2026 General Election: Key Takeaways

1. Dobies wins decisively, carrying all six wards. Derek Dobies received 5,232 votes (58.4%) to John Wilson's 3,595 (40.1%), winning by 1,637 votes and an 18.3-percentage-point margin. Dobies carried all six wards, demonstrating broad geographic support across Jackson.

2. Dobies wins every ward, including the city's most competitive neighborhoods. His strongest performance came in Ward 1 (71.0%), followed by Ward 5 (60.1%) and Ward 2 (59.3%). Even in the closest wards—Ward 3 (53.0%) and Ward 4 (53.4%)—Dobies maintained a clear overall advantage.

3. Absentee voters delivered Dobies his strongest margins. Dobies received 66.0% of absentee votes compared with Wilson's 33.4%, a margin of 933 votes. Absentee ballots accounted for approximately 57% of Dobies' overall 1,637-vote victory margin.

4. Dobies won across all three voting methods. He received 53.7% of Election Day votes, 59.2% of early votes, and 66.0% of absentee votes. His advantage was not limited to any single voting method.

5. Election Day voting was considerably more competitive. Dobies won Election Day voting by 458 votes, compared with a 933-vote absentee advantage and a 246-vote early voting advantage. In Ward 3, Wilson narrowly led Election Day voting by 10 votes, but Dobies won the ward overall thanks to his strong absentee performance.

6. Ward 6 delivered the largest number of votes and a substantial victory margin. With 2,461 votes cast, Ward 6 accounted for approximately 27.5% of the city's reported mayoral votes. Dobies received 1,419 votes there, winning the ward by 397 votes.

7. Dobies' strongest geographic margin came from Ward 1. He won Ward 1 by 507 votes, capturing 71.0% of the vote. Ward 1 alone accounted for approximately 31% of his citywide victory margin.

8. Write-ins represented a small share of the electorate. The election reported 131 write-in votes (1.5%). Although Trent Woodard was a declared write-in candidate, the reported total may include votes for other names and should not be attributed exclusively to him.

9. A Historic Comeback: Dobies becomes one of only six mayors in Jackson's 169-year history to be elected to nonconsecutive terms. With four years of prior service, he is currently tied for ninth-longest-serving mayor in city history. After completing two years of his new term, he will have served six years cumulatively, tying for third-longest tenure in Jackson's history.