Evan Turnage worked for years as a top aide for some of the most powerful Democrats in Congress. Now, the Yale-educated attorney from Jackson is launching a primary challenge aimed at ousting one of the body’s most long-entrenched members.   Turnage, 33, a former aide to Senate Minority Lead er Chuck Schumer of New York and Senate Conference Vice Chair Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, will challenge U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson. Thompson has represented the 2nd Congressional District covering Jackson and the Delta since 1993. Thompson, a civil rights leader and former chair of the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6th Capitol attack, is a towering figure in state and national politics.  The intraparty contest between a millennial first-time candidate with a polished resume and a baby boomer who is one of the longest-serving members of the U.S. House could reveal generational and policy debates simmering among Democrats as the party aims to reclaim a House majority in 2026.   Turnage has positioned himself as a generational challenger focused on affordability, economic power and what he calls a “come home agenda” centered on reversing Mississippi’s brain drain problem.  “This is the poorest district in the poorest state in the country,” Turnage said in an interview. “It was that way when I was 1-year old, when Congressman Thompson was first elected, and it remains that way today. We need real plans for real change.” In a statement to Mississippi Today, Thompson said his record speaks for itself. “Elections were created to give people the ability to make a choice,” Thompson said. “I am confident that my record on behalf of the people of Mississippi’s Second Congressional District will speak for itself. I will continue to run my campaign the way I always have. I trust the voters of the district to make their choice.” Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District stretches from the Delta through much of Jackson and along the Mississippi River. It is majority Black and has been reliably Democratic for decades, a product of both demographics and court-ordered redistricting under the Voting Rights Act, a key provision of which is now before the Supreme Court. If federal law changes, some leading Republicans have suggested that Mississippi should redraw the lines of Thompson’s district in an effort to remove him from office.  Turnage lived briefly in Cleveland as a child before returning to Jackson, attending Murrah High School in the Jackson Public Schools system. His parents, Ellis and Ellie Turnage, are both attorneys. His father spent much of his early career litigating Voting Rights Act cases in Mississippi, Turnage said, while his mother now serves as general counsel for Jackson Public Schools. Turnage described a family story shaped by his parents’ experience as children during the first wave of school integration in Mississippi. His parents both drew from those memories to pursue careers in public service. His father went on to work on judicial redistricting in the 1980s, which helped elect more Black judges in Mississippi who had been disadvantaged due to unfair maps, Turnage said. His mother went on to work for Jackson Public Schools, one of the largest districts in the state. But Turnage did not have grand designs on a political career from an early age.  Initially planning a career in science, majoring in physics at Morehouse College in Atlanta, he ultimately chose law school. His decision to enter law school at Yale and the political worldview he adopted while in school were sharpened amid the rise of the Black Lives Matter movement.  While the movement focused squarely on policing and criminal justice, Turnage said he became increasingly concerned with what felt like an element of the story that had been overlooked: the economic conditions underlying inequality. “I was equally enraged that a Black man in America felt he had to sell loose cigarettes,” Turnage said, referencing the 2014 death of Eric Garner in New York. “Missing from the conversation was economic rights.” At Yale, Turnage was also a classmate of Lina Kahn, who would go on to become former President Joe Biden’s Federal Trade Commission chair. Turnage’s proximity to Kahn offers a window into his policy background and the way he might try to frame his agenda on the campaign trail.  Kahn is credited with ushering in a resurgent interest in antitrust and the way corporate concentration leads to unfairness in the economy, particularly amid the ever-growing power of American technology giants such as Amazon and Google.  She is perhaps the leading intellectual architect behind the “Neo-Brandeisianists,” a group of legal scholars, think tanks and activists jockeying for influence within the Democratic Party. Drawing inspiration from the anti-monopolist work of 20th-century U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, these Democrats see increasing corporate concentration in the economy as a threat to democracy and individual freedom. Bringing corporations to heel through stronger antitrust enforcement and redistributive tax policy is at the center of this approach. Another central figure close to this faction is Sen. Warren of Massachusetts. After law school, Turnage worked for Warren, helping her draft legislation aimed at curbing corporate power, including the Price Gouging Prevention Act. He later served as a top lawyer for Sen. Schumer of New York, working on Democratic leadership priorities. Turnage currently leads the Southern Justice Project at the Open Markets Institute, an antitrust-focused think tank that also counts Kahn among its former employees. Turnage places himself firmly in the wing of the Democratic Party pushing for aggressive antitrust enforcement and consumer protections, arguing that corporate concentration is driving high prices and public distrust. “Affordability is at the top of mind for people,” he said. “It’s not enough anymore to just say you’re a Democrat or you’re not Donald Trump. People want real plans.” That perspective, Turnage said, informs his “come home agenda,” aimed at stemming Mississippi’s long-running brain drain. He hopes to win economic incentives for young people to stay in or return to the state. He has also pledged to refuse corporate PAC money, support a ban on stock trading by members of Congress and push for tighter campaign-finance rules. Turnage pointed to Thompson’s vote against the For the People Act, a sweeping Biden-era Democratic voting rights and ethics bill. Thompson was the lone Democratic “no” vote against the legislation in March of 2021. Thompson, who has long been a defender of voting rights, said he worried that the independent redistricting provisions in the bill might threaten majority-minority districts.  Thompson has built his influence through decades-long seniority. He chaired the House Homeland Security Committee and later led the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, making him the most visible Mississippi politician in national Democratic politics. Turnage acknowledged Thompson’s stature but said incumbency would not deter him from mounting a challenge.  “Nobody’s entitled to this seat,” he said. “It belongs to the district, and they decide every two years who gets to hold it.” Another Democratic candidate named Bennie Foster has also filed to run against Thompson. On the Republican side, Adams County Supervisor Kevin Wilson announced last week that he plans to challenge Ron Eller, who is running again for the GOP nomination after losing to Thompson by nearly 25 points in 2024. ...read more read less