Jeramey Anderson when elected to the Mississippi state house in 2013, was the youngest ever African-American candidate to be elected to any legislature in the United States. After finishing first in a special election on November 5, 2013, he ran against the former mayor of Moss Point, Aneice Liddell, in a runoff election to replace then-Representative Billy Bromfield. Bromfield had vacated his House seat after winning the election mayor of Moss Point. Both Anderson and Liddell ran as independents. Since being sworn in on his 22nd birthday he has appeared on MSNBC, been featured in the NAACP magazine February issue. He was a guest on the Tom Joyner morning show with Roland Martin and appeared in Essence Magazine as a future Presidential Candidate. Representative Anderson has spoken at several high school and college commencements all across the country; Representative Anderson was recognized as a “Young Riser” at the 2015 BET Honors by BET which aired Nationally & Internationally. He currently serves on the Advisory Board for "Let America Vote" which is an organization dedicated to winning the public debate over voter suppression in the United States. He also serves as co-chairman for the Mississippi Future Caucus, a bipartisan caucus for lawmakers under 40. Most recently, he was honored during the opening session of the United Nations as one of the world's most influential people of African descent under 40. During his time in the legislative sessions, Rep. Anderson has authored and co-authored legislation centered around increasing minimum wage, full funding for public education, wage equality, criminal justice reform and childcare subsidies. Representative Anderson ran for the Legislature to inspire his generation that they have the ability to do anything. Running as a Democrat, Anderson was reelected in 2015. In 2017, he filed for the 4th Congressional District and won the Democratic primary. He faced four-term incumbent Republican Steven Palazzo and Reform Party candidate Lajena Sheets in the general election in November 2018.
Early life
Anderson went to Moss Point high school before matriculating to Pearl River Community College on a soccer scholarship. There, he received an associate degree in criminal Justice. He then went on to Tulane University, where he was scheduled to complete his bachelor's degree in May 2014. When he was only 16, he founded the nonprofit Purple Knights of America, an organization created to mentor males ages 11 through 18. He currently is the organization's president and Chief Executive Officer.
Tenure
In his first term, Anderson sponsored numerous bills which were signed by the governor. These included forming a Commission Against Interpersonal Violence within the state health department, one granting increases homestead property tax exemption for totally disabled veterans and extending those exemptions to the unremarried surviving spouse of such veterans, and one mandating authorized insurers to provide policy and premium information to the Department Of Insurance. In 2017, Anderson led efforts to thoroughly vett the state education budget formula.
In 2015, with 80% of the vote, Anderson beat Mitch Ellerby in the Democratic primary. He faced no opposition in the general election. Upon being re-elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives, Rep. Anderson was elected by his colleagues to serve in the House Democratic leadership as Secretary/Treasurer.
In June 2018, Anderson won the Democratic primary for the US House of Representatives Mississippi CD-4, without opposition. Anderson finished second to Palazzo in the general election, on November 6, 2018, with 90% of the precincts reporting, at 69.6% 133,805 votes, to 29.3%, 56,371 votes. Reform Party candidate Lajena Sheets trailed with 1.0%. 2,014 votes.
