Sheikh Taylor fends off challengers and wins full term as chairman of the state Democratic Party

The Mississippi Democratic Party executive committee voted Saturday to elect state Rep. Cheikh Taylor as its chairman for a full term, defeating northern Mississippi attorney and businessman Wil Colom, who also ran for the post.

Jacqueline Amos, a member of the National Democratic Executive Committee from Mississippi, congratulated state party officials on their four-year term victory in a statement and said they, along with regional and local party leaders, can lead Democrats in Mississippi “onward and upward.”

“It’s a great day to be a Democrat,” Lee said. “Chairman Cheikh Taylor, who stepped in last year in our darkest hour, now has the chance to lead us to better days.”

Taylor is a two-term state legislator who represents Oktibbeha, Clay and Lowndes counties. The party chose him as its new chairman last year after ousting former appellate judge Tyree Irving over an email he sent to national Democratic Party officials.

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The board declined to appoint Colom, who has been active in state and federal politics for decades, to lead the organization, which struggles to compete in a Deep South state dominated by the Republican Party.

Colom, who served on the national finance committee for President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign, told executive committee members that he would have conducted a major fundraising campaign if they had elected him as state party chairman.

Colom told Mississippi Today on Monday that he was disappointed with some circumstances surrounding the weekend session but accepted the election results.

“I hope the chairman succeeds in the things he wants to achieve,” Colom said.

The committee’s decision to retain Taylor as chairman was an effort to maintain some continuity in a party that decided to change its chairman in the middle of last year’s national election cycle.

If the organization had elected Colom as chairman, he would have been the third chairman within a year.