Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber endorses Hillary Clinton

WASHINGTON - Jackson Mayor Tony Yarber endorsed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton Monday, saying she will push for issues important to urban centers, including smaller cities like Jackson.

“Hillary Clinton knows how to make it happen,” Yarber said in a statement. “As President, she will give special and needed attention to cities, particularly minority-led cities, and the issues that plague us.’’

His endorsement follows Clinton's recent comments expressing concern over high lead levels recently reported in Jackson's water.

Yarber and some other black elected officials, mostly from the South, were on a conference call with Clinton earlier Monday.

Yarber said in an interview he's encouraged by the level of engagement by Clinton's team about “policy initiatives that we think should be in place to  make sure that cities like ours can compete, make sure cities like ours are viable and that we don’t get lost in the shuffle in terms of conversations about infrastructure investments, quality-of-life issues.’’

He said it's important that Democratic cities in red states get fair treatment.

Other high-profile Mississippi Democrats, including Rep. Bennie Thompson, top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee, also have endorsed the former secretary of state.

Hillary Clinton pushes for Jackson water issues action

Republican Rep. Gregg Harper, whose district includes part of Jackson, has endorsed Republican Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, calling him the “adult in the room’’ compared to other GOP presidential hopefuls.

Harper said Kasich has a record of cutting taxes and reducing Ohio's deficit.

Such endorsements aren't likely to matter much, said John Bruce, chairman of the political science department at the University of Mississippi.

“Endorsements matter when they can swing a state from one column to the other column,’’ he said. “Unless something incredible happens, that looks like a pretty unlikely scenario.’’

Mississippi votes solidly Republican in presidential elections. Arizona Sen. John McCain won the state in 2008 with 56.4 percent of the vote, and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won it in 2012 with 55.5 percent.

Local endorsements may help Clinton in the primary against Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, but they wouldn't help her in the general election against the GOP nominee, Bruce said.

“I’m not sure that the endorsement will pull her within striking range of anybody – as least as it stands now,’’ he said.

Clinton has been busy campaigning in New Hampshire, which holds its Democratic primary Tuesday. She trails Sanders in polls there. At the Iowa caucus on Feb. 1, Clinton eked out a 0.3-point win over Sanders.

Her campaign already is ramping up in the South, where South Carolina holds its primary on Feb. 27. Mississippi’s primary is March 8.

Clinton has focused on issues impacting cities, such as aging infrastructure. She visited Flint, Mich., Sunday to highlight a crisis involving a similar problem affecting Jackson -- high lead levels in city water.

Yarber, who won office in a special election in April 2014, noted those efforts in his endorsement.

He said he's excited about how Sanders has "ignited the party again,'' but said Clinton is likely to fare better in the general election and implement a “pragmatic’’ approach if she's elected.

“It would behoove her to come to Mississippi,’’ he said. “We’re not just talking about coming to Mississippi for the primary sake. We’re talking about coming to Mississippi to have a real policy conversation.’’

Jackson, MSDH report lead detection in city water

Contact Deborah Barfield Berry at dberry@gannett.com. Twitter: @dberrygannett