Scott Colom for U.S. Senate: The Right Choice for Mississippi. The Right Choice for America.

Vote your conscience. Vote Scott Colom.

When I ran for mayor of the city of Columbus in 2017, I had no idea the level of sadistic means political contenders would go to in order to snuff out the competition. 

The Democratic ballot was crowded, but I was the only Republican candidate. I was born of a career G.I. Methodist and a devout Catholic Filipina. The mayor’s bully hit squad aka The Columbus Police Department roughed me up and tossed me into the psych ward. Furthermore, someone released sealed, Mississippi Code- and HIIPA-protected information on my lunacy hearing. Lunacy hearing dates and times are kept private save for the affiant and other family members or concerned parties of the accused “lunatic.” I think competency hearing would be a more appropriate and dignified name for the hearings, but I don’t make the rules.

WCBI, The Commercial Dispatch and The Packet were all in attendance. Never has such a hearing in Lowndes County been so widely attended. And the story of a mayoral candidate in the nut house made national news.

At that time, I lived in the city, where I moved (from near Columbus Air Force Base) in 2002 and remained there due to its convenient proximity to my job at The Dispatch. Then, fearing for my life and family, I stopped fighting for my bid for mayor. Once the lunacy hearing was over, they accused me of not living in the city I called home for 15 years. It wasn’t worth my freedom or life. Since then, Selvain Jr. and Robert Jr. have both been murdered. The news of those deaths shook me to my core. I thought of my own sons and their safety. I did not want my boys added to the list of dead mayoral candidates’ children. 

The Columbus police have beat me up and attempted to commit me to a psych ward two additional times since then. I have scratches, bruises, scars and a red, blood-shot eye from the last bout.

Maybe they think I’ll run for mayor again. I won’t. I have my sights set on a bigger platform. But there is a pressing race at hand - the race for the Senate seat occupies by a racist Cindy Hyde Smith, who openly and very publicly stated she would blindly follow a man to the front row of a lynching.

Don’t be a blind follower. Vote for what’s right. This November, don’t vote your party. Vote your conscience. 

I’m a staunch Republican. And I’ll be voting for Scott Colom. 

Vote for what’s right. Vote Scott Colom.

-Garthia Elena Halbert, Lowndes County District 2