A cousin of Elvis Presley, candidate for governor of Mississippi

"One for the Mississippi, Two for the Show"... A distant cousin of rock'n'roll legend Elvis Presley, Democrat Brandon Presley, is running for governor of Mississippi on Tuesday. The forty-year-old spent six years as mayor of Nettleton, a village in this southern state, a few kilometers from the birthplace of the “King”.

“My cousin grew up right down the street in Tupelo,” Brandon Presley says in one of his campaign clips, holding a faded photo of Elvis. And adding with a smile: “You’ve probably already heard of him.” The politician is the cousin by marriage of the singer of Suspicious Minds, Jailhouse Rock and Hound Dog. He was born only a few days before the American superstar's surprise death of a heart attack on August 16, 1977, at age 42.

Brandon Presley's chances of being elected in this state of 3 million inhabitants, the poorest in the United States, are, in principle, limited. In the United States, a federal country, the governor is the head of the executive branch of a state, endowed with numerous powers. And Mississippians haven't elected a Democrat to this office in more than 20 years. But the gap between the Democrat and the Republican candidate for re-election, Tate Reeves, has narrowed significantly in recent weeks. The governor, in office since 2020, is very unpopular and accused of being involved in several corruption cases. A second round will be organized if neither candidate receives at least 50% of the votes on Tuesday.