Type Nonprofit Location Madison, Mississippi Slogan Ideas to Action | Purpose School choice advocacy President Grant Callen | |
Mission "We empower citizens to advocate for policies that help people thrive" | ||
Empower Mississippi is a 501(c)(4) political advocacy organization in Mississippi that is focused on expanding school choice. It has an affiliated political action committee and 501(c)(3) educational arm. Empower Mississippi's stated goal is "to create opportunity and make Mississippi the most free and prosperous state in the nation."
Contents
Activities
The group works to bring charter schools to Mississippi. The group's first activity was to support the Equal Opportunity for Students with Special Needs Act in 2013, which provides vouchers of up to $6,500 for educational savings accounts for parents of students with disabilities. Empower Mississippi's PAC has spent money in Republican state legislative primaries, seeking to elect candidates the group views as more likely to pass school choice legislation in the Mississippi House of Representatives.
2015 Republican state legislative primary elections
In 2015, Empower Mississippi supported challengers who unseated four Republican House incumbents in DeSoto County. The defeated incumbents, including Republican representatives Wanda Jennings and Pat Nelson, had opposed school choice measures backed by Empower Mississippi. Some incumbent Republican Mississippi lawmakers, including House Speaker Philip Gunn, criticized Empower Mississippi's efforts in the primary election. Gunn endorsed all four DeSoto County incumbents who lost. A number of Empower Mississippi's board members, including former state senator Charlies Ross, resigned due to conflicts over who the organization would support in the primary contests.
According to Empower Mississippi president Grant Callen, the group targeted the incumbents that it did because "A handful of Republicans in the House have fought the opportunity to give parents more choice at every turn. And four of those members happened to be in DeSoto County." Republican Representative Pat Nelson, who was defeated in 2015 by an Empower Mississippi-backed challenger, stated his belief that Empower Mississippi's support came from corporations seeking software contracts with charter school organizations. Empower Mississippi spent approximately $300,000 on 18 state legislative primaries in 2015.
Finances
Empower Mississippi has raised $450,000 since its founding in 2014. $360,000 has come from the American Federation for Children, a Washington, D.C. school choice advocacy group. The group has also raised $30,000 from Joel Bomgar, a Mississippi software entrepreneur.