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Endorses Weddle
The race
Mississippi Court of Appeals, District 1, Position 1 (special election), is on the November 3, 2026 ballot across 23 northern Mississippi counties. The winner serves the remainder of the eight-year term. Mississippi judicial races are nonpartisan; alignment is inferred from appointing authority and record, disclosed here.
John D. Weddle — Incumbent. Appointed October 14, 2024, by Republican Governor Tate Reeves to the vacancy left by Judge Jim Greenlee's retirement. Weddle's career is a prosecutor's ladder in the First Circuit district: practicing attorney since 1995, assistant district attorney (recruited in 2011 by then-DA Trent Kelly, now a U.S. congressman), public defender for Lee County, Tupelo municipal court judge, special assistant DA focused on crimes against women and children, president and treasurer of the Mississippi Prosecutors Association, member of the state Corrections and Criminal Justice Task Force — and district attorney from 2015 until his appointment. Two years of appellate judging are now on his file. One documented item requires care: before his appointment, while still a judge/DA figure in the district, Weddle recused himself from the Lane Mitchell appeal — a case from his own former circuit whose acquittal the Court of Appeals reversed in 2025. The recusal reason was not publicly explained; recusal by a former prosecutor from his old circuit's case is ordinarily the correct ethical act, and we print it as such, not as dirt.
Derek Hopson Jr. — Challenger. Delta attorney, co-owner with his father of Hopson Law Group (serving the Delta since 1999; Oxford office), Ole Miss Law, a former Delta State football player under Pete Golding. In his own campaign interviews he explains the court's work in plain English and stresses consistency and earning public trust. He has never served as a judge and has no prosecutorial record in the sources searched.
Pros and cons
Weddle: Credits: Thirty years across every seat in a criminal courtroom — defense, prosecution, trial bench, appellate bench — appointed by a Republican governor, with leadership of the state prosecutors' association. Dirt/limits: The unexplained Mitchell recusal is a transparency gap, stated plainly; we found no source attributing misconduct to it, and none is claimed. Hopson: Credits: A working Delta practice, a family firm with deep local roots, and a campaign conducted on accessibility and trust — real qualities for a judgeship. Dirt/limits: No judicial or prosecutorial service, and no retrieved statement of judicial philosophy; symmetric search note — campaign interviews, firm materials, local coverage, and endorsement lists were all worked, and a philosophy record did not surface.
OUR CALL
Our call: endorse John D. Weddle. Inference basis disclosed: Reeves appointee with a three-decade law-and-order record on both sides of the criminal bar and two years in this seat — against a challenger whose file, after a full symmetric search, contains practice experience but no bench record and no stated philosophy to weigh.
Vote John D. Weddle.
For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website. Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same. --- Sources — Office of Governor Tate Reeves — appointment of John Weddle, October 2024 — http://governorreeves.ms.gov/governor-reeves-appoints-john-weddle-to-the-mississippi-court-of-appeals/ • Mississippi Courts — Judge John Weddle joins the Court of Appeals, October 14, 2024 — https://courts.ms.gov/news/view_news_page.php?article=3044&name=Judge%20John%20Weddle%20joins%20Mississippi%20Court%20of%20Appeals • Mississippi After Dark — District 1 race and the Mitchell recusal, May 2026 — https://substack.com/@mississippiafterdark/note/c-256562041 • The Buzz Cast, Ep. 13 — Derek Hopson Jr. interview — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-7-ca6F96M AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.