Reeves sets special election to fill House vacancy

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves has set a special election to fill a state House seat vacated by Democratic Rep. Sonya Williams-Barnes, of Gulfport.

She resigned earlier this month to become Mississippi policy director for the Southern Poverty Law Center.

She says the center supports many of the issues she has championed in office, including protection of voting rights and public education.

Williams-Barnes was elected in November 2011. She pushed to get the Confederate battle emblem out of the state flag.

Reeves said in a news release Friday that the special election will be held July 19 to fill the rest of her term, which ends in January 2024. The qualifying deadline is May 30.