Local Candidates Make Their Appeals To Voters During Public Forum

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI)- Runoffs are less than two weeks away, and on Wednesday night, the public had a chance to hear from two of the candidates vying for their vote.

The candidates running for the Chancery Court Judge District 14 Place Two participated in a forum at Mississippi University for Women.

Dozens came out as Carrie A. Jourdan and Joseph Studdard made their appeals to voters.

During the forum, both candidates took questions from the audience and laid out their blueprints and vision for the position if elected.

The seat covers both Lowndes and Clay counties.

In last week’s election, both candidates earned close to 40 percent of the votes.

Now, Studdard and Jourdan are making one final campaign push ahead of the upcoming runoff.

“I think that I have lived a lot of the matters I’m going to be asked to rule upon, and so I know what it’s like and I think, sometimes you want people that have lived too,” said Carrie A. Jourdan, Chancery Court Judge District 14 Place Two candidate. “It’s great to have people who’ve done things very well and perfectly, that’s terrific, but you also want people who understand what it’s like to have hard knocks, and I think that’s the perspective I can offer.”

“The number one thing that I want to do is move things through the court system quicker,” said Joseph Studdard, who’s running for Chancery Court Judge District 14 Place Two. “The second thing, we have done this already is have low-cost or no cost legal clinics which  affords people in the community a chance to come in and have lawyers assist them with their cases if they can’t afford attorneys on their own. That helps them through the system, it helps those who pay their attorneys by getting those people through the system without taking up court time ”

Wednesday’s forum was put on by students at MUW.

Voting for the runoff election will be held Tuesday, November 27.