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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — An emergency room physician has become the tenth person to announce his candidacy for a vacant congressional seat in north Mississippi.
Dr. Starner Jones, a Pontotoc native who has practiced medicine in Memphis, Tennessee, and elsewhere, said Tuesday he's joining the race to succeed Republican Rep. Alan Nunnelee, who died Feb. 6.
Candidates' qualifying deadline is March 27. The election is May 12, and a runoff is June 2.
If elected, Jones said he would aim to curtail government regulation and repeal the health insurance expansion passed under President Barack Obama.
"I have seen firsthand the destructive effects of Obamacare," he said in a written statement. "I will work with other like-minded legislators for a full repeal."
Jones achieved some notice in 2009 when he wrote a letter to The Clarion-Ledger criticizing an emergency room patient for getting subsidized health care while spending money on nonessential items.
That letter, which was circulated widely by email, said in part that, "it is a crisis of culture — a culture in which it is perfectly acceptable to spend money on vices while refusing to take care of one's self or, heaven forbid, purchase health insurance. A culture that thinks, 'I can do whatever I want to because someone else will always take care of me.'"
Though the election is nonpartisan, many of the candidates have held office under a political party before or have clearly identifiable party affiliations.
Those running include Columbus businessman and former Republican appointee Boyce Adams; Columbus businessman and Libertarian candidate Danny Bedwell; Republican state Sen. Nancy Collins of Tupelo; Republican District Attorney Trent Kelly of Saltillo; Fulton attorney Chip Mills; Tupelo attorney Greg Pirkle; Oxford attorney Daniel Sparks; Republican Northern District Transportation Commissioner Mike Tagert of Starkville; and Oxford attorney and former Republican Jackson City Councilman Quentin Whitwell.
Former Eupora Mayor Henry Ross, who sought the seat in 2010 and 2012, is also exploring a candidacy.
The 1st District stretches from the Memphis suburbs of DeSoto County southeast to the Golden Triangle area. It includes Southaven, Oxford, Tupelo, Iuka, Columbus and Louisville.
Nunnelee served 15 years in the state Senate before he won election to Congress in 2010. Nunnelee was sworn in for his third two-year term in January while he was hospitalized in his hometown of Tupelo, but was unable to return to Washington because of his illness.
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