Circuit Court Judge District 16, Place 3
No Mississippi judicial candidate received a majority of the vote needed to be elected Judge for Place 3 in the 16th Judicial District Circuit Court on November 8, 2022. The two top vote recipients, Trina Davidson Brooks and Michelle Easterling, will advance to a runoff election on November 29, 2022. Polls will open at 7:00 a.m. and close at 7:00 p.m. This was a nonpartisan election and the runoff is nonpartisan as well.
Candidate Details
(Listed alphabetically)
According to WCBI (source), the vote tally was as follows:
| Candidate | Votes Received | % of Total |
| P. Trina Davidson Brooks | 8,365 | 25.2% |
| Mark A. Cliett | 6,259 | 18.8% |
| Michelle Easterling | 12,887 | 38.8% |
| Bennie L. Jones, Jr. | 5,729 | 17.2% |
Trina Davidson Brooks
Michelle Easterling
Other Sources
- Starting back at zero: Candidates in judicial runoffs try to get voters back to polls – The Dispatch [20-Nov-2022]
Candidate Questionnaire
To help Mississippi Judicial District 16, Place 3 voters learn more about Brooks and Easterling, both candidates are being sent identical questionnaires from Mississippi Voter Guide. Their answers, when submitted to us, will be posted below.
The 11 questions asked are as follows:
- What are the major influence(s) in your life?
- Who have been your most helpful mentors and what did you learn from them?
- How would you prepare yourself to handle a case involving a subject or area of the law you are not familiar with?
- What types of non-academic things (jobs, interests, volunteer activities, etc.) did you pursue during college / law school?
- What do you consider the greatest obstacle(s) to achieving justice (if any)?
- How do you describe your general judicial philosophy?
- What do you believe to be the primary cause(s) of the high number of juvenile offenders?
- Who are your judicial role models and why do you value them?
- Why should voters support you instead of your opponent?
- What is your highest hope for the justice system in the district you are seeking to fill?
- Is there anything else you would like voters to know?
Updates
- 16-Nov-2022 – Added candidate questionnaire section.
- 20-Nov-2022 – Created “Other Sources” section and added link to news article.
- 28-Nov-2022 – Neither candidate returned the questionnaire.
- 30-Nov-2022 – Update with election results (shown below).
Election Results
The Runoff Election is past and Michelle Easterling was elected. The Dispatch reported the following vote count (source — with fewer than 100 affidavit ballots outstanding):
| Candidate | Votes Received | % of Total |
| P. Trina Davidson Brooks | 7,140 | 46.4% |
| Michelle Easterling | 8,239 | 53.6% |