in 2014. The Republic of New Afrika is a Black supremacist group whose goal is to achieve secession for a Black ethnostate from the Southeast United States.
Horhn will now face Republican and Independent challengers in the June 3 general election, though experts expect him to win easily given the city’s political makeup. According to Eric R. Schmidt, an assistant professor of government and politics at Millsaps College, approximately 25,000 people voted in the April 1 Democratic primary compared to less than 400 in the corresponding Republican primary.
“What’s different is that he came very close to winning the Democratic Party nomination outright; and what’s different as well is the cloud that the criminal indictment against the current mayor has cast over the race,” Schmidt said.