An Unknown Truck Driver Just Became the Democratic Nominee for the Governor of Mississippi [View all]

[DonViejo]

Gideon Resnick

He was too busy truck driving to vote for himself.

Robert Gray was driving a truck for his small business Fancy Horse Transportation on Monday. On Tuesday, he was the Democratic nominee for governor of Mississippi.

The 46-year-old from Terry, Mississippi, didn’t even vote in the primary, allegedly too busy operating his independent livestock hauling business. His opponent, incumbent Governor Phil Bryant, has a reported $2.8 million cache in his campaign fund, while Gray is living day to day without health insurance.

It’s not that Gray won by default either. Democrats in Mississippi had two well-funded, hard-working candidates with clear-cut goals and practiced rhetoric. He soundly defeated Vicki Slater, a trial lawyer with the backing of a lot of the Democratic establishment, and Dr. Valerie Adream Smartt Short, an obstetrician-gynecologist—without spending a single penny. In a heartbreaking admission, Slater reportedly told the AP “I did everything I could to win this.” The Daily Beast has reached out to her campaign for comment and has yet to hear back.

Gray earned 51 percent of the vote Tuesday, obliterating Slater, who nabbed only 30.2 percent. A small group of Mississippi Democrats have begun to galvanize support for the candidate, creating a Facebook page with a mere 170 likes.

The Democratic establishment is seemingly holding their breath as they trudge toward the November election with a candidate that is the textbook definition of an Average Joe. The chances of Democrats actually winning the election were always vanishingly small, but Gray’s appearance at the top of the ticket will likely complicate efforts to hold on to the offices they do control in the deep-red state.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/06/an-unknown-truck-driver-just-became-the-democratic-nominee-for-the-governor-of-mississippi.html