Sean Tindell, Mississippi’s commissioner of public safety, announced Monday that he will run for attorney general in 2027 and expects to step down from his state post to focus on the campaign, Magnolia Tribune reported.
The seat opened after two-term Attorney General Lynn Fitch announced she will run for governor in 2027, Magnolia Tribune reported. Tindell, a Republican, was appointed commissioner by Gov. Tate Reeves in 2020 and has led the Mississippi Department of Public Safety for six years, the report said.
Tindell cited decades of legal and public service as the basis for his campaign. “As a former prosecutor, I’ve enforced the laws in our courtrooms. As a senator, of course, we helped draft the laws. And as a judge, I really took every case and evaluated the laws and the facts and circumstances to try to achieve justice,” he told Magnolia Tribune, calling himself “uniquely qualified” to be the state’s next attorney general.
He pointed to improvements at the Department of Public Safety under his leadership, saying average wait times at driver service bureaus fell from three hours to about 15 minutes, a backlog of more than 2,000 medical examiner cases was eliminated and autopsy turnaround now ranges from 90 days to 180 days. He also said the state crime lab’s drug analysis time has been cut from as long as two years to about 35 days; those figures were reported to Magnolia Tribune.
Tindell said his priorities as attorney general would include prosecuting public corruption at the state level, continuing initiatives on human and drug trafficking begun under Fitch, providing more timely attorney general opinions to local officials and strengthening the office’s civil litigation defenses against what he called frivolous lawsuits, Magnolia Tribune reported.
Jon Ross Myers is the executive editor and publisher of the Mississippi News Network, Mississippi's largest digital only media company. He can be reached at editor@tippahnews.com
