JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - In a story Dec. 17 about the Electoral College vote in Mississippi, The Associated Press reported erroneously the last name of one of the electors. The elector’s name is Ann Hebert, not Ann Herbert.
A corrected version of the story is below:
Mississippi president electors are committed to Trump
Four prominent businessmen and a woman long active in Republican politics are among those casting Mississippi’s electoral votes for president
By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS
Associated Press
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Four prominent businessmen and a woman long active in Republican politics are among those casting Mississippi’s electoral votes for president.
Republican Donald Trump won Mississippi with 58 percent of the vote in November and is expected to receive all six of the state’s Electoral College votes.
Former state GOP chairman Brad White of Braxton was originally chosen as an elector, but said he can’t serve because he works for a federal official. White recently became chief of staff for Sen. Thad Cochran.
The other five electors will choose a sixth when they meet Monday at the state Capitol.
Four of the Mississippi electors told The Associated Press they are firmly committed to Trump. They are Ann Hebert, 81, of Lucedale, a retired reporter for The Mississippi Press newspaper and member of the state Republican executive committee; Joe Frank Sanderson Jr., 69, of Laurel, chairman and CEO of poultry company Sanderson Farms; J. Kelley Williams, 82, of Jackson, retired chairman and president of chemical company First Mississippi Corp.; and Wirt A. Yerger Jr., 86, of Jackson, a retired insurance broker who was state GOP chairman from 1956-66.
One elector - William G. Yates Jr. of Philadelphia, chairman of Yates Construction - declined to answer questions from the AP, but records show he has given tens of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates over the years.
Hebert stumped for Trump in Florida, where her daughter worked for his campaign. Hebert said she believes Trump will strengthen the United States’ standing in the world.
“I’m really worried about the dangers out there, that we will even survive,” Hebert said. “I worry about the economy and the Supreme Court.”
Sanderson said he received about a half-dozen letters from people asking him to cast an electoral vote for the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, or a candidate she defeated in the party primary, Bernie Sanders. He said he read the letters but will stick with Trump.
“It’s a duty and honor for me to do what the people of Mississippi voted for,” Sanderson said.
Yerger said he likes “just about everything” about Trump.
“I have gotten several thousand emails asking me not to vote for Trump,” Yerger said. “I threw them all away.”
Williams said he received one letter asking him to vote for Clinton because she received a majority of the vote nationwide.
“I thought it was kind of ridiculous, foolish,” Williams said.
People who want electors to reject Trump are expected to demonstrate outside statehouses around the nation on Monday.
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Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.
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