NATCHEZ, Miss. – Republican Kevin Wilson is trying to unseat a U.S. congressman in office 33 years representing a predominantly Black, Democratic district that sprawls from the Louisiana state line northward to about 10 miles from Tennessee.
The Adams County supervisor from Natchez said he’s eager to take on the challenge as he campaigns against an institution he says is dysfunctional.
“We’re going county to county to county, and we don’t care if they’re Republicans, Democrats or independents. I just want this district to be better,” he said.
“Washington is broken. It focuses too much on politics and not focused enough on people,” he said.
The 2nd Congressional District that Wilson is campaigning in has been represented since 1993 by Democratic incumbent Bennie Thompson, Mississippi’s only Black congressman.
However, Wilson’s first hurdle is to defeat Ron Eller in the March 10 Republican primary. The winner progresses to the Nov. 3 General Election to face the Democratic candidate. Thompson is seeking reelection but is being challenged by two Democrats in the March party primary.
Wilson – speaking Monday evening at his campaign rally on the sunset-draped Natchez bluff overlooking the Mississippi River – cited his experience on the Adams County Board of Supervisors he was first elected to in 2019 as a political novice. “I’m the least likely politician you’ll ever see,” Wilson said.
As a businessman, Wilson said he “built an oil company from the ground up” with hard work to make Black Jack Oil Co. the “largest independent oil producer in the state of Mississippi.”
Wilson’s wealth has enabled him to make large campaign donations to President Trump and Republican organizations. For example, he contributed $11,600 to the Trump Save America Joint Fundraising Committee in 2024, $3,400 to the Trump 47 Committee in 2024 and $1,000 to the Mississippi Republican Party in 2025, according to Federal Election Commission records.
Wilson’s campaign is expected to have ample cash as he competes against Eller, who had $44,000 in campaign cash last year as he prepares another bid to unseat Thompson. The Democratic incumbent defeated Eller in 2024 with 62 percent of the votes.
Republicans face an uphill climb capturing the west Mississippi 2nd Congressional District, which is about 64 percent Black and spreads from Wilkinson County along the river into Hinds County and up to Tunica County near the Tennessee state line.
Thompson is a senior House member and chaired the congressional committee that investigated the Trump-inspired attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters in January 2021.
Wilson moved to Natchez as a child when his military-serving father was assigned here as a National Guard advisor. “This is where my family put down our roots,” he said.
Wilson is among other Natchez residents who have run for the U.S. House of Representatives. Former mayor David Armstrong ran in 1984 and Gail Healy ran in 1986. The Republicans lost to then-incumbent Wayne Dowdy, a Democrat.
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